Chapter 1389 A Gift from Heaven

As usual, an academic exchange forum will be arranged on the first day of the ITER conference.

Not only internal personnel involved in the project, but also researchers from external institutions and schools can participate.

Usually some prestigious scholars in the field of fusion are invited to give reports.

It is the most "lively" part of the entire agenda.

Of course, a high degree of openness often means there is not much useful information.

So Huang Zhitao came here with great enthusiasm and even brought a notebook and a recorder with him.

As a result, I put the pen cap back on by the end of the first game.

"Teacher Fang, this isn't right, is it?"

Finally it was tea break time. He breathed a sigh of relief as if he had been pardoned, and turned to look at Fang Jianming next to him:

"Why are there so many policy-related things? There is not even any theoretical part related to ITER..."

Of course, he didn't expect to hear the specific details of the project here, but the development history of a tokamak lasted more than 40 minutes, and the application prospects of fusion energy lasted nearly half an hour, which really challenged Huang Zhitao's patience.

The latter looked as if it had been expected:

"The first report in the morning is basically like this... invite an expert who is very famous but has been away from frontline work for a long time to talk about some popular science content."

Huang Zhitao frowned:

"Isn't this completely unnecessary..."

Although there was probably no outsider at the scene who could understand Chinese, he still held back the impolite statement.

"Well... scientific research also has to consider the impact of public opinion."

Fang Jianming stood up, waved to the other party to follow, and then continued:

"Although France's nuclear power accounts for almost 80%, there is actually a lot of resistance against nuclear power in the country. When it was decided to build the ITER reactor in Karadasha, many groups jumped out to oppose it. Of course, the United States and Japan were behind it, but there were also concerns about public opinion..."

"So over the years, ITER has been emphasizing its scientific research attributes and trying to weaken its presence in the engineering application aspect. To put it bluntly, this forum is also a part of image building... And with so many people coming and going, it will be beneficial to the local economy to some extent and can shut up some people."

As they were talking, the two of them had already arrived at the corridor outside the lecture hall.

"I go……"

Looking at the two long tables filled with various refreshments in the hall next door, Huang Zhitao couldn't help swallowing.

By this time in 2008, China's scientific research funding is no longer the state it used to be when every penny was worth it.

But when it comes to enjoyment, we obviously can't compare with Europeans.

Even though we have just gone through a round of financial crisis.

He suddenly felt that this trip might not be in vain...

Although Fang Jianming is considered a young generation, he is still in his forties and cannot eat too many sweets. He only took two bananas:

"Based on my experience, the second report may involve ITER itself, usually the specific plan for a certain direction in the next few years. If you are lucky, you may hear some interesting parts."

Huang Zhitao quickly swallowed the snack in his mouth:

"Lucky means..."

Fang Jianming explained:

"Except for the first session, all the speakers were from ITER. In addition to this job, they also had to prepare speeches for the meeting a few days later. So some people were lazy and just edited and published the last one..."

Huang Zhitao thought it was right at first, but then he remembered the days when he stayed up late to help his boss revise PPT:

"But aren't these unimportant reports usually prepared by students?"

Fang Jianming: "Students can also be lazy..."

"..."

In fact, he was just saying it casually.

The main concern was that Huang Zhitao would lose interest too early. After all, their position was still relatively close to the front, and it would not be good if he was distracted.

But when the two returned to their seats, they noticed that the PPT title on the screen had been changed to——

ToreSupra The future of the tokamak.

This is certainly nothing surprising.

The topics for each round of reports have already been printed on the agenda.

The key lies in the following subtitle:

Steady-state superconducting tokamak upgrade in tungsten environment.

Huang Zhitao's eyes suddenly lit up:

"As expected of you, Mr. Fang. Your guess is so accurate... If I remember correctly, one of the main topics of our meeting should be to discuss the subsequent upgrade plan of the ToreSupra device?"

Even according to the current plan, the construction of the ITER reactor itself will not begin until after 2010, and it will not be started up and plasma will be generated until around 2015.

Considering the inevitable delays and wrangling, the specific time is even further away.

So in comparison, people are paying more attention to a series of existing facilities including ToreSupra.

In fact, these immediately available resources are also the biggest evidence that Europe has the confidence to host the ITER project.

"Ahem—indeed."

Fang Jianming knew that he had only hit the jackpot by accident, and it was inevitable that he felt a little embarrassed to be praised like that, so he quickly cleared his throat to cover it up.

"It seems that the French should have a relatively complete plan..."

Soon, the speaker walked out from behind the curtain to the podium, and the noisy noise in the audience subsided a little.

……

Fang Jianming turned his head slightly:

"This Academician Robert Hull is the actual head of the Magnetic Confinement Fusion Research Institute under the French Atomic Energy Commission. We will have to deal with him in the next few days. You should pay more attention to his speaking habits..."

Huang Zhitao nodded seriously and opened his notebook again.

"Ladies and gentlemen, since the ToreSupra Tokamak device was put into operation in 1988, it has successfully completed many key technology and theoretical verification tasks, including superconducting magnets and cooling systems, actively cooled plasma wall components, pressurized water circulation equipment, heating and current drive systems, as well as pump limiters and real-time protection control systems, etc...."

The old man was quite old and his energy was apparently not enough, so there was not much transition, and he just got straight to the point:

"In recent years, as the equipment has entered the middle and late stages of its life, we have also received a lot of concerns from peers and the public, especially about the pollution and risks that may arise after the end of its life..."

"But I think this concern is unfounded, because ToreSupra, as a valuable asset for fusion research around the world, will not be simply dismantled, but will be upgraded to a tungsten-walled superconducting tokamak (WEST) based on the original device, aiming to provide key technology verification for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor..."

"..."

It is obvious that Academician Hull also came with a propaganda mission.

The main point of the entire report is that the upgrade process is safe, environmentally friendly, and low-cost, and after the upgrade it can be fully comparable to mainstream similar equipment such as EAST and JT60SA, so please don't worry.

Of course, it is nominally an academic report after all, so it does involve some specific ideas for improvement.

For example, by introducing a divertor made entirely of tungsten, the advantages of metallic tungsten's high melting point, high thermal conductivity, low sputtering rate, low fuel retention and low neutron activation rate can be utilized to improve the equipment's high-parameter steady-state operation capability.

There are also upgraded new ion cyclotron heating antennas, improved superconducting magnet systems, new online real-time diagnosis and monitoring technologies, etc.

These are all news that have already been known in the industry.

This inevitably made Fang Jianming and Huang Zhitao feel a little discouraged.

But it makes sense if you think about it. Others have also worked their way up to the top, so it’s unlikely that they would reveal too much key information before the meeting begins.

Huang Zhitao was just about to close the notebook again when he saw that the previous PPT had been turned to the back page.

Above is a schematic diagram of the waveform of the plasma core radiation signal.

Hull on the stage was still introducing the capabilities of the future WEST device, but Huang Zhitao in the audience suddenly stopped.

"Teacher Fang, look at that picture."

He gently poked Fang Jianming next to him.

The latter was also staring at the screen, but did not notice anything unusual:

"It's the typical sawtooth oscillation caused by the unstable operation of magnetic fluid... What's wrong?"

Although it is an unstable operation, the small-amplitude and high-frequency sawtooth oscillation is beneficial to the discharge of impurities in the plasma core and is not a completely negative phenomenon.

"No."

Huang Zhitao shook his head:

“Look at the coordinates on the vertical axis.”

Fang Jianming squinted his eyes and looked at it, but he couldn't make out what those sesame-sized numbers meant.

Fortunately, Huang Zhitao quickly drew the general style of the picture in his notebook:

"The data in this picture has been specially processed by them, so the amplitude appears to be very small."

He pointed to the unevenly distributed numbers on the vertical axis and said:

"So actually, I think they might already be facing a Sawtooth collapse..."

"Do you still remember the report I showed you a few days ago, the one co-signed by Academician Chang and Professor Peng?"

Fang Jianming only suffers from poor eyesight, but his academic level is still fine.

I immediately understood what Huang Zhitao meant.

The specific mechanism of sawtooth oscillation and sawtooth collapse is still unclear, but it is certain that the latter is usually accompanied by drastic changes in the magnetic field topology, resulting in a large loss of heat and particles in the core plasma, and exciting a series of other magnetohydrodynamic instabilities.

The report mentioned by the other party just explains and even solves this problem to a certain extent.

"After this report, I will go to see Academician Peng immediately. I won't listen to the third one!"