Chapter 498 STAR Device! (3/3)

Chapter 498 STAR Device! (33)

Time passed day by day, and soon it was April.

Even faster than the original plan, the construction project of the STAR Stellarator Research Institute was finally officially completed when the Nuclear Industry Construction Group used five times, or even ten times the manpower to fill it.

When Captain Dai took the ribbon-cutting scissors and handed it to Lu Zhou, he solemnly raised his right hand and gave him a military salute.

Although Lu Zhou is not a soldier, and he doesn't know what this military salute means, but through Captain Dai's eyes, he can clearly feel the expectation placed in his sight.

At the same time, the disassembled and boxed WEGA stellarator also entered the port from the port of Haizhou following the footsteps of the returning delegation.

500 million euros, converted into RMB nearly 4 billion.

Although the money was not his own, but seeing so much money spent, Lu Zhou still felt a little pained.

But he also knew that the money spent was definitely worth it.

Although the WEGA device has been shut down for more than five years, the Institute of Plasma Physics of the Max Planck Society did not let it rust there during the five-year shutdown period, at least there are a lot of regular maintenance and maintenance of.

Another one, counting the research and development expenses, in order to build this equipment, the Germans spent at least 1 billion euros.

If he thinks about it this way, he can be regarded as taking advantage of it.

After all, the technology related to the SG-1 wire is no longer worth the sky-high price of 1 billion euros.

Under the coordination of the Suzhou Provincial Government, the WEGA stellarator equipment was transported from Haizhou Port to Jinling as quickly as possible, and sent to the STAR Stellarator Research Institute at the foot of Zijin Mountain.

Standing in the laboratory embedded in the mountain, looking at the pile of valuable equipment and parts, Academician Pan's face was full of excitement.

But at this moment, the old man who was still excited suddenly sighed again.

"It's a pity that I bought it back..." Academician Pan shook his head and said with emotion, "Whenever, if we have the ability, we can build one from the beginning to the end."

Hearing this sentence, Lu Zhou almost choked on his own saliva.

I just bought it and thought about imitating it.

Is this a long look at Shu?

He is not an engineer, and he is not very good at evaluating the engineering difficulty of the stellarator orbit from an engineering point of view. But even from the appearance, he can tell which project is more difficult, the tokamak or the stellarator.

To be honest, even the Americans who designed the stellarator couldn't make it themselves, and finally threw away the half-built C-type stellarator, and followed the former Soviet Union to make a tokamak.

So there's nothing to be ashamed of not being able to make.

Specialization in technology is not only applicable in academia, but also in industry.

Coughing lightly, Lu Zhou said: "We have to eat one bite at a time. This is just the beginning. It's good if we can complete every step step by step. And we don't need to make everything perfect. It is enough to be irreplaceable in key places."

Academician Pan shook his head: "That's what I said, but I always feel uneasy when I'm not as good as others."

Regarding Academician Pan's words, Lu Zhou was silent for a while.

Because he didn't know how to answer.

After all, many things cannot be solved with a single drawing.

Otherwise, it wouldn't be much of an issue.

Standing on the other side of Lu Zhou, unlike Academician Pan, who was worried about gains and losses, Sheng Xianfu, who looked excited, was already gearing up for it.

"Start assembling now?"

After more than a month of training in Germany, it is finally time for him to show his talents.

Looking at Sheng Xianfu, Lu Zhou nodded.

"Well, it's time to start."

"In addition, there is no need to install the external field coil for the time being, and we will use new ones at that time."

...

According to the original plan, the WEGA device was officially renamed as the STAR device after it arrived in China.

With the personnel and equipment in place, the research program on the stellarator project has entered the next stage.

So far, to complete the puzzle of the controllable nuclear fusion demonstration reactor, Lu Zhou has mastered two pieces.

One of them is the He-3 atom probe technology as the "eye", and the other is naturally the STAR device itself as the "torso".

In fact, as the prototype of the Helix 7-X device, there are all the things that should be on the STAR device. As long as some of the components are replaced, Lu Zhou is confident that he can complete a project that is not inferior to the Helix 7-X. Ignition to achieve victory.

The key to achieving this involves the third piece of the puzzle on the blueprint for controllable nuclear fusion—that is, superconducting magnets as "legs".

In fact, Lu Zhou has already completed half of this puzzle.

After the completion of the SG-1 wire synthesis technology, the project of designing "superconducting magnets based on carbon-based superconducting materials" has been launched.

Just as Lu Zhou expected, the good thermal conductivity of the SG-1 wire allows the engineering volume of the liquid helium refrigeration components to be greatly reduced. The data reflected in the drawings is that compared with copper oxide coils, at least 20% of the engineering area can be saved.

And what does 20% of the project area mean?

This means that he can more than double the strength of the confinement magnetic field of the STAR stellarator compared to its predecessor WEGA!

On the other hand, under the double stimulation of orders worth more than 500 million RMB and administrative orders, the factories of Julius Baer Group have continuously expanded the production capacity of SG-1 wires.

The produced wires were sent to the STAR Stellarator Research Institute as soon as they left the factory, and the engineers there improved them into cluster coils with a cross-sectional diameter about the thickness of a calf and a height of two people when placed vertically.

Inside these coils are built-in conduits that allow the passage of liquid helium to maintain the SG-1 material inside below the superconducting critical temperature.

In order to make the coil output a stable magnetic field during the electrification process, a solid insulator bracket is also installed on the outside of each group of bundled wires. After all, for such a precise instrument, even if the wire shakes by a millimeter, it may cause serious experimental accidents.

After all, inside the stellarator, the temperature of the stars is simulated...

These days, Lu Zhou has basically been soaking in the stellarator laboratory of the STAR Project Research Institute, directing the work on site.

After a month of hard work, in the first week after Labor Day, the engineers of the STAR project team finally completed the assembly of the last set of coils.

Standing in front of the reborn STAR stellarator, Lu Zhou wiped half of his sweat.

Although he didn't have a wrench in his turn, he has participated in the project from the beginning of the design of the entire superconducting magnet, and he is very clear about how many difficulties he has experienced to get to this point.

Fortunately, these tasks are finally completed.

leftover.

This is to verify his guess!

A smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, Lu Zhou looked at Sheng Xianfu standing next to him, nodded and ordered.

"Check the installation of each component of the device."

"If there is no problem, prepare to power on!"