Inside Plasma Institute, in a conference room.
"Okay, today is our first meeting of EAST-S."
Director Liu is sitting in the first place, which represents the country's emphasis on this plan. At the same time, it is also here to announce some of the country's requirements for this plan.
However, as soon as the name came out, everyone present could not help but look at the two positions next to Director Liu. Sitting in these two positions were Li Jiangan and Zhao Zhanyou.
Obviously, everyone present basically knew that this somewhat unoriginal name was given by the two of them.
Although it finally passed, someone had to take the blame.
So these two are the ones responsible for taking the blame.
Li Jiangan and Zhao Zhanyou had expressionless faces, turning a blind eye to the looks directed at them. However, their eyes were fixed on Director Liu.
Obviously Director Liu was one of the people who discussed the name, but now this guy has become a non-stick pan.
Xiao Yi was also nearby, but he really had no extra thoughts about names. He also swore that the look in his eyes at Li Jiangan had no other meaning, it was just the psychological effect of these two people.
He still has to spend time thinking about how to proceed with the overall plan.
"First of all, let me announce the personnel arrangements for the EAST-S program after the above discussions."
Director Liu took out a piece of information and prepared to read out the appointment, but most of the people present immediately pricked up their ears.
Personnel arrangements are the top priority, representing the ranking in this plan, and are of great significance to the future prospects of many people.
However, the first position took them by surprise.
"The position of Chief Designer will be held by Professor Xiao Yi!"
Except for Li Jiangan and Zhao Zhanyou, the two people who knew the inside story, everyone else present was stunned.
What's going on?
Chief Designer is actually held by Xiao Yi instead of Li Jiangan?
After all, Li Jiangan is not only the old director of their Plasma Institute, but also the chief engineer of EAST back then. In their institute, he is the most awesome person in terms of prestige and qualifications.
So before, they all estimated that the chief engineer should be Li Jiangan.
But now...
However, when they all looked at Li Jiangan, they found that there was nothing strange about his expression. On the contrary, it seemed like it should be like this, and they even gave Xiao Yi a congratulatory expression.
Their director, Zhao Zhanyou, did not show any surprise at this and even applauded.
Only then did everyone react and clapped their hands.
"Congratulations to Professor Xiao!"
"From now on I will call Chief Designer Xiao!"
"Chief Designer Xiao Good!"
"..."
No matter how surprising this appointment was, since it was decided from above, they shouted first and then talked about it.
Xiao Yi smiled and nodded to everyone present.
Subsequently, Director Liu went on to announce other appointments.
Academician Li Jiangan serves as Administrative Commander concurrently as Deputy Chief Designer, Zhao Zhanyou serves as Chief Quality Officer, and then there are some other Plasma Institute people serving in other corresponding positions.
Among them, Administrative Commander, who is in charge of Li Jiangan, can be regarded as a thorough handover of professional matters to professional people.
In this way, the top leadership of the entire EAST-S project are professionals, which greatly avoids blind command by non-professionals.
For a while, it also brought quite a bit of surprise to many people present. What happened to their project?
No outsiders came to intervene?
Is their project a little unusual?
After all the leadership appointments were read out, Director Liu put down the information in his hand, looked at the people present and said, "Okay, I have finished reading out the appointments of the main leaders. The remaining appointments will be decided jointly by Chief Designer and Administrative Commander."
"I hope that all comrades will work together in the future to complete our nuclear fusion plan and create our mortal sun."
Regarding Director Liu's words, others basically thought it was just a statement. However, Xiao Yi stood up at this time and said solemnly, "We promise to complete the mission."
Li Jiangan and Zhao Zhanyou also stood up at this time and solemnly said, "Promise to complete the task."
Although the others didn't know why, they all stood up and said something along the way.
"Make sure to complete the mission."
With the official launch of the project, news spread quickly.
Of course this kind of thing cannot be hidden, but Xiao Yi and the others did not try to hide the EAST-S plan. After all, it was an explicit plan in the first place.
For a time, quite a few people began to discuss it.
Of course, what people are mainly talking about is the fact that Xiao Yi actually took charge of this project Chief Designer.
After all, some people had already discussed whether Xiao Yi would study nuclear fusion because of Greenwald limit.
And now, people's previous speculations have been verified at this time.
Ever since, like Zhihu, there is such a question on the hot search list: [The new nuclear fusion device super EAST Tokamak-S has been officially approved, and Xiao Yi is in charge of Chief Designer. Does this mean that Xiao Yi believes that nuclear fusion will have a chance to be realized?]
The first answer below, which is also the answer with the most likes, is this: [This kind of project often requires hundreds of millions or billions of funding. It is not something that anyone can do if they think there is a chance to realize it. Does Xiao Yi think that the Gundam can be built, so the project can be approved?
joke!
In addition, the plan report of this project has stated that EAST-S is an experimental device. You know, the experimental device is built for experiments. It is basically the same as the previous EAST. It is simply to build a larger Tokamak device and conduct larger-scale experiments. As for whether it can be done? Then let's do the experiment first and then talk about the results.
In fact, according to some information I learned, Plasma Institute has applied for project approval several times before, but without success. However, this time Science Island Laboratory and Xiao Yi were involved., so it was successful. I guess, basically, since Xiao Yi also wanted to build a nuclear fusion device, we just let him have fun. Anyway, Plasma Institute has applied so many times.
In addition, what you need to know is that both Science Island Laboratory and Plasma Institute laboratories are in Fei City Science Island! They are all from the same place, they are basically familiar with each other, and their cooperation is considered normal, so don't think that if Xiao Yi joins, nuclear fusion will be achieved.
The West has been working on nuclear fusion for so many years but has not succeeded. ITER has been around for 20 or 30 years and has not been completed yet. This Xiao Yi has not even started to work on it yet, so just set up a project and just blow it up? This is impossible.
We should just continue to develop photovoltaics and new energy, and just build fourth-generation nuclear power plants. Things like nuclear fusion are too far away.
Don't say that Xiao Yi research can make it happen. Nuclear fusion and other things are not the same thing.]
And below this answer, there are quite a few replies.
[The answerer is right. How can nuclear fusion be achieved so easily? Fifty years is fifty years, it can't change. I guess Xiao Yi just gave it a try. Maybe someone from Plasma Institute pulled Xiao Yi into trouble?]
[There is a rumor here that Plasma Institute's people invited Xiao Yi over, hoping to cooperate with him to build a new nuclear fusion device. Now the project has finally been approved]
[I also have rumors here. When Xiao Yi returned to Fei City, the Fei City government and USTC said they wanted to get Science Island Laboratory for him., some people disagreed at the time. In the end, people from Plasma Institute spoke to Xiao Yi, and then it was approved. Maybe Xiao Yi helped because of this incident?]
[But why did Xiao Yi become the chief master in the end?]
[Good question, I don't know.]
[The arena is not about fighting and killing, it is about human relationships!]
[...]
Among the many replies that started to discuss human relations, a sentence suddenly popped up: [You used to think so about Twin Prime Conjecture, Goldbach Conjecture, NS equation, and the mass gap problem. Now you also think about nuclear fusion the same way. I hope that you will be slapped in the face in the end.]
Then there were many people rushing to reply to this comment.
[Come, come, Xiao Xiaozi is here]
[You can see Xiao Xiaozi here? Although I do admire Xiao Yi, but you guys who are brainless, really bring trouble to Xiao Yi]
[This rice circle culture should be cured. Xiao Yi A scientist can be filial. Look what I said some time ago Xiao Yi, isn't he a celebrity or an Internet celebrity?]
[...]
Obviously, as Xiao Yi has more and more fans, some fanatical fans will naturally appear, and conflicts will arise between them and other ordinary netizens.
For a time, this question also made people feel full of hostility.
There are people who think that this is just an experimental device and it is impossible to achieve nuclear fusion; there are people who believe that Xiao Yi can successfully achieve nuclear fusion; there are also people who think that nuclear fusion will never be achieved.
Everyone has their own ideas, and with the convenience of the Internet age, everyone can express their ideas without any scruples.
Of course, after all, the future is unpredictable, so it is normal for different people to have different opinions.
Only when the wheel of history rolls around can a conclusion be drawn.
Of course, this matter has not escaped the attention of White House.
Listening to the CIA director's report, the Secretary of State frowned.
"It means that this Xiao Yi has started to study nuclear fusion? He has even become the person in charge of nuclear fusion in China?"
It was completely different from what they had investigated before.
The director of the CIA shook his head and said, "He is not the person in charge of China's nuclear fusion, but the person in charge of China's nuclear fusion device program. There are many such devices, whether in China or in the United States, mainly for experiments. They have built a new experimental device like this, all to test whether nuclear fusion can be realized."
The Secretary of State thought for a moment, shook his head and said, "It's different, it's not the same."
He stood up from his seat and walked around his office.
"Xiao Yi is different from other scientists. He is now really starting to study nuclear fusion. Who knows what results he can make?"
The Secretary of State thought for a moment, then raised his head and asked, "Where are the scientific advisers? What did they say?"
The CIA director said, "They have re-evaluated it, and the conclusion is still the same as before. Maybe Xiao Yi can make some breakthroughs, but the probability of achieving nuclear fusion is less than 1%."
"1%!" the Secretary of State said, "That is nuclear fusion. If there is a 1% probability of realizing it, it is completely feasible!"
"But they say our probability of achieving nuclear fusion is less than 1%."
The Secretary of State curled his lips, but at this moment, there was a knock on the office door, and his assistant walked in and said, "Mr. Secretary of State, it is Deputy Madam President who is informing you to go to her office as soon as possible. She wants to talk to you about the general election."
"I understand."
The Secretary of State suddenly felt a headache.
On November 5th, the general election will begin, and it is already the end of September, and there are only a few days left before that day.
It's hard to say whether he can still stay here in a few months, and the same goes for the director in front of him.
Even if their deputy Madam President wins, there is still a question whether they will be replaced by then.
Why are they still worrying about this kind of thing?
Even if that Xiao Yi can really produce nuclear fusion, it won't be possible in a few months.
Then they won't be the ones to take the blame.
"Forget it, you can just keep an eye on me as before."
After packing up the documents, the Secretary of State, who was a little uninterested for a moment, said, "I'm going to go to our Madam President first."
The CIA director shrugged. "Okay, Mr. Secretary."
The attention of White House ended in this way. Undoubtedly, Xiao Yi and the EAST-S plan will no longer need to worry about these things for a long time.
At this time, Plasma Institute is already preparing for future plans.
The EAST-S plan is divided into three steps: design, construction and ignition.
Among them, design is naturally the most important.
It is necessary to come up with a sufficiently complete design, and in terms of specific technology, it must be at least a little more innovative than the current EAST. Otherwise, it is just an enlarged version of EAST, which obviously cannot convince the public.
And this requires Xiao Yi and Chief Designer to play a role.
As Chief Designer, I am responsible for this matter.
As for the subsequent construction and ignition, it is relatively simple and can be completed as long as there is a design drawing.
Of course, this is the plan for EAST-S.
For Sun-Making Plan, we haven't considered that much yet. There is only one goal now, and that is to verify the feasibility of the overall technology!
The overall technology includes many aspects, and the first wall material is one of them.
Sun-Making Plan Since the ultimate goal is to realize a controllable nuclear fusion demonstration reactor, its overall technical specifications must naturally be aligned with the standards of a controllable nuclear fusion demonstration reactor.
For example, the first wall material should have a service life of at least more than five years. Of course, judging from the current performance of MHT-7, five years is obviously far more than that.
In addition, the feasibility of power generation technology and the method of power generation are key, which determines the final energy utilization efficiency.
According to the existing efficiency of various boiling water, the theoretical value of the total conversion efficiency of the energy generated by nuclear fusion can reach 50-60%.
Of course, the theoretical value is only a theoretical value, and in reality it will always be lower. For example, the designed power generation efficiency of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) currently under construction is about 30-40%.
Taking these efficiencies into consideration, Xiao Yi finally set an overall conversion efficiency of 50-60%.
In the fusion reaction, about 80% of the energy is released in the form of high-energy neutrons. This part of the energy will be absorbed by the first wall material and converted into heat energy for output. The remaining 20% of the energy is charged particles.
For that 80% energy, assuming that the final conversion can reach about 45%, and then the remaining 20% energy of the charged particles can be converted using MHD power generation technology.
After all, MHD power generation technology is a power generation technology that can break through the Carnot limit. Its conversion efficiency is as high as 60-70%. Therefore, it can convert the 20% of charged particles, and the conversion efficiency can be 12-14%.
In this way, the overall conversion efficiency of nuclear fusion has a chance to reach more than 50%, or even 60%!
This will be a conversion efficiency that far exceeds that of other forms of power generation, and it is also a major advantage of nuclear fusion.
According to calculations, for the same quality of fuel, nuclear fusion power generation with a conversion efficiency of 60% can generate electricity 17,352 times that of thermal power and 7.41 times that of nuclear fission. Fusion does not cause pollution, but the pollution caused by thermal power and nuclear fission is extremely serious.
So, this is the superiority of nuclear fusion!
Time passed quietly and it was early November.
The general election in the United States is in full swing and is about to end.
On the Plasma Institute side, preparations are being made for another ignition of EAST.
The purpose of this ignition is to verify the feasibility of the first wall material of Sun-Making Plan.
Of course, nominally, this ignition is to provide more data support for EAST-S.
"The MHT-7 has been put in, right?"
In the command room, Xiao Yi asked.
"It's already been put in."
Zhao Zhanyou said, "I also checked it myself, and the two pieces are numbered A-7 and B-10."
Xiao Yi nodded.
To verify the first wall material, of course it must be placed in a nuclear fusion environment and actually face high-energy neutrons.
So Xiao Yi also worked overtime and built two large MHT-7s.
And now, they are ready.
Soon, all preparations were completed and the ignition experiment began.
"Light the fire!"
The ignition button was pressed, and after maintaining the temperature above 100 million degrees for about 200 seconds, the experiment was stopped.
After it was completely cooled and the internal radiation dropped to a safe value, staff took out several pieces of the first wall material inside.
Take these materials away for observation.
"No. A-7, there is no change in nature!"
"No. B-10, there is no change in nature!"
"All the other pieces of materials have undergone various phenomena such as neutron transmutation!"
As soon as the result came out, Xiao Yi smiled.
Perfect!