Faced with Fang Xu's questioning, Lu Yongchang could only curl his lips slightly.
This is just an exaggeration on my part!
If Fang Xu knew that he had spent an entire night drawing this drawing, he would probably be on the dissection table now, right?
"It's just a blueprint of a reactor. It's still a long way from a complete controlled nuclear fusion reactor!"
Hearing Lu Yongchang's words full of Versailles, Fang Xu's mouth twitched violently twice.
In his 45 years of life experience, Lu Yongchang should be the most pretentious person he has ever seen, right?
But soon, he noticed something strange.
"etc!"
"This reactor..."
Fang Xu's voice made everyone's heart tighten.
Hong Qiming couldn't help but look over at him.
Could it be... that there is something wrong with the reactor drawing? !
"This is not a tokamak!"
Fang Xu shouted in surprise!
A hint of smile flashed in the corners of Lu Yongchang's eyes.
As expected of Academician Fang, I can't hide anything from him!
"Of course this is not a tokamak!"
"This is a stellarator."
Lv Yongchang chuckled and said, "If my calculations are correct, the controlled nuclear fusion duration of ITER should be less than 30 minutes, right?"
Fang Xu's eyes moved slightly, and he nodded gently: "Yes, according to the latest experimental results, the fusion reaction lasted about 26 minutes."
"Could it be that..."
"Haha…" Lv Yongchang smiled faintly: "If nothing unexpected happens, ITER will soon touch the ceiling of the tokamak device!"
Fang Xu's pupils shrank suddenly: "You mean... the tokamak device is not the optimal solution for achieving controlled nuclear fusion?!"
Lu Yongchang nodded and confirmed Fang Xu's statement.
"How is it possible... If this is true, then hasn't humanity been on the wrong path for decades?!"
Fang Xu stood there in a daze, muttering to himself.
He found it hard to accept what Lu Yongchang said!
Lu Yongchang was naturally aware of Fang Xu's complicated feelings at this moment.
In the previous life, in order to break the monopoly, all of Xia Country's scientific research capabilities were invested in the research and development of the tokamak device!
However, no matter how hard we try, the maintenance time of controlled nuclear fusion cannot exceed thirty minutes!
At that time, this was a fatal blow to the confidence of all scientific researchers!
If Fang Xu had not learned about the defects of the tokamak device by chance, it is estimated that Xia Kingdom would have made a complete mistake on the road to achieving controlled nuclear fusion!
"How can I verify your statement?!"
Fang Xu is worthy of being the top scientist in Xia Country at present. After a brief loss of consciousness, he reacted immediately and asked Lu Yongchang in a deep voice.
Lu Yongchang shrugged and said nonchalantly, "It's very simple. We just need to find a basic stellarator, use the material I deduced to build a reactor, and then ignite nuclear fusion, and it will naturally be verified."
Fang Xu's eyes moved slightly.
He remembered that there was indeed an "outdated" stellarator device in the laboratory that he had bought at a high price.
"etc!"
Hong Qiming's loud voice suddenly sounded nearby.
"Can someone please explain to me what stellarators and tokamaks mean?"
As he spoke, Hong Qiming turned his gaze towards Lu Yongchang.
Seeing this scene, Guan Hualiang and Fang Xu took a step back and handed the stage to Lu Yongchang.
Lu Yongchang pondered for a moment and said, "Minister Hong, you should know that controlled nuclear fusion requires a strong magnetic field to confine the nuclear fusion materials, right?"
Seeing Hong Qiming nodded, Lu Yongchang breathed a sigh of relief.
That's easy to explain!
Otherwise... he needs to explain the principles of controlled nuclear fusion from the beginning!
Even though it's something that can be solved with just a few words, it's still a bit troublesome!
"Simply put, the tokamak device needs plasma current to produce the toroidal spiral magnetic cage, but the stellarator does not need it. It can directly generate the twisted toroidal magnetic cage through an external coil."
"Then...what's the difference between these two? Don't they both generate magnetic fields?"
There was a hint of confusion in Hong Qiming's eyes.
"Bang!"
Lu Yongchang snapped his fingers lightly.
"That's the point I want to make!"
"In a tokamak device, the plasma current is as high as tens of millions of amperes. Such a huge current is bound to bring countless problems."
"For example, distortion mode, magnetic surface tearing, magnetic island generation, etc!"
"All of this will reduce our ability to confine the plasma."
"The consequences could be flameout at best and explosion at worst!"
As he spoke, Lu Yongchang made an explosion gesture.
Hong Qiming nodded, not quite understanding.
Although he didn't understand the various professional terms that Lu Yongchang said, he understood the last sentence.
Will the tokamak explode if left alone?!
Hong Qiming looked at Academician Fang Xu standing next to him with a complicated expression.
Facing Hong Qiming's gaze, Fang Xu could only nod helplessly and said, "It is a possibility, but... up to now, the Tokamak device has not experienced such a serious failure!"
"Not now, but what about in the future?" Lu Yongchang said in a calm tone, "When the fusion time is increased to 30 minutes, serious consequences may appear!"
Fang Xu's body suddenly stiffened, and he cried out in shock: "You mean, the tokamak device will explode after 30 minutes of fusion?!"
Lu Yongchang nodded with a complicated expression: "Yes, this is also the biggest trap of the Tokamak device."
"Although the poloidal magnetic field formed by the plasma current makes the magnetic cage very simple, the high temperature and ultra-large current will eventually lead to some unexpected occurrences."
Fang Xu suddenly realized: "So that's it! So that's it!!"
"What about the star simulator?" Hong Qiming swallowed slightly and asked in a low voice.
He suddenly had a feeling that this young sophomore student in front of him was just like an old professor who had been immersed in this field for decades!
Even Fang Xu was like a student in front of him!
Hearing Hong Qiming's question, Lu Yongchang said casually: "The star simulator is simple. We just need to use the external coil to create a closed, twisted ring-shaped magnetic cage inside!"
Hong Qiming: "???"
"So simple? Then why didn't we use a stellarator before?!"
Fang Xu glanced at Lu Yongchang unhappily and explained again: "The difficulty of the stellarator is the manufacture of the external coil."
"First, the shape of the outer coil is irregular, which is a major difficulty in manufacturing."
"On the other hand, in order to form a sufficiently strong magnetic field, the material of the coil, preferably a superconducting coil, further increases the difficulty."
"After all, there has been no breakthrough in room-temperature superconducting technology yet."
Lu Yongchang's voice came from the side: "What if I can solve the problem of room-temperature superconducting materials?"