Chapter 358 Oh No, There Are ‘Bad Guys’ Among the Crowd!
On the other side, the Germanic country.
In the Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, Professor Tilman Lent is communicating with the management of the institute.
The Planck Institute for Plasma Physics is a branch institute under the Max Planck Institute, which is a large basic research institute that can rank among the top five or even top three in the world.
This large institute was founded in 1948 and is named after the famous physicist Max Planck.
Today, it has 83 branch institutes and research institutes under its name, and the research fields include: astronomy, astrophysics, chemistry, biology, biology, solid-state research, genetics ecology, plant research, etc.
It almost covers most of the scientific research fields of human civilization.
In this regard, even research institutions such as Princeton Institute for Advanced Study, CERN Research Institute, and Helmholtz Association are ashamed of themselves in front of it.
If we look at the overall research volume (without citations or influence), the Max Planck Institute is only surpassed by the three institutes of Huake in China, Tsarist Russian Academy of Sciences and Harvard University.
From this point of view, it is enough to prove the status of this research institute in the scientific community.
In fact, this is exactly the case. Apart from other things, in the branch of the Institute of Plasma Physics alone, it has several controlled nuclear fusion reactors.
From tokamaks, to stellarators, to pebble beds and inertial confinement, it has laser ignition devices.
Not only that, but even in the two areas of tokamaks and stellarators, it has fully entered the second generation.
For example, its Wendelstein 7-X, also called Helicon-7X, created a long-term high-temperature plasma operation record of more than 100 seconds in 2018, and at the end of 2019, it set a full six-minute operation time record.
This can be said to be a new world record for this type of stellarator, which has not been broken so far.
The new ASDEX device currently under construction has also refreshed the configuration record of the current state-owned tokamak device, second only to the tokamak device of the international joint ITER.
In the research of controlled nuclear fusion, only the Planck Institute of Plasma Physics has truly achieved multi-legged walking.
As for the others, the United States has focused on inertial confinement and stellarators, while China has placed its bets on tokamaks. In other areas, most of them are not as good as the Planck Institute for Plasma Physics.
Of course, this is also related to Europe's extreme desire for energy.
In terms of oil and natural gas, they are extremely dependent on resources imported from Tsarist Russia. If a conflict occurs in the future and Tsarist Russia closes this gap, then the whole of Europe will be extremely uncomfortable.
So compared to the United States and China, Europe is more eager to find a new way in energy.
Including the previous transaction with China for "nuclear energy beta radiation energy aggregation and conversion of electrical energy technology", it also hopes that nuclear energy can solve the energy crisis.
In the meeting room of the Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, Professor Tilman Lunt is trying his best to report and persuade.
"From the last operation of Helicon-7, we have not achieved the ideal goal on the road of stellarator. Although the water-cooled divertor has played its role stably, the plasma turbulence constraint in the chamber has caused the first wall temperature to rise faster than expected over time."
"This is a problem of controlling the plasma turbulence in the reactor chamber, which has been discussed in the last report."
"We need stronger control methods, whether it is optimizing and adjusting the control model or using more powerful superconducting materials to create a strong magnetic field. All are solutions."
Across the desk, a middle-aged man in a suit and tie frowned and said, "It's meaningless to discuss these. What I need is a solution, not wasting time here with empty talk."
"You have to know that we don't have much time left. If we can't achieve at least 30 minutes of operation this year, the parliament will definitely cut investment in controlled nuclear fusion projects."
"Especially when the energy company has already traded from China to 'nuclear energy beta radiation energy concentration conversion power technology', it will invest from controlled nuclear It is obviously more worthwhile to withdraw investment from fusion and invest in nuclear fission. "
Professor Tilman Lent nodded and said: "Of course, the purpose of inviting everyone here today is that we have found a feasible solution."
"What solution?"
Tilman Lent: "It is still related to Professor Xu who developed the 'nuclear energy beta radiation energy concentration conversion into electrical energy technology'!"
"Not long ago, the Sichuan Hai Materials Research Institute under his name held a press conference on high-temperature superconducting materials. At the press conference, a new type of high-temperature superconducting material was announced, which can provide a critical magnetic field of more than 20T, which is more than three times the superconducting material we are currently using."
"And the 20T critical magnetic field control, in theory, can greatly enhance our Spiralite-7X's control of plasma turbulence. "
"You should know that the stronger the confinement field, the more stable the operation of plasma turbulence. "
"If we can trade this high-temperature superconducting material, it is easy to achieve a running time of more than 30 minutes. Even from the data on paper, with this material, we can even break through the one-hour running time!"
"If we can do this, we will have enough capital to continue to ask parliament and the EU for scientific research funds."
Hearing this, another middle-aged man across the desk tapped his fingers lightly on the table and said: "I have read relevant news about the report on high-temperature copper-carbon-silver composite superconducting materials. Since the announcement, Judging from the data, the performance is indeed excellent. ”
"However, Professor Xu will probably not export such important superconducting materials. In other words, even if he wants to export, China will stop it, right? Or at least it needs to meet China's internal needs first. Will consider exporting.”
"What we lack now is time. We only have 2020."
Professor Tillman Lunt smiled and said: "You can leave this to me. I contacted Professor Xu two days ago. If we make some concessions, he can provide us with it before June 20." A batch of materials.”
"What conditions?"
"He wants our old ASDEX device that we decommissioned!"
Hearing this, the middle-aged supervisor asked curiously: "What does he need the ASDEX device for? Has he also started researching controllable nuclear fusion?"
"If I remember correctly, China has a tokamak device that is not weaker than our ASDEX device, right?"
Professor Tillman Lent nodded and said: "Indeed, the performance of China's EAST device is stronger than the old ASDEX device according to the data."
"but."
After a pause, he smiled and said: "You know, the leader of China's controllable nuclear fusion is not him, but another academician named Chen Mingji."
"Compared to ours, the academic monopoly in that country is more serious, so now Professor Xu is running into some troubles. He is in urgent need of a fusion device with more comprehensive functions."
Hearing this, the middle-aged supervisor suddenly nodded. He understood what Professor Tillman Lunt said.
China's scientific research capabilities are actually very strong, but the internal factions are quite divided, and the phenomenon of one's own people causing trouble for one's own is far more common than in other countries.
Professor Tillman Lunt continued: "But our old ASDEX device is not his only choice. After all, the Tokamak device was the mainstream route before, and many countries are studying this."
"When I was talking to him about this two days ago, he revealed that he was also in contact with the Alcatel C-Mod compact fusion reactor in the United States, which is currently out of operation."
Here, Tillman Lunt used a little trick to force the top management to have a sense of urgency through Xu Chuan's contact with other sellers.
After all, they need a superconducting material with better performance to provide a stronger magnetic field to confine the plasma to achieve their goals and ensure that they are not defunded by the parliament.
However, in fact, Xu Chuan has not yet contacted Alcatel.
Sure enough, after hearing what he said, the middle-aged manager fell into deep thought.
After thinking for a while, he said: "The old ASDEX device is not an object that cannot be sold or traded, but it is of high value. We spent hundreds of millions when we built it. If we only trade high-temperature superconducting materials, , it will be a big loss.”
"In addition, Professor Xu's high-temperature superconducting materials are currently only in the laboratory and cannot be mass-produced. Are you sure he can provide a batch of superconducting materials sufficient to meet the spiral 7X transformation before June?"
Hearing this, Tillman Lunt suddenly felt a sense of joy in his heart. He knew that since he didn't refuse directly, it meant that there was talk.
However, he did not show it on his face, but thought for a moment before speaking: "Indeed, even if the old ASDEX device is retired, it is still quite advanced."
"Well, I will talk to Professor Xu again. If he is interested, he will need to pay at least a suitable amount of funds."
"As for the production issue, don't worry about it. We can write it in the contract. If he fails to provide materials in June, he will need to pay a large amount of liquidated damages."
"Although there may be some controversy at that time, I believe that with the capabilities of the Max Planck Institute, it will not be difficult to obtain this liquidated damages."
"In addition, our new ASDEX device is also under construction. If it can be negotiated, there may be a chance to replace it with more powerful superconducting materials."
The middle-aged manager thought for a moment and said, "If that's the case, you can get in touch. But simply using superconducting materials and funds to trade is unacceptable to me or the Planck Plasma Institute."
"We can't sell the ASDEX device at a low price. Although it has been decommissioned, there is still a lot of advanced technology on it. According to the trading rules in the field of controllable nuclear fusion, technology is exchanged for technology."
"If we trade, the requirements need to be improved. We need to trade the technology of 'high-temperature copper-carbon-silver composite superconducting material'."
In fact, in the field of controllable nuclear fusion, the sale of controllable nuclear fusion reactors is not an unprecedented thing, and it can even be said to be quite frequent.
Especially in the international cooperation ITER project, transactions between technology and technology, as well as technology and funds are particularly frequent.
After all, controllable nuclear fusion has been carried out for decades, especially in Europe, which has invested a lot in this area. The long-term burden of such a super project is difficult even for large economic countries like Germany.
Then it is normal to use the produced technology to exchange with those countries that develop controlled nuclear fusion technology in the future in exchange for scientific research funds and other technologies.
Controlled nuclear fusion is a project that always has no output, and no country can afford it.
Hearing this, Tilman Lent frowned slightly and said, "This may be difficult. After all, in the field of tokamak, China's capabilities are not inferior to ours."
"Let me take people to China. On the one hand, we can learn about high-temperature superconducting materials, and on the other hand, we can meet and communicate."
The middle-aged supervisor thought for a while, nodded, and said, "No problem, let's talk first. Technology exchange technology is the unspoken rule of transactions in the field of controlled nuclear fusion. I believe that Professor Xu should understand it."
Apart from other things, he still has confidence in the ability of the Max Planck Institute, which is the confidence for him to trade the old ASDEX device.
And Professor Xu's character is still guaranteed at present, at least there has never been any negative news about him.
If it weren't for the internal strife of the people in that country, I'm afraid it would be difficult for them to trade high-temperature superconducting materials.
Of course, what the middle-aged supervisor didn't expect was that there were "bad guys" among them.
Tilman Lent, who has been in charge of the research progress of controlled nuclear fusion reactors, is the biggest bad guy.
It was Xu Chuan who first proposed the deal, but in his mouth, it became that the Planck Plasma Institute needed high-temperature superconducting materials more.
But overall, if the deal is right, the Planck Plasma Institute is not at a loss.
Professor Tilman Lent is also wholeheartedly promoting the research and development of controlled nuclear fusion.
After all, the old ASDEX device has been retired. It can still be used for experiments now, but in a dozen or twenty years, its fate will probably be a museum.
What's more, their focus is actually on the stellarator Spiralite-7X. If they can use retired products to exchange for key materials to advance the progress of the stellarator, it is worth it.
After coming out of the conference room, Professor Tilman Lent returned to his office and couldn't wait to send an email to Xu Chuan.
After receiving the email, Xu Chuan smiled.
The communication with the Planck Institute for Plasma Research seemed to be much smoother than he had imagined. Perhaps there was hope that the old ASDEX device could be taken down.
Providing a batch of high-temperature copper-carbon-silver composite superconducting materials that were at least enough for the upgrade of Helicon-7X in June, and paying some money, was not a problem.
The Qixia controlled nuclear fusion project had just started, and he had not spent much money at present. He prepaid part of the funds to get the old ASDEX device first, and after making achievements, he would be eligible to ask for more funds from the higher authorities.
He knew very well that in academia, no matter when, achievements were more convincing than anything else.
If he could push the operating time of controlled nuclear fusion to half an hour or even more than an hour, then the country would definitely support him with all its strength.
Funding was naturally not a problem.
As for technology trading technology, this still needed to be considered.
If there was a breakthrough in the optimization of high-temperature superconducting materials before the end of the year, it would not be a loss to trade the ASDEX device with this old and defective superconducting technology.
After all, the divertor, water cooling equipment and other technologies on the ASDEX device were still quite advanced. Even if it is not as good as the one used on the Spiral Stone-7X, it is enough to surpass most of the equipment.
As for the specific negotiations, if the initial communication is effective, let others take charge, and he can control the overall situation.
There is still about a month before the Chinese New Year. If possible, he wants to take advantage of the time when Academician Zhang Pingxiang is still here this year to promote the optimization of high-temperature copper-carbon-silver composite superconducting materials.
It is not required to optimize to the extent that it can be stretched casually like metal, but at least the brittleness and toughness must be improved so that it can be applied to some equipment with less harsh environmental conditions.
If Academician Zhang Pingxiang leaves after the Chinese New Year, it will be much more difficult for him to break through alone.
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