Before returning to the college entrance examination, I became popular in the science circle

"In addition, just like coal ash will be produced when burning coal, helium ash will be produced when helium is burned. Based on all this, we need the first wall material to be able to withstand high temperatures of hundreds of millions of degrees Celsius. To withstand the impact of neutrons, we must finally have the function or design device to recover helium ash!”

When these conditions were laid out one by one, the team members in the conference room instantly understood why controllable nuclear fusion was so difficult to overcome. The materials on the first wall alone and the difficulties listed now gave them a toothache. It’s a headache. If they were asked to develop it themselves, it would be a Himalayan level of pressure.

In short, the first wall of the nuclear fusion reaction equipment is subject to corrosion and harm from the nuclear reactor all the time.If the first wall material is substandard, it will be good if it lasts a few seconds.Therefore, once you get into the depths of controllable nuclear fusion and actual research and development, you will know how difficult it is to make the first wall material of a nuclear fusion reactor.

The sun has been continuously fusion reaction for billions of years, but the world's controllable nuclear fusion is still stagnant, hovering in seconds. It has just exceeded 120 seconds. There has been no major breakthrough. One of the biggest difficulties is that That is, the first wall material is limited.

Fortunately, they are not trying to challenge this world's pinnacle problem just by relying on their own abilities. They have Mr. Wu who is already at the pinnacle of the world to guide them and provide support. They are just throwing out ideas.

"Among the materials currently available, tungsten should be the first thing that comes to mind when it comes to pure metal materials! Among currently known materials, tungsten has basically the best heat resistance. Under the bombardment of reactor plasma, our common stainless steel will change in an instant. It turns into molten iron and is even vaporized!" Therefore, among all materials on the earth, only tungsten has the best resistance to high temperatures, with a melting point of 3410°C.

"We can consider tungsten alloy and use pure tungsten material directly. I'm afraid it won't work. Tungsten also has a very big weakness, that is, it is too brittle and has poor ductility. This greatly limits its application." Tao Ran spread his hands, if that is really the case Easy to solve, pure tungsten material will not be discarded easily.

When it comes to tungsten plates, people around the world have already tried to use pure tungsten plates for fusion reactions and plasma reactions. However, even though tungsten has an extremely high melting point and excellent heat resistance, it still cannot be used on the market. Under billions of high temperatures,
Secondly, tungsten is used as the first wall material. Although it can barely last a few seconds longer in terms of heat resistance than other materials, it will still cause great damage in the face of radiation and particle impact.

In particular, the outermost layer of tungsten may be knocked out to form tungsten ions.These tungsten ions have a certain chance of entering the plasma flow of the reactor.These tungsten ions are highly toxic to the plasma beam. A little more may cause the plasma beam to rupture and cause a safety accident.

Why is it so serious? Here is an analogy.

On a two-lane highway, if there are no restrictions on the lanes in which large vehicles can travel, and large vehicles can walk freely, but small vehicles cannot slow down and avoid, what will happen?It must have been a very serious traffic accident.

Tungsten ions in the plasma flow are like large trucks with extremely heavy loads. They are slow and heavy. When other ions encounter them, they will be knocked away.The flying plasma will run out of the main lane and hit the first wall.

Moreover, once there are slightly more heavy ions like tungsten, it may cause a serious plasma accident, causing the plasma beam to rupture, thereby instantly transferring heat to the first wall, causing burns or even explosions.

Therefore, when developing new alloy materials using tungsten as a base, these are the areas that must be overcome. "In addition to tungsten, we can also consider carbon. From the perspective of heat resistance, the higher the melting point, the better. The most heat-resistant material in nature is carbon. As long as there is no oxygen, carbon materials can withstand The high temperature of more than 3500 degrees Celsius is more than 100 degrees Celsius higher than the temperature resistance of tungsten. At the same time, the thermal conductivity of some carbon materials is also very good, which is conducive to the dissipation of surface heat.

Therefore, some nuclear fusion devices choose to use carbon materials to make the first wall.But carbon also has a big disadvantage, and that's absorption!The fuels for nuclear fusion are mainly deuterium and tritium, both of which are isotopes of hydrogen and have the chemical properties of hydrogen.

Once the high-temperature plasma of these two substances hits the carbon material, it is easily absorbed by the carbon. In addition to adsorption, there is also chemical action to turn the carbon into organic matter.In this case, it is easy to change the properties of the material and affect the performance of the first wall!
On the other hand, it will also consume nuclear fusion fuel and reduce the efficiency of nuclear fusion, especially the absorption of expensive and radioactive tritium elements, which we really don’t want to see. "

The advantages and disadvantages of each material were put forward and arranged one by one, which became the candidates for them to try to improve and select. Everyone talked freely and tried to figure out how to improve.

They have passed the stage of being afraid of making mistakes and not daring to speak out easily. This is not their first such seminar. They have built up enough confidence with the encouragement of Mr. Wu.

No matter how wild and unreasonable their ideas are, as long as they have a certain basis and are not made up, they are all encouraged by Mr. Wu. Even if they are wrong, Mr. Wu will help them point out where they are wrong and why they are wrong, and let them work on it. Progress through mistakes.

Therefore, they are not afraid of making mistakes. Every opportunity like this will be a step forward for them.

"If we continue to use conventional tungsten plates, can we also start with coating materials? We can consider..." Coating is also their specialty. They met Mr. Wu at the beginning and assisted Mr. Wu in the research and development project he completed. , is a high-temperature resistant coating. Later, they learned that Manulife independently developed it, which was still a coating material. The reinforced coating was made based on Mr. Wu’s guidance and reference to Mr. Wu’s research and development. "

It can be said that coating materials are also their specialty. This suggestion did not surprise anyone present. Based on common sense, everyone will definitely start with the areas they are familiar with and good at.

Wu Tong and Cheng Lao, in the listening conference room above, the team members spoke actively and couldn't help but smile.Wu Tong is pleased with the strong sense of participation and activeness of the team. She has laid a good foundation and made a good start.

As I grow older, I feel gratified by Wu Tong’s team’s active enthusiasm for scientific research and their spontaneity from the inside out. In scientific research, what is most needed is this kind of fearless motivation!
This kind of vigorous vitality is the cornerstone of formal scientific research development. The progress of scientific research requires the blessing of such vigorous and upward vitality!