Chapter 690: It

In the office, after resting for a few minutes while sipping tea, Xu Qingzhou took out the materials on controllable nuclear fusion. With lithium dendrites and the shuttle effect settled, the top priority was controllable nuclear fusion.

In the materials, there were both tokamak and stellarator data.

"Let's ask about the stellarator first."

After thinking for a while, Xu Qingzhou took out his phone and found Academician Liu Fanyang, the person in charge of the stellarator at Southwest Jiaotong University, in his contacts.

These days, he and Song Yao had been discussing the investment issue for stellarator technology.

The stellarator is definitely one of the competitive fields in the future fusion sector.

The phone was answered after two beeps.

After simple pleasantries, Xu Qingzhou stated his purpose directly: he hoped to increase investment in the stellarator platform.

Stellarators rely on complex 3D magnetic coils and do not require plasma current; the technical threshold is high. In the 1970s, the Southwestern Institute of Physics attempted to research stellarators but gave up due to technical complexity.

Even the United States, which first proposed this technology, interrupted its research because of the high technical complexity and the shift of resources toward tokamaks.

The predicament in the country is also obvious.

Now they have their superconducting thin films, but the manufacturing precision of the most critical 3D coils is still insufficient to meet the demand.

Another issue is funding.

Domestic fusion resources are basically concentrated on tokamak devices. The stellarator project (CFQS) at Southwest Jiaotong University is only a provincial-level project in Sichuan Province, far lower than the national tokamak project.

Not to mention the scale; the designed plasma volume is only one-thirtieth of Germany's W7-X.

On the other end of the phone, after a slight silence, Academician Liu Fanyang spoke: "This is a good thing, but... you know, although the scale of CFQS is small, it is also a provincial-level project authorized by the state and operated by the university. This matter is relatively significant, and I personally cannot make the decision. I will convey your thoughts to the leaders."

It was exactly as Xu Qingzhou had expected; Academician Liu Fanyang was very happy for them to bring funds over.

There was no other way; they were short of money.

The funding for CFQS was far less than that of national-level projects.

Researching stellarators is almost equivalent to burning money.

"Okay, I'll wait for your good news."

Xu Qingzhou nodded with a smile. The two didn't say much more and hung up the phone.

Although Academician Liu Fanyang was very welcoming, there were indeed problems. Once Zero Point Technology's funds went over, it would inevitably dilute the official equity, meaning they would instantly become the "sugar daddy" of the CFQS project.

If a state-owned unit came to invest, it wouldn't be so troublesome.

However, the status of the Kyoto Institute of Materials is very special. Although it has inextricable links with the state, it is essentially a private enterprise.

"With the current background of the Kyoto Institute of Materials, the capital injection shouldn't be a big problem."

Xu Qingzhou wasn't worried. They were a private institution, but they also had official backing. To a certain extent, they were even more authentic than state-owned units. He believed no one would refuse this capital injection.

"Next is the tokamak device."

Xu Qingzhou took out the plan submitted by the fusion group.

What they currently chose was an all-high-temperature superconducting spherical tokamak, which is different from the traditional tokamak route of FETR (Fusion Engineering Test Reactor).

Spherical tokamaks are more compact in size and can be designed for miniaturization.

And some technologies can be migrated to traditional tokamaks like FETR, which can satisfy the miniaturization needs for future interstellar travel while also applying the technology to ground-based fusion nuclear power plants.

And it is currently still in the stage of verifying the limit working conditions of superconducting thin film materials.

By simulating the neutron flux in a fusion reactor (≥10^14 n/cm²), they verify the critical current density (Jc) decay rate of the thin film after neutron irradiation.

The current progress is quite smooth.

They have already started using superconducting thin films for magnet integration.

Having stayed in the office until 4:30 PM, Xu Qingzhou also got up to pack his things, preparing to go home early to cook.

Jingda.

September 18th, the freshmen of the class of 2020 had already entered the school more than ten days ago.

In the dormitory, a girl with short hair hummed a song as she entered the dormitory and leaned toward the girl staring at the computer by the door. "What are you looking at, Yueyue?" ===== CHAPTER 691 =====