Chapter 740: Are You a Disciple Who Defies Your Master?

March 10, Wednesday.

Several teams completed their final round of validation and refinement on the graded composite armor for addressing neutron irradiation damage, preparing to implement it next week.

After a two-hour meeting, everyone exited the office.

Xu Qingzhou said to the academician beside him, Ren Nan: “The improved design must be finalized soon—current high-temperature stability still falls below 90 million °C, making grain coarsening likely and unable to withstand the 100 million °C thermal shock at ignition.”

“That’s an issue. Chi Tianlei’s team is already working on it—I’ll go follow up.”

On Ren Nan’s side, the superconducting magnet is already done; he’s now jointly responsible with Zheng Xu for the first-wall material.

In fact, compared to the negative-triangle plasma configuration, the superconducting magnet engineering is slightly less challenging. After all, the core superconducting film is already available—they only need to integrate it.

“Also, due to the negative-triangle configuration, the thermal load in the curved regions of the spherical tokamak becomes more concentrated; the cooling and heat recovery system must be resolved early, or continuous temperature rise will degrade material lifespan.”

“We can finalize our proposal within three days.”

Professor Zhao Sheng said solemnly.

Xu Qingzhou nodded, turned to Li Yi, and said: “Also, coordinate with Professor Xiao—get the nano-channel tungsten film target module installed on EAST as soon as possible to test its tolerance to ≥20 MW/m thermal load.”

Although the simulated data from the test platform is decent, it hasn’t undergone real-environment testing, and the institute currently lacks such capability.

“Got it.”

Xu Qingzhou parted ways with Ren Nan and others downstairs, returning to his office.

“Coffee.”

As he passed by his junior assistant, before she could speak, he said.

“Coming right away.”

Wang Sidong nodded, holding a stack of files.

Five minutes later, a cup of hot coffee was placed in Xu Qingzhou’s hands.

After thanking her, he sipped the coffee and picked up his previous train of thought.

“The future first-wall material must be a multilayer composite system—essentially a ‘substrate + coating’ structure. From this perspective, the substrate can be nano-tungsten-copper composite material.”

“The surface layer is straightforward—use the newly developed nano-channel tungsten film directly to resist plasma sputtering and self-regulate helium ash.”

“The substrate is nano-tungsten-copper composite material.”

“The intermediate layer still needs further improvement.”

The intermediate layer’s main function is to enhance thermal conduction and structural stability.

An hour later, his gaze locked onto “two-dimensional confined materials.”

“Damn, it’s already five.”

Xu Qingzhou cut off his thoughts, packed up, and decided to leave on time today—he was busy, but Song Yao was just as swamped.

As the saying goes, great trees attract wind; Zero Point Tech is now a well-known enterprise both domestically and internationally, and trouble inevitably follows.

Especially after the patent package for lithium dendrites and shuttling effect was licensed out, technology leakage became inevitable.

Though they’ve maximized confidentiality, they can’t fully eliminate the risk of replication.

A European company circumvented the patents by adjusting electrolyte composition and separator structure, then re-registered their own patent.

But Xu Qingzhou and Song Yao had anticipated this long ago—they assembled a top-tier legal team to respond promptly to legal risks.

Xishan No.1 Courtyard.

At 5:30 p.m., Xu Qingzhou left the institute and drove to buy groceries.

Both had been busy lately; it had been nearly a week since they shared a dinner.

At 6:30 p.m.

As Xu Qingzhou poured food for Er Miao, he heard the door open.

“I’m back~”

In the xuanguan, Song Yao took off her black coat and hung it on the rack, then called into the living room, slippers dragging as she collapsed onto the sofa: “Professor Xu, I’m exhausted.”

“Tsk tsk, getting more and more like a woman.”

Watching the delicate girl, Xu Qingzhou was taken aback—she used to just say “I’m back”; now she sometimes said “I’m back~.”

“.”

“Professor Xu, come here.”