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100 million degrees Celsius, 1000 seconds. These two figures are two hard-to-leap peaks entrenched in the nuclear physics scientists and the global scientific interface of the Plasma Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (hereinafter referred to as the Institute of Plasma). Because nuclear fusion is used by humans, it means that the plasma of helium and helium must be instantaneously heated to 100 million degrees Celsius for at least 1,000 seconds in order to form a continuous response. This is precisely the mission of EAST, the scientific installation of the Plasma Institute.
â— The parent of EAST has embedded too many independent innovations made by Chinese scientists: From design to construction, the entire project has a self-study rate of over 90%, and has obtained 68 technologies and achievements with independent intellectual property rights.
â— The Plasma Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences is not only a supplier of fusion device components, but also a provider and cooperator of many international nuclear fusion experimental devices.
If you talk about EAST's scientific name of a large non-circular cross-section superconducting tokamak device, there may not be many people know; but if you mention "man-made little sun," many people will give thumbs up.
On this platform that brings together many scientific research problems in the world, the Institute’s nuclear physicists and the international scientific community are holding hands and challenging each other to sprint to the highest peak of global energy research.
And extreme sports
A few days ago, in a roaring experiment hall of the Plasma Institute, researchers were busy with a huge three-story building.
“This is the main part of EAST. It is 11 meters high, 8 meters in diameter and weighs 400 tons. It is mainly used to explore the engineering and physics issues of fusion energy and provide new ideas for future energy development.†Li Jiangang, director of the Institute of Plasma, visited One of the big scientific installations introduced.
"Currently, China will burn 1 million tons of coal per year to generate electricity. If nuclear fission is used to replace coal-fired energy, it needs 5 tons of uranium a year, but only 100 kg of heavy water will be used for nuclear fusion for one year," he explained. The helium and rubidium elements derived from seawater are not only low-cost, resource-rich, but also have no radiation and are safe and clean future energy sources.
"EAST is the world's first full superconducting non-circular cross-core fusion experimental device, concentrating on the five limits of ultra-high temperature, ultra-low temperature, ultra-large current, super-strong magnetic field and ultra-high vacuum," said a researcher at the Plasma Institute.
Every limit is a high-tech problem for scientific research. To challenge the limit means to explore innovation. From 1996 until now, EAST's mother body has embedded too many independent innovations by Chinese scientists.
"From design to construction, the overall research rate of the entire project was above 90%, and 68 technologies and achievements with independent intellectual property rights were obtained," said Li Jiangang. Recently, Plasma Institute has just been named the national innovation team.
The 20-million-degree Celsius plasma is sustained for 400 seconds. This is the result achieved by EAST and is the best result of the current international nuclear fusion reaction. “EAST will surely produce more world-class and unique contributions to the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor Project (ITER) and next-generation fusion devices.†In the fifth EAST evaluation in May this year, the International Advisory Committee commented.
In fact, compared with ITER, the world’s largest energy cooperation project, EAST is only 1/4 of its size. However, although the sparrow is small and fully-equipped, the successful experience of EAST has already supported the construction of ITER. For example, a high-temperature superconducting current lead with a current of 90 kA has been developed, which has reduced the ITER cooling power consumption by more than 2/3 per year; the risk of the ITER magnet power supply design scheme has been proven and a new solution has been designed.
"Currently, China has become the first in the progress of ITER's seven-party procurement package. In the field of nuclear fusion, the Chinese are no longer a dispensable 'small role'," said Li Jiangang proudly. Now, scientific researchers are carrying out all-round upgrades of EAST to prepare for the new round of physics experiments in 2014.
Win Big Ones from Japanese and Russian Competitors
At the same time as basic scientific research and innovation, EAST is also driving the development of China's nuclear fusion-related high-tech processing industry.
In the plasma superconducting conductor production hall, Li Jiangang pointed to the ring conductors on which two tall people were stacked and told reporters: “These conductors each have a value of more than 30 million yuan.†These appearances seem ordinary enough. The catheter, however, contains a superconducting cable that has been twisted into a wire of the same length as 1,000 hair filaments in each tube.
These superconductors can be described as the "lifeline" of EAST and ITER. Because the reheat-resistant materials on Earth are also burned by the fusion reaction in the core area of ​​100 million degrees Celsius, the superconducting wires cannot be separated from the reaction to maintain a certain distance from the inner wall of the device. "They can pass 60,000 amps per second and generate a magnetic field of 100,000 gauss to form a powerful 'electromagnetic cage' that suspends the plasma," Li Jianang explained.
According to reports, each conductor has to undergo a number of processes such as whipping, threading, welding, testing, etc., and the technical requirements can be described with the word “seriousâ€. If the thickness of the back of the conduit weld seam is not more than 0.1 mm, before each shipment to Japan and France, each conduit shall be filled with nitrogen to check its sealing performance.
However, prior to the establishment of EAST, this technology has not yet been born. “At that time, the total number of superconducting wires since the founding of the People’s Republic of China was only 26 kilograms in total. Now, in addition to the 150 tons scheduled for ITER every year, the output is more than sufficient,†Li Jiangang said.
Many components of ITER represent high added value and are hot spots in international competition. In September this year, the Institute of Plasma has just won a "big single" from Japan and Russia's two competitors: the development of ITER's dedicated poloidal field superconducting coils for the European Union.
"This coil weighs 396 tons, which is larger than all of the EAST coils. In the Tripartite, Russia has the lowest bid price, and our price is RMB 1 million higher than the Japanese. Many people find it incredible, but we are based on technology and Quality wins. The history of Chinese 'selling cabbage' will surely end as soon as possible!†said Li Jiangang with a firm voice.
In addition, the Plasma Institute is responsible for providing more than 70% of China's procurement packages for ITER, such as control power supply and superconducting calibration field coils. This has led to the development of a number of domestic advanced manufacturing companies.
“In the past, foreigners always believed that the quality of processing and manufacturing in China was not high. Now, under the lead of the Plasma Institute, we can also exhale.†In the processing workshop of Hefei Kelan Company, a manager surnamed Wu on the Chinese Journal of Science The reporter said.
30 years of "Great Scientific Culture"
In order to allow China to occupy a place in the frontier of world fusion research. In the past 30 years, the plasma institute has always placed the “big scientific culture†of daring to innovate, strive for first-class, self-reliant, up-and-down, and willing to sacrifice as an unchanging value.
According to Li Jiangang, if time flickers back to 1990, then the old generation of plasma scientists used 40 trains to pull in 4 million yuan worth of living supplies and exchanged some superconducting engineering devices Tokamak T7 with Russian scientists.
Over the past three and a half years, scientists in our country have successfully converted this device, which originally had no physical experiment function, into the world’s fourth superconducting tokamak device, the HT-7, capable of conducting steady-state high-parameter experiments.
On this basis, the researchers of the Institute of Plasma Technology have made persistent efforts to independently design and build the world's first superconducting tokamak device EAST in just 10 years.
From T7 to EAST, the wisdom, hard work, and sweat of the three generations of scientists in the plasma center are concentrated. Now, the Plasma Institute has trained a number of international leaders in nuclear fusion. "There are three Jin Jinshi academicians, two were selected for the 'Millions of People's Plan', four were introduced with the 'Thousand Talents Plan', and 12 were for the 'Hundred Talents Project'." Li Jiangang is well-known for his family. At the same time, the institute has trained more than 1,000 graduate students and is scattered throughout the world.
The second value orientation that plasma has always maintained is the openness of the world. In Li Jiangang's view, nuclear fusion cannot be separated from international cooperation. International cooperation must rely on strength, and it must win and mutually benefit each other.
“In the past, we learned from people with instant noodles. Now thanks to national support and EAST construction, it is basically foreign scientists who come to us for experiments.†Li Jiangang said. Now, plasma is not only a supplier of fusion device components, but also a provider and collaborator of many international nuclear fusion experimental devices.
Given the large demand for energy, China's next nuclear fusion device, the China Fusion Engineering Test Reactor (CFETR), is expected to start around 2020, and now the installation is in full swing. “I am 52 years old this year, and I still have 13 years to retire. I hope that I can make this happen before I retire.†Li Jiangang smiled confidently. (Reporter Feng Limin)
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