Chapter 552: Last Hurdle

Translator: Henyee Translations  Editor: Henyee Translations

“I see…”

Lu Zhou quickly looked through the code on the screen. He had a moment of realization on his face.

Relying on his coding ability, it might be a bit difficult for him to completely understand the algorithm. However, he could understand the basic execution logic of the plasma control scheme just from a few key lines of code alone, so it wasn’t too big of a problem.

In short, this algorithm was probably made from machine learning.

This advanced ML1 algorithm referenced the program written by the Jin Ling University computer science department and Lu Zhou’s previous mathematical model. It carried out countless simulations on the plasma kinetic trajectories and made adjustments to the phenomenological model. Finally, it set a number of parameters to make the algorithm as perfect as possible.

When it came to real-life application, when a phenomenological model was done to the extreme, it was just as good as a theoretical model.

At least that was how it was performance-wise.

It was just like the empirical fluid mechanics formulas, even though it wasn’t possible to explain them with existing theories, that didn’t prevent people from using them to design aircraft and engines.

Collecting these data and adjusting the original control scheme might take years or even decades if done by hand.

However, Xiao Ai had a supercomputer at hand, and it could change the control scheme in real-time, so it only needed a few stellarator experiments for reference.

In a sense, the plasma control scheme algorithm extracted from Xiao Ai’s core code could be interpreted as an algorithm developed by artificial intelligence and machine learning.

However, this extracted artificial intelligence was undoubtedly less intelligent than Xiao Ai.

Does this mean that this thing is Xiao Ai’s offspring?

This idea flashed in Lu Zhou’s mind.

However, Lu Zhou quickly threw the idea away and closed his computer.

If that were the case, then Lu Zhou wouldn’t be able to look at Xiao Ai the same way anymore.

…

The plasma control scheme problem finally came to an end. After the supercomputer for the demonstration reactor was built, the algorithm would be transferred.

Lu Zhou woke up early the next morning. He called Wang Peng and asked him to bring some dumplings. After Lu Zhou drank some soymilk and finished eating the dumplings, he departed to the STAR research institute.

Other than the plasma control scheme, one of the reasons Lu Zhou came back this time was to complete the final design of the liquid neutron recovery system.

Even though ever since Lu Zhou went to Haizhou, the STAR research institute hadn’t stopped working, their progress hadn’t increased by much. They weren’t able to produce any kind of in-progress results yet.

This type of scientific research project was like a car; every component of the car had to work together for it to work.

Now that the first wall material was solved, other research institutes had been working on the core catcher and the heating components. However, even though they were responsible for the most crucial parts of the project, they hadn’t been able to make any substantial progress.

Even though no one was rushing them, they were still under a lot of pressure.

Now that Lu Zhou came back from Haizhou, everyone in the institute felt relieved.

Sheng Xianfu, who looked like he hadn’t slept for weeks, looked at Lu Zhou and smiled brightly.

“You finally came back, we were about to go and find you.”

Lu Zhou: “Thanks for working hard all this time.”

“Ah, it’s fine.” Sheng Xianfu scratched his scruffy hair and sighed as he said, “There are just a few main problems that aren’t solved, giving us a headache.”

Ever since he joined the research institute here, he felt his hair becoming thinner and thinner.

Lu Zhou had an awkward expression on his face.

He was the one that proposed this technical route in the beginning, but he himself had been busy with other research projects.

However, he had no other choice. After all, he didn’t think it would be so troublesome. He originally thought that since the plan was written in detail and they had help from the China National Nuclear Corporation engineers, it shouldn’t be a big problem. So, Lu Zhou focused his attention on the PGC-1 material.

Little did he know, he underestimated the difficulty of this research project.

“Gather everyone in the institute and host a meeting.” Lu Zhou nodded and said, “I have to understand what is going on here.”

“Okay, I’ll do it right now.”

Sheng Xianfu nodded and quickly walked into his office.

Lu Zhou returned to his office and revisited the liquid lithium neutron recovery system plans. He then got up and went to the research institute conference room No. 1.

He didn’t have to wait long before everyone else in the institute arrived.

With all of the STAR researchers and engineers gathered here, Lu Zhou made a short opening statement and was informed of what was going on by various departments.

According to the leaders of several departments, the current research was still centered on the same idea he had before he went to Haizhou.

Which was to use the PGC-1 first wall material to transmit and decelerate the neutrons. After that, the liquid lithium circulation device would absorb the neutrons and release the tritium. The beryllium reflective layer coated outside the liquid lithium would bounce back the unreacted neutrons.

The recovered tritium would be in the form of gas, which would be recovered at the top of the machine. This would be reinjected back into the reaction chamber for further reaction.

Professor Li Changxia, who came from Yuhua University, was sitting at the conference table. He said, “The collection of tritium in the liquid lithium is easy. We just have to put a filler in the reactor. It is theoretically possible to separate the tritium using the divertor inside the reactor, or we can also add a separation device in front of the machine. However, the hard part is the thickness of the liquid lithium layer. We conducted several experiments, but the results weren’t very good.”

The thickness of the liquid lithium layer was a crucial problem; it couldn’t be too thick nor too thin.

Too thick would cause a large amount of tritium to be trapped in the liquid lithium, thus reducing recovery efficiency. This would also greatly increase the engineering difficulty and could affect the safety of the reactor.

It couldn’t be too thin either as it would directly affect the proliferation rate of the tritium. After all, the half-life of free neutrons was only around 10.6 minutes. This meant that in addition to other elements decaying, they had to think about the neutrons themselves decaying.

Ideally, the neutrons could be recovered by the liquid lithium before a secondary neutron reflection occurred at the base metal. However, this wasn’t easy to do at all.

Lu Zhou: “Did you bring the experimental data?”

“It’s here.”

Sheng Xianfu nodded and immediately handed over a document.

Lu Zhou took the document and began to carefully examine the data within.

Time slowly passed by, and the only sound in the conference room was the sound of the clock ticking on the wall.

Lu Zhou didn’t say anything, so the researchers sitting at the conference table waited patiently.

Lu Zhou finally finished reading the document.

Everyone thought that this big name would come up with an idea, but his actions were beyond everyone’s expectations.

“The research path is correct, this data is very important. There are just some methods that were lacking, so you guys didn’t achieve the expected results. You all have worked quite well over the past month, and I suppose no one has gotten any rest recently.

“The conference ends here, you guys can go home. Everyone will take two days off.”

Lu Zhou looked at the surprised looks on everyone’s face and gently tapped the data document on the conference table.

“I’ll take this and tinker with it.

“I’ll give you guys a result in three days!”

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