I am devoted to scientific research, but you want to trick me into having a love relationship?

Chapter 690 The focus should be on fusion.
After taking a few minutes to rest and sip tea in his office, Xu Qingzhou finally retrieved the data on controlled nuclear fusion. With lithium dendrites and the shuttle effect sorted out, the next top priority was controlled nuclear fusion.

The data includes both tokamak and stellarator.

"Let's ask about the stellarator first."

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

These days, he and Song Yao have been discussing investment issues related to stellarator technology.

Stellarators are definitely one of the competitive arenas in the future of fusion.

The call was answered after two beeps.

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Xu Qingzhou went straight to the point, expressing his desire to increase investment in the star-simulating device platform.

Stellarators rely on complex three-dimensional magnet coils and do not require plasma current, making them technically challenging. In the 1970s, the Southwestern Institute of Physics attempted to research stellarators but abandoned the project due to its technical complexity.

Even the United States, which first proposed this technology, eventually had to discontinue its research due to the high complexity of the technology and the shift of resources to tokamak.

The domestic predicament is also evident.

Now that they have their superconducting thin films, the most crucial three-dimensional coil manufacturing precision is still insufficient to meet the requirements.

Another issue is funding.

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

Needless to say, its scale is only one-thirtieth of the plasma volume of the German W7-X.

After a brief silence on the other end of the phone, Academician Liu Fanyang spoke: "This is a good thing, but... as you know, although CFQS is small in scale, it is still a provincial project authorized by the state and operated by universities. This matter is quite important, and I cannot make the decision on my own. I will convey your thoughts to the leadership."

As Xu Qingzhou had predicted, Academician Liu Fanyang was happy for them to bring funds with them.

There's no way around it, I'm short of money.

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

Researching stellarators is almost like burning money.

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

Xu Qingzhou smiled and nodded. The two of them didn't say much more and hung up the phone.

Although Academician Liu Fanyang's side welcomed it, there were indeed problems. Once Zero Point Technology's funds were transferred, it would definitely dilute the official equity, meaning that they would suddenly become the main financial backer of the CFQS project.

If it were a state-owned enterprise investing, it certainly wouldn't be so complicated.

However, the Kyoto Institute for Materials Science has a unique position. Although it has close ties with the government, it is essentially a private company.

"Given the current background of the Kyoto Institute for Materials Science, there shouldn't be much of a problem with injecting capital."

Xu Qingzhou wasn't worried. They were a private organization, but they had official backing, making them more legitimate than state-owned enterprises to some extent. He believed no one would refuse the investment.

"Then there's the tokamak device."

Xu Qingzhou retrieved the proposal submitted by the fusion team.

They have currently chosen a fully high-temperature superconducting spherical tokamak, which differs from the traditional tokamak route of FETR (Experimental Fuel Cycle Reactor).

The tokamak is more compact and can be designed for miniaturization.

Some of the technologies can be transferred to traditional tokamaks like FETR, which can both meet the miniaturization requirements of future interstellar travel and be used in terrestrial fusion power plants.

Currently, it is still in the stage of verifying the extreme working conditions of superconducting thin film materials.

The critical current density (Jc) decay rate of the thin film after neutron irradiation was verified by simulating the neutron flux (≥10 n/cm) of a fusion reactor.

The current progress is quite smooth.

Magnet integration using superconducting thin films has already begun.

After staying in the office until 4:30, Xu Qingzhou got up to pack his things, preparing to go home early to cook dinner.

Peking University.

On September 18th, the freshmen of 2020 had already arrived at the school more than ten days earlier.

In the dormitory, a short-haired girl hummed a song as she entered. She approached the girl staring at the computer screen by the door. "What are you looking at, Yueyue?" she asked. "News from the Kyoto Materials Research Institute."

"That's what the girl with glasses said."

"Oh." The short-haired girl nodded. "Xu Qingzhou's research institute is quite popular lately."

"Yes, they solved the problems of lithium dendrites and shuttle effect. That's amazing."

The girl with glasses rested her chin on her hand and said with great longing, "Wow, I never thought I'd end up in the same school as Xu Shen. I heard there are internship openings in the graduate program. I think there's one for undergraduates too."

"You can only apply if you're at least a sophomore. And although the minimum requirement is sophomore, my brother said that every year juniors and seniors are scrambling to apply, so sophomores don't even get a chance."

The short-haired girl said with a smile.

"People should have dreams. It's already four o'clock. Time flies when we're not in military training."

The girl with glasses closed her notebook, glanced at the time, and turned to ask the girl reading a book next to her, "Lulu, what do you want to eat tonight?"

Since everyone had just arrived at the university and was still adjusting to university life, they often got together for meals.

"You guys eat, I'm going to my cousin's house for dinner tonight."

Song Lulu said.

Song Yao's cousin, after two years of tutoring, finally got into the Chemistry Department of Peking University.

"That's great, we even have relatives here," the girl with glasses said enviously.

The short-haired girl became interested and asked curiously, "Your cousin and her family have settled in Kyoto?"

"Yes, I only settled here a couple of years ago."

Song Lulu didn't explain it very clearly.

We reported for duty on September 1st and spent half a month together, getting to know each other's personalities.

The girl to her right is from Northeast China, named Wu Ziyue. She's outgoing and a big fan of her cousin's husband. The girl across from her is from Guangdong Province. She prefers to be alone and is introverted.

The person who spoke to me just now was Lin Yueli, a native of Kyoto. She was enthusiastic, and her words "unintentionally" revealed a lot of superiority.

"Beijing Drifting?"

"That's it."

Originally from Chengdu, I only settled in Beijing in recent years. Strictly speaking, I am a "Beijing drifter," and I am not lying.

Lin Yueli sighed, "It's so hard being a Beijing drifter these days. Two people who have come to Beijing have rented our house and have to take the subway for two hours every day."

Song Lulu smiled but didn't say anything, continuing to read her book. She didn't want to reveal too much information in front of her roommate, lest it seem like she was showing off or competing with Lin Yueli.

Until my phone beeped with a message notification.

She put away her textbooks and got up to tidy up.

"go out?"

"Yes, my cousin came to pick me up."

"Cousin~"

After getting into the car, Song Lulu looked around at the interior and said, "Your car is so impressive."

"good."

"Where's my brother-in-law?" They only see each other a few times a year, but Song Lulu isn't shy around strangers.

Song Yao started the car and drove towards Xishan No. 1 Courtyard, saying, "He went home to cook first."

"She's equally at home in the living room and the kitchen," Song Lulu commented.

What kind of evaluation is that?

"Oh, right, that's probably describing you."

(End of this chapter)