Chapter 320 Collision Heating
Chapter 320 Collision Heating
Changan, Xinghuan Energy Co., Ltd.
After more than a year of technical improvements.
The company's chief technology officer, Dr. Du, and the company's technical team stood not far from Ring 28.
Wang Heming, the CEO sent by Hailufeng Company, turned his head and looked at Dr. Du: "Mr. Du, can this machine be tested now?"
"Well, the machine can be tested." At this last moment, Dr. Du also felt that he must conduct a real test to know the actual situation of the machine.
The other researchers were also feeling uneasy at this time.
After all, Hailufeng Company has invested nearly 86 billion yuan in funds, plus various confidential technologies, relevant scientific researchers, and special raw materials. If the experimental results this time are not ideal, they are worried that Hailufeng Company will stop providing funds and related support.
Wang Heming glanced at everyone's expressions, then smiled and comforted them: "Everyone, don't worry too much. Even if the experimental results are not ideal, the head office and President Jiang will continue to support this project."
"Mr. Wang, thank you very much for the strong support from the head office and Mr. Jiang." Dr. Du also felt that he was very lucky.
You should know that many scientists and research teams are worried about the issue of research funding. Even if you are a genius, many research projects cannot be carried forward without huge financial support.
However, for official scientific research projects in China and scientific research projects in universities, you won’t get funding just by saying it.
It’s not that this audit model is bad. After all, in recent years, there are quite a few people in China who have defrauded scientific research funds.
However, this strict review, coupled with nepotism and personal connections, is likely to result in researchers who really need research funds not getting the money, while it is taken by some opportunists.
Even though all the members of Dr. Du's team are from PBC University, they can't get much funding from that university. A lot of their previous funding came from venture capital, and funding from this direction is also not easy to obtain.
It was not until Hailufeng Company entered the market that Xinghuan Energy Company welcomed a major financial sponsor.
Judging from the number of their controlled nuclear fusion device, we can see how much support Hailufeng Company has given them.
Wang Heming checked his watch and said, "Boss Du, let's get started!"
"it is good."
The crowd did not continue to stay in the factory.
Only a small number of staff members stayed behind to conduct a final inspection of Ring 28.
Dr. Du, Wang Heming and others came to the high-protection underground bunker next door, where there is a special control center.
After all, the current controlled nuclear fusion technology still carries a lot of risks, so people naturally won't take the risk.
Two hours later, the final inspection of Xinghuan 28 was successfully completed.
Dr. Du looked at the surveillance camera and ordered, "The first field test begins!"
"Yes." The staff inside the control center responded in unison.
Buttons were pressed one by one.
The internal components of Ring 28 also started to operate.
This Ring 28 not only combines the technical routes of traditional stellarators and tokamaks, but also combines the spiral magnetic acceleration pipeline technology (a miniaturized particle collider).
When various devices are started, the high-temperature helium-3 plasma inside the spiral magnetic acceleration pipe is continuously accelerated.
The device has two upper and lower spiral magnetic accelerators that can quickly accelerate the helium-3 plasma inside the pipe to the upper limit of a high-energy particle collider.
"Report, the helium-3 plasma has reached its collision limit."
"Inject helium-3 plasma into the reaction tube."
"receive."
Two high-speed helium-3 plasmas traveling in opposite directions are injected into the reaction pipe.
In an instant, dense, high-energy helium-3 plasma began to collide head-on.
The broken helium-3 nuclei turned into chaotic ultra-microscopic particles such as neutrons and protons. The temperature of these high-energy particles reached trillions of degrees Celsius. The high-energy particles that continuously collided with each other continued to rise in temperature under the 100T magnetic field of the room-temperature superconductor.
Soon controlled nuclear fusion reaction occurred.
Helium-3 plasmas collide and fuse.
The reason why it is so easy to react is mainly because the temperature generated during the particle collision is very high, which can reach trillions of degrees Celsius. It is easy to heat the helium-3 plasma inside the reaction to more than ten billion degrees Celsius, thereby reaching the controlled nuclear fusion reaction temperature between helium 3 and helium 3.
Of course, this reaction mode is not perfect, especially when high-energy particles collide with each other, neutrons, protons, neutrinos and other particles will be produced.
Among them, protons, since they are charged particles, will be firmly bound by the magnetic field of the room-temperature superconductor.
Neutrinos are very tiny and basically do not react with the surrounding inner wall materials, so there is no need to worry.
Only neutrons can damage the inner wall material of the reaction tube. This is mainly because neutrons are uncharged and carry huge amounts of energy during the plasma collision, which further enhances the neutron's penetration.
Fortunately, there are relatively few helium-3 particles in the spiral magnetic acceleration pipeline, accounting for about one percent of the total. The helium-3 plasma, which is the main reaction material, does not rely on collisions to produce nuclear fusion reactions, but uses temperature to carry out nuclear fusion reactions.
"Report, the inner wall of the reaction pipe shows signs of neutron irradiation."
Dr. Du took a look at the monitoring data of the inner wall material of the reaction pipeline and found that in less than five minutes, the liquid lithium coating on the inner wall showed obvious signs of corrosion.
But this was expected by everyone.
Because the liquid lithium coating is specifically used to absorb high-energy neutrons, lithium-6 is a good neutron absorber and has a large cross-section for nuclear reactions with neutrons.
When irradiated with neutrons, lithium-6 absorbs neutrons and undergoes a nuclear reaction to produce tritium and helium, thereby reducing the number of neutrons passing through the liquid lithium and acting as a neutron shield.
After absorbing the heat from high-energy neutrons, liquid lithium can exchange heat with the next inner wall to avoid temperature accumulation. At the same time, this heat can also be used as thermal energy for power generation.
Of course, the fission high-energy neutrons of Ring 28 only carry a small amount of heat. In the entire system, the helium-3 nuclear fusion reaction is the main force providing thermal energy.
Dr. Du took a look at the power generation capacity of the steam turbine and calculated the ratio of input energy to output energy in his mind. He soon figured out the Q value of the machine, which was about 16.4, which meant that the machine could generate surplus energy.
This Q value is already suitable for commercial mass production and is almost equivalent to the efficiency of current thermal power plants. It is much stronger than the previous Q value of less than 1. Controlled nuclear fusion is no longer something that will take forever in fifty years.
Time flows by every second.
Three hours later, Dr. Du watched as the lithium-6 in the liquid lithium coating was continuously transformed into helium and tritium during the neutron irradiation process, while the neutron capturer inside the factory did not detect any signs of neutron leakage.
This made Dr. Du feel relieved. He looked at the time and then ordered, "Turn off the reaction device!" "Got it."
After a while, the various components of Ring 28 shut down one after another.
"Awu, take someone to check the device."
"Okay." Awu and a dozen colleagues put on anti-radiation protective clothing and special helmets and entered the factory where Star Ring 28 was placed.
The outer shell of this factory building is a layer of lead plate, and the inner wall is cast with special concrete, which can withstand the irradiation of thermal neutrons.
After all, this factory is close to the urban area of Chang'an, so protection must be in place.
After cooling the interior of Ring 28, Awu and others opened the nuclear fusion reaction pipeline according to the disassembly port reserved in advance on the equipment.
Then they carefully observed the inner wall of the pipeline. The liquid lithium covered the inner wall through a magnetic field constraint system. After the shutdown, the liquid lithium lost the magnetic field constraint and quickly flowed to the bottom of the reaction pipeline, and then flowed through the drainage hole into the lithium storage box at the bottom of the device.
The inner wall covered by liquid lithium is a high-temperature resistant tungsten alloy plate.
Although there was no problem with the surface of these liquid-resistant high-temperature tungsten alloys when observed with the naked eye, everyone still carefully removed several pieces of tungsten alloy plates and placed them in a lead box.
Dr. Du and others at the control center saw the condition of these tungsten alloy plates through surveillance cameras.
A researcher smiled and said: "The situation is much better than expected!"
"Yes!"
"Although theoretically helium-3 nuclear fusion does not produce neutrons, there are quite a few neutrons produced by impact fission."
Awu and others in the factory dismantled some of the components of Star Ring 28, especially the inner wall materials of the pipes that were exposed to nuclear fusion reactions and impact fission reactions.
The parts are then taken to the testing laboratory on the other side of the factory for a comprehensive inspection.
Although Ring 28 operated at full capacity for three hours, it was not enough.
If it is to be used as a commercial controlled nuclear fusion device, this device must be able to operate stably for at least half a year before it can be put into commercial production.
Three days later, Dr. Du’s team received the freshly-released test report.
A researcher pushed up his glasses and said, "There are no obvious structural defects in the tungsten alloy plate on the inner wall. It seems that the neutron irradiation is firmly confined inside the pipe."
"The lithium material consumption is acceptable, about 147 grams of lithium per hour." Another researcher looked at the report on the consumption of liquid lithium.
The maximum power generation capacity of Ring 28 is 1000 megawatts, and it consumes 147 grams of liquid lithium per hour, which is actually very small. If it is a traditional deuterium-tritium nuclear fusion reaction, the neutron output is hundreds of times that of Ring 28, so the liquid lithium consumed per hour will reach more than ten kilograms.
You should know that the global lithium ore converted into single-element lithium is only about 2900 million tons.
As the inner wall material of the controlled nuclear fusion reaction device, lithium material will be consumed and converted into helium and tritium, which almost means that the consumption of lithium in the controlled nuclear fusion reaction device will continue in a non-renewable mode.
Perhaps it seems now that a Starlink 28 consumes only 3528 grams of lithium-6 per day, which is not a large amount. It only consumes 1287.72 kilograms of lithium-6 per year.
You should know that among the lithium currently mined, the content of lithium 6 is only about 7.5%, while the more stable lithium 7 accounts for 92.5%.
However, if controlled nuclear fusion devices are used on a large scale in the future, the consumption of lithium-6 resources will become increasingly huge.
Although humans will certainly discover more lithium mines in the future with technological advancement, the overall insufficient abundance of lithium on Earth is a very realistic problem.
Dr. Du is full of confidence: "Don't worry, although a lot of lithium will be consumed at this stage, there is a solution."
A group of researchers also reacted.
Because Ring 28 was not the final version they envisioned.
The final version they envisioned is a multiple continuous reaction, that is, first carrying out the reaction between helium 3 and helium 3, and then using the neutrons produced by the collision fission to irradiate the liquid lithium to turn the liquid lithium into helium and tritium.
The tritium in the reaction pipe is then collected and sent to the next nuclear fusion reaction device to carry out the helium-3-tritium nuclear fusion reaction, which will produce lithium-7.
At the same time, the nuclear fusion reaction of helium-3 and tritium will produce dense neutrons, which can bombard lithium-7, thereby allowing lithium-7 to generate lithium-6 and a proton.
In other words, the version they envisioned can ensure the circulation of lithium-6 elements and does not require additional lithium-6 from the outside.
The nuclear fusion reaction between helium-3 and tritium is much easier than the nuclear fusion between helium-3.
In fact, after completing the controlled nuclear fusion of helium 3-helium 3, other types of controlled nuclear fusion will become relatively simple.
Even directly using protium-hydrogen for nuclear fusion reaction can be done now.
Wang Heming looked at the report in his hand, then raised his head to look at Dr. Du: "Mr. Du, does that mean that the results of this test have met expectations?"
Dr. Du expressed his thoughts: "Yes, Mr. Wang, next I plan to conduct tests for three consecutive days and a month, and build the prototype of Star Ring 3 at the same time."
"Okay, don't worry about the funding. I will explain the situation to the head office." Wang Heming vowed.
If the experimental test results are not ideal, he will have to apply for funding from the head office, which is indeed a bit difficult.
But now that the experimental test results of Ring 28 have met expectations, it will be very easy for him to ask for money from the head office.
In fact, if we ignore the disadvantage of Ring 28's need to consume lithium 6, this controlled nuclear fusion device can already be put into commercial production.
But the version that Dr. Du's team is pursuing is lithium self-sustaining controlled nuclear fusion, which requires further improvement and research and development.
Moreover, the current domestic demand for energy is not as severe as imagined.
Especially with the continuous deployment of photovoltaic thin-film airships, the current scale of domestic electricity production is very large, and a large part of the increase is photovoltaic and wind power.
Therefore, the research on controlled nuclear fusion can continue to be honed.
And considering the requirements of confidentiality, the success of Ring 28 has not been reported yet.
The reason for being so low-key is mainly to avoid becoming an experience package for European and American forces.
You know, after the nuclear bomb was developed, other major powers in the world quickly replicated it.
The advancement of scientific research projects, when there is no reference and when there is a reference, are basically two different situations.
If European and American forces find out that Seres has developed controlled nuclear fusion technology that can be commercialized, they will definitely invest in this research at all costs, rather than the current half-hearted and incremental investment.
(End of this chapter)