Chapter 377 Magnetized Target Fusion
Chapter 377 Magnetized Target Fusion
”Academician Peng injects argon and liquid sodium into the hole, allowing the liquid sodium to absorb the heat generated by fusion, and then uses it to boil water to generate electricity. By exploding a few hydrogen bombs every day, this heat can be used to generate a large amount of electricity.”
”Don’t think it’s outrageous. In fact, with our engineering capabilities and technology, this plan is theoretically feasible, but it’s still too simple and crude.”
”Although it does not require a lot of energy to maintain nuclear fusion, the energy conversion efficiency is relatively low, and a lot of nuclear fuel will be wasted. Unless other routes for controlled nuclear fusion are blocked and the energy problem is very serious, otherwise This solution is unlikely to be adopted. ”
”However, scientists around the world have been optimizing the inertial confinement solution for nuclear explosion fusion power stations by continuing to shrink the reaction device and using methods such as laser ignition.”
”Now there are many solutions for inertial confinement devices, and the structures are also strange, but everyone is very familiar with its essential engineering structure principle, which is the internal combustion engine on the car!”
”It just changes a fuel, and compared to the internal combustion engine, it requires extremely high energy density and precise symmetry to achieve compression, and the technical difficulty of engineering, materials, etc. is very high. . ”
After introducing the inertial confinement, Kang Chi released another picture.
“After understanding inertial confinement and magnetic confinement, magnetized target fusion should be easy to understand. This fusion device that combines magnetic confinement and inertial confinement was first proposed by scientists in Maple Leaf Country. The picture shows the original magnetized target fusion prototype of General Fusion.”
”It is actually a circle of steam hammers added to the outside of the spherical tokamak device. The steam hammers push the liquid metal inside the sphere to pressurize the deuterium-tritium plasma in the device, thereby achieving the conditions for fusion reaction.”
”At the same time, the fusion reaction will also produce neutrons, which can react with the lithium in the liquid metal to generate more tritium, thereby achieving the purpose of continuous fusion reaction.”
”This design looks perfect, but there are actually many problems.”
”The biggest problem is that liquid metal is difficult to control. It is like water in the device, and it is difficult to make it Evenly spread, and then compress the plasma. ”
”To solve this problem, General Fusion designed the second-generation device, replacing the spherical tokamak with a cylindrical one, allowing it to rotate to generate centrifugal force, so that the liquid metal evenly spreads all over the four walls. ”
”This not only allows the liquid metal to compress the plasma more evenly, but also the speed of the steam hammer is no longer so demanding, which can greatly improve the energy efficiency of the entire device. ”
Hearing this, a female student immediately raised her hand and asked: “Isn’t the ignition method of this fusion to concentrate the pressure to one point? If the cylinder is pressurized, doesn’t it become a pillar in the end, sharing the pressure?”
After hearing this question, Kang Chi couldn’t help but nodded with satisfaction. It seems that there are still students who are thinking while listening…
”It’s actually very simple.”
Kang Chi directly released the next picture.
“This is their second-generation device, the Lawson machine-26. Through the control program, they make the pistons at the two poles faster and the pistons in the middle slower, so that they can achieve compression close to a spherical shape.”
The girl who asked the question suddenly realized it, and felt that the scientists’ brains were really useful…
Then she asked again: “Since Maple Leaf Country is temporarily in a leading position in the technical route of magnetized target fusion, and you are optimistic about this route…”
“Do you think they can become the first country to commercialize controlled nuclear fusion? If we want to catch up on this route, is it possible to catch up with them?”
Kang Chi couldn’t help asking after hearing this: “Are you a student of the journalism department?”
The girl smiled a little embarrassedly.
No wonder,
This question sounds very hype, and asking this kind of question is basically the professional instinct of journalists…
”I’m sorry, I’m not a prophet.” Kang Chi said in an emotionless tone, “Scientific research itself also has a bit of luck, so I can’t give an accurate answer to this question.”
”In fact, no matter what kind of plan it is, everyone may think it is perfect at the beginning of the design, but only through real experimentsOnly after the experiment is completed can we get the final answer, and generally speaking, experiments are full of surprises and challenges. ”
”The same is true for magnetized target fusion. It is a fusion device that has only emerged in recent years. I think it still has many theoretical and engineering technical problems to be solved.” ”At present, General Fusion’s second-generation machine is still under construction. If they progress smoothly enough and really go according to plan, they will be able to achieve fusion ignition of more than 100 million degrees Celsius by the end of this year, and reach a scientific energy break-even next year, that is, a Q value of 1.”
”And their ultimate goal is to consume 14 megajoules of energy each time the plasma is compressed, and produce an energy output of 704 megajoules, that is, a Q value of 5.9.”
”If they really succeed, it is indeed enough to barely meet the standards for initial commercialization… I can only say that I wish them good luck. ”
Next, Kang Chi answered several students’ questions, and the open class finally came to a close.
After the video ended, Zhong Weijian still held the phone blankly.
After pondering for several minutes, he sighed deeply and said: “The engineering difficulty of magnetized target fusion is definitely not as simple as 1+1, but…”
”This seems to be in line with the engineering miracles that Academician Kang has always created…”
After Cheng Tao was stunned, he asked tentatively: “So you also agree with his point of view?”
”What does it matter?” Zhong Weijian returned the phone to Cheng Tao and stood up directly, “Now he is the chief engineer of controlled nuclear fusion in China. What he says is more important than any of us. Do you think this open class is for students?”
”Isn’t it? ”
”Then you underestimated him. He obviously took this opportunity to give us a heads-up and also to tell the leaders.”
After Zhong Weijian finished speaking, he turned and went into the room, and then quickly came out with a suitcase.
”Where are you going?”
”Dongyang.” – At the same time, Kang Chi, who had finished the open class, also finished lunch with the leaders of Su Province University and was on his way back to Dongyang on the Silver Crane.
Because they had been in a public place just now, Chen Hai didn’t find a chance to talk to Kang Chi. Now that there were only two of them on the Silver Crane, he immediately couldn’t help but ask in a somewhat worried tone: “Will the words you said in the open class today… make the M country have any ideas?”
”For example?”
”Increase the R&D investment in magnetized target fusion.”
”Then let them increase it.”
”Uh…so what you said today was actually to fool them? “That’s not the case. Even if I want to fool the Americans, there’s no need to do it in a lecture. Wouldn’t that disappoint everyone’s curiosity? So what I just said is the truth.” “As for whether the Americans believe it or not, that’s up to them…” Kang Chi curled his lips indifferently. “Even if they really choose to follow up, there’s nothing to worry about.” “This thing is not as simple as making a fuel engine. General Fusion has made a demonstration animation of LM-26 and released it, but who would think they can make it by watching an animation?” “As for the fuel engine I just mentioned, the principle is actually the same. It’s such a simple thing. There are a lot of drawings on the Internet, but in fact, few companies can really make a good engine.” “Even before, even if we reverse engineered the real thing, didn’t we spend a lot of effort to barely make some knockoffs? “So you can rest assured that even if you point them in the right direction, they can only stare blankly.” (End of this chapter)