Chapter 390 That is something unimaginable
Chapter 390 That is something unimaginable
After Byrne finished the call, he froze in place, keeping the posture of answering the phone.
His pale expression was as if he had seen a ghost.
Duke couldn’t help but ask curiously: “What happened?”
”China’s magnetized target device…successfully ignited…”
Although this matter had nothing to do with him, Duke’s heart still tightened after hearing it, and then he had the same doubts as Byrne.
”How is this possible? They changed the technical route in less than four months, and they built the device?”
”These industrial demons…more than just built the device…”
Byrne seemed to talk to himself, and then silently opened the mobile browser to search for related news.
In fact, he still didn’t believe what Malek had just said on the phone…
But Byrne soon found that there was no need to search at all.
The hot news in major media outlets were filled with headlines containing words such as “China”, “controlled nuclear fusion”, “Kang Chi”, and “breakthrough”.
The two numbers that made Byrne shudder the most were 23 and 120.
“Oh my god! Not only did they succeed in igniting, but they also achieved a Q value of 23?!!”
Duke, who was lying on the hospital bed, also took out his phone after seeing Byrne using his phone to check information. Then he quickly understood the meaning of Byrne’s words just now, “If this news is true, it’s not just a Q value of 23.” Byrne replied, “and a running frequency of 120 times per minute…”
”Not only did they build the magnetized target device and successfully ignite it, they also directly solved all the problems of the magnetized target device at one time!”
When Byrne said this, what was revealed in his eyes was no longer just shock,
There was also a fear from the depths of his soul…
Perhaps in the eyes of many ordinary people, these two numbers are just a report card of successful ignition,
But Byrne, who has studied magnetized target devices for many years, knows better than anyone what this means.
In front of these two values, ignition is as ridiculous as primitive people who have just learned to make fire by drilling wood and then run to show off in front of modern people. Byrne can’t imagine how they did it? What kind of monster can make such an outrageous machine? Is this really something that humans can make? If these reports are true, then controlled nuclear fusion has actually officially entered commercialization!
The way humans obtain energy will enter another new chapter from today…
But in this chapter, there is no Byrne, no General Fusion, no Maple Leaf Country, and no Mobil and M Country.
That will be a carnival for the Eastern China!
With extremely complicated feelings, Byrne quickly found the full version of the original video of the China News release of this heavy news.
This video is 15 minutes long, and as far as Byrne knows, the Chinese evening news is only 30 minutes long.
Now half of the time is given to Jinwu No. 1, which seems to confirm the authenticity of the news.
Just when the two of them were staring at their phones, there was a burst of hurried footsteps outside the door. After knocking on the door twice, they pushed the door open before the people inside could speak.
Watching a group of men in black suits walk into the ward, the two quickly guessed something.
”Professor Byrne, I’m sorry to bother you. We are from the National Energy Security Administration. There is an emergency meeting that requires your participation.”
Byrne nodded: “Wait a moment, at least let me finish watching this video first.”
”Sorry, I’m afraid you’ll have to watch it on the way.”
”…”
Byrne had to put away his phone, said goodbye to Duke, and followed the group of men out of the room.
I thought they would take me downstairs, but unexpectedly they took me directly to the rooftop, where a helicopter was waiting for me.
Byrne could understand the National Energy Security Administration’s anxiety, but the helicopter’s route confused him.
Until the helicopter landed at Vancouver International Airport, Byrne couldn’t help asking, “Aren’t we going to the Energy Administration?””I just received a new order. The emergency meeting has been changed to a technical cooperation meeting with M country. We are going directly to Washington now.”
“…”
Although Byrne felt a little uncomfortable with the hurried schedule, he had actually figured it out when he was on the helicopter just now.
At this juncture, as one of the world’s few experts in magnetized target technology, he can definitely be said to be a national treasure.
Even in other countries, including Maple Leaf Country, the importance he will receive in the future will be unprecedented.
So the success of China’s controlled nuclear fusion has, to some extent, made his importance and status soar.
As long as you figure out the reason, it doesn’t seem so difficult to accept it all…
After about six hours of flight, the special plane finally landed slowly at Ronald Reagan National Airport, and then directly transferred to a helicopter and came to the office building of the National Science Council of M country.
When Byrne entered the meeting, they had obviously been eager to discuss for a while.
After Byrne came in, the officials and scholars at the meeting stopped discussing immediately and focused their attention on the expert on magnetized target devices from Maple Leaf Country.
Hadley, the director of the Maple Leaf Country Energy Bureau, who had arrived at the meeting in advance, immediately came forward and shook hands with Byrne, saying, “Professor Byrne, thank you for taking the time to attend this meeting.”
Take the time?
Did he have a choice just now? Byrne smiled reluctantly, and then, under Hadley’s introduction, he got to know the main people attending the meeting.
In addition to the officials of the energy bureaus of the two countries, most of them were scholars from major laboratories, especially the engineers and physicists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory who were studying controlled nuclear fusion.
Their technical director, Fry Hughes, was also an old acquaintance of Byrne.
In the past, at the International Controlled Nuclear Fusion Technology Exchange Conference, Freehughes had publicly ridiculed their LM-26 magnetized target device, saying that their use of outdated steam engine technology to develop nuclear fusion was as ridiculous as trying to use automobile engine technology to develop space rockets.
Thinking of this, Byrne couldn’t help but sneer at Forrest: “You never thought that, although the car engine I built exploded, the one made in China really flew into outer space.”
”Really? How do you know that the news they released must be true?”
”At this point, you are still deceiving yourself?”
”Quiet!”
After hearing the tit-for-tat between the two, the Minister of Energy of the United States, Poirot, who presided over the meeting, couldn’t help knocking on the table, and then said to Byrne: “Professor Byrne, welcome to Washington, but I’m afraid no one is in the mood to hold a welcome ceremony for you…”
”Next, I will first ask you a few questions, and I hope you can answer truthfully. If your answer is proven to be a lie one day in the future, we and your Maple Leaf Country will sue you for endangering national energy security…”
Byrne couldn’t help but glance at Hadley after hearing this, but he completely ignored it.
It was considered a tacit agreement with Poirot.
Byrne had no choice but to nod: “I promise that everything I say next is true, but I think I have the right to refuse to answer certain sensitive questions.”
Poirot just smiled faintly, then glanced at the notebook in front of him and said: “The first question is, on December 31 last year, the General Fusion Magnetized Target Device exploded. Did you foresee this?”
”I have answered this question more than three times before. If I didn’t think the experiment was too risky, why would I refuse to conduct the experiment?”
”The second question is, if the LM-26 project can succeed, what is its actual performance?”
”This is a commercial secret of General Fusion. I think I can choose not to answer it.”
Poirot shook his head: “General Fusion’s commercial secrets are not confidential here. Your major shareholders, the Maple Leaf Energy Bureau and ExxonMobil, as well as the heads of Amazon are all here. They have just decided to disclose the specific technical details of the LM-26 project to us.”
At Poirot’s signal, the three of them stood up and nodded to Byrne.
“Duke has been fired by the board of directors. The three of us can now decide on major matters of General Fusion. Now we agree that you will disclose the trade secrets of General Fusion.”
Byrne nodded, and then said to Poirot: “Which performance do you want to know?”
“ItWhat is the maximum actual Q value of the design? ”
”2.5.”
”But as far as I know, you previously announced that each plasma compression consumes 140 megajoules of energy and produces 704 megajoules of energy output, which is a Q value of 5.02.”
”That’s just Duke’s data beautification to attract investment.”
Good guy, the data beautification doubled?
Poirot nodded heavily and asked, “What are the specific data of input and output energy?”
”280 megajoules and 704 megajoules.”
”What about the maximum number of operations per minute? ”
After hearing this question, Byrne hesitated.
This question has always been avoided by General Fusion.
Because once this question is discussed, General Fusion will definitely be labeled as a fraudulent investment…
However, General Fusion is almost finished now, and the feasibility of the magnetized target device no longer needs him to evade the main point to fool people.
China’s success is the best endorsement of the magnetized target route.
Therefore, after hesitating for a moment, Byrne finally said: “Although it has not been tested, according to our data prediction, each time the LM-26 runs, it takes at least five minutes to dissipate heat before the next reaction can proceed. Otherwise, the liquid metal will accumulate heat, and in severe cases, it will melt the second wall or even the entire device. ”
”Five minutes? ! ! ”
After hearing this number, the scene was immediately boiling.
The previous Q value was not bad. Although it was almost ten times lower than the 23 announced by China, it was at least more than 1.
Moreover, the research funding for General Fusion has always been insufficient. It feels like a small fight, and the poor performance of the experimental device is understandable.
Now that the two countries plan to jointly carry out research on magnetized target devices, the funding issue certainly does not need to be considered, so they are fully confident that they can quickly catch up with such a gap.
But the reaction time is not a little bit different.
Jinwu No. 1 can run a full 120 times per minute, but LM-26 can only run once every five minutes. This 600-fold gap is a bit outrageous…
One every five minutes ignition, which means that this device can only ignite 288 times even if it runs 24 hours a day. According to the data that Byrne just said, after deducting the input energy, the energy generated each time is actually only 424 megajoules. If the power generation loss rate of about 55% is taken into account, even if the LM-26 project is successful, it can only generate 67,000 kWh of electricity per day at most…
This is a nuclear fusion project!
It’s not even as powerful as a high-power ship diesel generator.
What’s more, this is the highest goal of their project…
No wonder Byrne and General Fusion have never mentioned the issue of the number of operations before!
After two minutes of commotion in the venue, Poirot forced it down and asked the next question: “Do you think the data of China’s Jinwu No. 1 is reliable? ”
”I’m not an intelligence officer. I want to ask you this question…”
”Well, let me ask it another way. Do you think it is technically possible for the magnetized target device to reach an operating frequency of 120 times per minute?”
Byrne thought for a long time before answering: “I don’t know. I think this performance is completely beyond my cognition…”
”The operating efficiency problem of the magnetized target device is actually the heat dissipation problem, and there are many branch problems that need to be solved. The first problem that needs to be solved is the thermal conductivity of the liquid metal on the first wall, and the second is the heat-resistant material problem of the second wall.”
”Although the liquid metal evenly absorbs the energy generated by the fusion reaction, if they contact the second wall too quickly, it will still cause great damage to the device. There are hundreds of such material and engineering problems. “Each of these problems may be a huge scientific research problem. They are like the bucket effect, which seriously restricts the operating efficiency of the magnetized target device…” “So for your question, I think it’s like asking me whether it can be achieved technically after we have seen the UFO with our own eyes… It’s a bit redundant.” “Of course I know what you really want to ask is whether I can build this UFO… And I can only say sorry for this.” “For things that can’t even be imagined, I really can’t do anything, but I think we can build a UFO based on LM-26., down-to-earth to solve every problem we encounter, maybe one day in the future, all problems will find answers. ”
”Really?” Poirot couldn’t help but whispered, “One day in the future refers to five years later, or ten years, fifty years or even a hundred years later?”
”…”
Byrne was silent.
Not only him, but everyone in the meeting hall became particularly heavy-hearted like Poirot.
Byrne’s answer just now made them all realize once again how big the gap between them and China in the field of controlled nuclear fusion is.
This is no longer a “huge gap” that can be described.
It’s a mountain range that you can’t see the end of at a glance! God knows that this mountain range was built by a Chinese named Kang Chi almost single-handedly in less than four months! This made them truly feel what it means to be a genius, what it means to be desperate and suffocated…
(End of this chapter)