owlsbooks Chapter 118 Thermonuclear Fusion, Cold Fusion
Chapter 118 Thermonuclear Fusion, Cold Fusion
This is also the little sorrow of scientific researchers.
'Inventing a theory' is not the same as 'inventing a physical object';
'Laboratory preparation' is not the same as 'commercial preparation'.
Especially in materials science.
A material that can be produced on a large scale for commercial purposes is a level;
It is a level that can be industrialized and mass-produced regardless of cost;
Being able to have a stable process and be able to replicate production in the laboratory is another level;
With the "effort of the whole country", we can only "observe the phenomenon" through the hadron collider, electron microscope and high-speed camera...
This is naturally another level.
Every time you go down a level, your technical level goes up a lot.
The cost of production has soared thousands of times like a rocket, enough to make every industrialist want to vomit blood.
But there is no way, this is how scientific research is done.
The popularization of any kind of material is inseparable from a long period of technological change and the continuously developing industrial soil.
Even if Su Wen has a system, he must respect this objective law.
"The deployment of cold fusion reactors must be accelerated. There is no need to consider that deploying too many reactors will lead to energy redundancy... Soon we will consume a lot of energy."
A series of thoughts passed through his mind, Su Wen said in a deep voice.
After all, he couldn't bear the temptation.
T6 material is a level higher than zero-element metal. If you say you are not greedy, you are lying.
Although Su Wen is now.
It is indeed impossible to mass-produce it to the point where it can be used as armor on starships.
but...
Prepare for a rainy day!
It doesn't work now, but it will work sooner or later in the future.
The faster the development is now, the sooner it will be industrialized and mass-produced in the future.
He naturally understands this truth.
As for energy supply...
The energy supply facilities he now owns are completely different from before.
——Before he even left the lunar corridor, Su Wen spent 3 technology points and clicked on 'Energy Technology' to [T Cold Fusion] in one go.
It is equivalent to saying that as soon as the front foot is put into the account, the back foot is spent directly.
But the money was well spent, and Su Wen didn't even blink.
He had been thinking about it for so long before, but when he finally had the ability to do it, he felt that it was too long a night and too many dreams to put it off for another day.
After unlocking the technology and obtaining a complete set of technical blueprints, production is not difficult.
By the way...
Su Wen has built many nuclear fusion reactors before.
At that time, it was impossible to obtain helium-3 in a "stable and large amount". It was not impossible to obtain any helium-3 at all.
The technology of fusion reactor has been unlocked long ago.
Now it's just upgraded to 'cold fusion'.
..
Cold fusion is also helium-3.
The so-called cold nuclear fusion is different from thermonuclear fusion.
It refers to triggering the fusion reaction under normal temperature - or at least not 'extremely high temperature' - conditions.
Although this is just a word difference, the improvement in technological level is extremely huge.
It is completely worthy of this entire level of improvement.
Blue Star is also engaged in controlled nuclear fusion.
Blue Star's controllable nuclear fusion follows the most rudimentary thermonuclear fusion technology route.
Whether it is a stellarator or a tokamak device, the core idea is to promote the fusion reaction by increasing the temperature and density of the plasma.
It's just that the triggering route is different.
The process of "creating plasma, raising the temperature, and increasing the density until the fusion reaction begins" is the same for both.
but...
At this point, it can be clearly seen.
The reason why the gap between the two technologies is so big lies in:
Warming up is itself a crucial and indispensable part of controllable nuclear fusion.
The latter has completely abandoned the theoretical basis of the former!
The difficulty of thermonuclear fusion is:
There are no suitable types of materials that can withstand ultra-high temperatures of tens or even hundreds of millions of degrees.
Even if it is a tokamak device that uses magnetic confinement, when it is running, the plasma inside is constantly heated, and there is still extremely terrifying heat radiation.
The magnetic confinement field can indeed constrain the plasma so that it does not have direct physical contact with the inner wall of the device.
The structure that can be installed on the inner wall is exposed to the huge heat radiation generated by the latter,
It will also gradually deteriorate and collapse over time and lose its effectiveness.
With a terrifying temperature of hundreds of millions of degrees that is twice as high as the core of the sun, the destructive power is unimaginable.
No matter what type of material China takes out, it will be completely destroyed by its thermal radiation.
Think about it too.
What kind of materials are needed to shut down a sun?
Before the Cataclysm.
China has the best performance in this technology,
The tokamak device was allowed to run for three minutes after pulse ignition before it collapsed.
This is already a world-class good result, surpassing any other country.
But there is still a long way to go before true success...
That's why Su Xuezhang acted so confused when he learned that "an unknown civilization actually has practical controllable nuclear fusion technology."
An expression like watching a science fiction work.
And cold fusion is even more science fiction:
——Keep the temperature at normal temperature and the temperature cannot rise;
——Can the temperature be raised? How to reach the critical value of the fusion reaction?
The two are completely contradictory.
With Blue Star's existing technology...
Even top experts like Su Xuezhang have a hard time imagining how to achieve cold nuclear fusion.
Regarding thermonuclear fusion, the experts still have a clear idea.
It's just that it's limited by the level of materials and can't be put into practical use.
But at least, they know that their ideas are right and the technology is feasible;
Cold fusion is completely different.
The feasibility of this route cannot even be confirmed by Blue Star scientists.
Only a few decades ago, two scientists claimed to have achieved "small-scale cold fusion reaction in the laboratory" through electrochemical means.
However, due to the lack of conclusive evidence and detailed records, this experiment has always been suspected of being a forgery.
As a result, this route has always been controversial.
..
Su Wen was also curious about this.
No one could answer the question until I got the system.
until now.
The system, or unknown civilization, gave the answer:
Gluon stagnation field.
This is a crucial link in the production process of cold fusion reactors.
Gluons are also elementary particles that were discovered only after we began to explore the field of quantum mechanics.
Its rest mass is zero, its spin is 1, and it is a gauge boson.
The five gauge bosons transmit the four fundamental forces in the universe.
Gluons correspond to the strong interaction force.
It is the transmission particle of the strong interaction force. It is the existence of gluons that allows protons and neutrons to overcome the mutual repulsion caused by the electromagnetic force between them in the microscopic field and tightly combine to form Nucleus.
The cold fusion reactor of an unknown civilization uses a similar principle.
Use the gluon lag field to create a strong interaction force field whose strength and range are far beyond ordinary.
This makes this basic force, which is extremely strong but has an extremely short range and can only take effect between atomic nuclei under normal circumstances, further expand into the microscopic realm, forcibly constraining countless helium triatoms within a very small range. within, and gradually compressed.
It's like using an airtight screen to trap an entire school of sardines. As the screen continues to shrink, the probability of collisions between fish becomes higher and higher.
Compared with thermonuclear fusion, which increases the speed of atomic activity by increasing temperature, causing atoms to collide with each other and ultimately producing a fusion reaction.
Cold nuclear fusion is more like using physical means to exert strong force on it and achieve the same goal by compressing and squeezing it.
By skipping the heating step, cold fusion reactors start up faster.
It is more stable and easier to miniaturize.
Based on such advantages, it is very suitable to be used as the energy core of vehicles.
Su Wen has issued a new policy. In the future, all vehicle equipment will use cold nuclear fusion reactors as energy systems.
The same goes for the energy supply needs of industrial facilities.
In the power generation division, helium-III cold nuclear fusion reactors are being used to replace previous thermal generators and fission reactors on a large scale.
After the latter was revoked, all the nuclear materials saved happened to be weaponized.
..
Energy is a top priority for industrial development, and all issues related to it deserve attention.
Just as Su Wen and the system were talking to each other.
The light emitted by the energy-gathering ring gradually extinguished.
Both the hard optical material printer and the neutrino confinement field generator slowly retracted their folds.
Only a little blue light was left floating in the air.
Su Wen reached out and took it off.
The assembled and normally activated Mental Cube looks much better than the previous one that was damaged in the Syrian war.
The light flickered on and off with each breath, shining on the body with a warmth like sunlight.
besides...
I don’t know if it’s an illusion.
Su Wen always felt that after it fell into his hands, the rhythm of this thing was obviously much faster.
Faintly, there was a pleasant emotion coming from it.