Reborn Tech Scholar

Chapter 512 Start of Experiments on Both Sides of the Ocean

In 2024, on January 1th, December 24th in the lunar calendar, major companies across the country ushered in the Spring Festival holiday of the Spring Festival. Migrant workers can’t help but feel the feeling of going home. After fishing in troubled waters all day, they finally choose In order to get home from get off work early and avoid traffic jams.

The Spring Festival, for the vast majority of Chinese people, is always so unique, it has a very special meaning, because the Spring Festival represents reunion!For most of the migrant workers, after wandering outside for a year, they are physically and mentally exhausted, and home is a warm harbor where they can heal physically and mentally.

The breath of the Spring Festival has already been there ten days ago, and it has entered the time of Spring Festival travel since ten days ago. Compared with the past, although the number of tourists during the Spring Festival travel is still a record high, the congestion of the Spring Festival travel army has already been resolved. Whether it is a bus station , The railway station can no longer see the crowded scene of more than ten years ago.

Air transportation has also become the choice of more and more people. With the construction of airports in various places and the improvement of air transportation hubs, there are more and more passenger planes, and the price of oil is also cheaper. The air tickets for passenger planes are also much lower, not higher than train tickets. Too many, and flying has become the first choice of many young people, which has greatly shared the pressure of the Spring Festival travel.

However, when the whole country entered the countdown to the Spring Festival, amidst the howling northwest wind from Siberia, the scientific research center of the "Golden Crow Project" was in full swing, and every scientific researcher was meticulous in his own work.

"The substation is normal!"

"The transmission line is normal!"

"The indicators of the device are normal!"

"."

The entire scientific research center is undergoing the final inspection of the second start-up experiment of the "Golden Crow Device". In order to ensure this start-up experiment, everyone has worked hard for a month.

One year later, the "Golden Crow Device" started the experiment again, the significance of which is self-evident. With the "Screw Stone 7-X" running continuously for 15 minutes, whether the second experiment of the "Golden Crow Device" can be successful, It represents whether Huaxia can continue to be the world leader in controllable nuclear fusion!
Once this experiment is successful and achieves continuous and stable operation for an hour, it will undoubtedly prove that Huaxia is still an unshakable leader in the field of controllable nuclear fusion.Moreover, Huaxia's controllable nuclear fusion will move from the experimental stage to the commercial application stage.

Compared with the first experiment, everyone was uncertain. This time, everyone was obviously full of confidence. After all, the first experiment was checked in all aspects, and the situation was very good, and the materials did not have obvious radiation damage.

Many people think that the first start-up experiment can run continuously not only for half an hour, but for an hour or even longer.

After the accumulation of the first experiment and the continuous improvement of this year, the technology in many aspects has been improved. They have reason to believe that this experiment will be a complete success.

Even at a meeting, a technical person in charge proposed to set the time target for starting the experiment at 2 hours, but Qin Yuanqing rejected this suggestion after careful consideration.

In his opinion, there is no essential difference between whether the time lasts for 1 hour or 2 hours, so Qin Yuanqing insisted on following the original plan to be prudent.

Anyway, once this experiment is successful, the next experiments will become more frequent, instead of only launching experiments once a year.

"Report to the commander-in-chief. After all inspections, no abnormalities were found. The second start-up experiment can be carried out according to the original plan!" The scientific research personnel summarized the situation reported by all parties and reported to Qin Yuanqinghui.

"Then, start the experiment!" Qin Yuanqing gave the order.

Unlike the first "Golden Crow Device" start-up experiment, which had a very special significance and required Qin Yuanqing to press the button himself, this time a dedicated engineer pressed the button, and Qin Yuanqing only needed to go through it with other command leaders in the general command conference room. Big screen, watch out.

For this experiment, Qin Yuanqing is also full of confidence. There is no one in the world who understands controllable nuclear fusion better than him. He will solve many core technologies by himself. There is no need to proceed.

In the control room, an engineer put his hand on the button and pressed it, and the whole experiment officially started.

All aspects of monitoring, recording data at any time, once abnormalities are found, the experiment will end.

This is the advantage of controllable nuclear fusion over controllable nuclear fission. It is easy to cut off the reaction process of nuclear fusion, making it much safer than nuclear fission.

Meanwhile, across the ocean, in New Mexico, Sandia National Laboratories.

Several engineers in protective suits were standing in the hemispherical device, overhauling the equipment that had cooled down.

Z-machine, this is the name of this device, also known as Z-machine.

It is the most powerful X-ray device in the world. It is used for experiments and material reactions in high-temperature states. Its maximum temperature reaches 37 billion degrees. Even the most solid diamond will turn into gas in an instant.Of course, this device can also be used to simulate fusion reactions, and can also be used to make fusion reactors.

The machine Z started to be built in the 80s of the last century, with a total cost of 8000 million yuan. It has always been the pride of Sandia National Laboratories. The capacitors densely packed in the device can release the power of 1000 lightning bolts at most. Just press the switch, 2000 million amperes The electric current will rush to the cylinder the size of a rubber eraser in an instant, violently compressing the hydrogen atoms contained in it to the limit, and releasing terrifying fusion energy.

For a long time, the United States has wanted to achieve controllable nuclear fusion on the Z machine.

Because of the historical record set by China's "Golden Crow Project" and the 7-minute continuous and stable operation of Europe's "Screw Stone 15-X", the United States, which has always been ahead, fell behind.This makes the United States reconciled, even though the finances are extremely tight, it still gritted its teeth and freed up a part of the funds for research on controllable nuclear fusion.

At least the wages can be paid in time, and there can be funds for experiments.

In fact, it’s no wonder that the United States is nervous. Controlled nuclear fusion is too important. Once you lose this controllable fusion competition, the consequences will be extremely serious. It’s so serious that the United States can’t bear it. Look at China’s The first test video was released, global energy prices plummeted, and the shale oil extraction technology once advocated by the United States went bankrupt directly. Countless shale oil companies declared bankruptcy and closed down, and the situation was bleak.

This makes the United States, which has become an oil exporter, a pain and a tight life.

Major energy giants have also increased investment in controlled nuclear fusion.I want to continue to be an energy giant in the new energy era instead of declining!
Of course, for the Sandia National Laboratories, a research institution under the Department of Energy, they are mainly conducting experiments with federal conquest funds.

Different from the NIF in California, the Z engine is not purely inertial, but uses the inertia of the fuel and the magnetic cage formed by the strong current to generate pulse ignition within the time range of microseconds—this is a kind of magnetism and inertia. Mixed constraints.

Although this machine is not as famous as the famous NIF, it once set a world record for the highest temperature in the world - 35 billion degrees.Even the researchers who designed the device themselves were surprised and confused by the unexpected temperature.

But to be honest, if DT fuel is used, this temperature is purely redundant.After all, 3 million degrees is enough to make the fusion reaction happen.Even for the ideal second-generation nuclear fusion fueled by He6, the critical temperature is only more than [-] million, and such a high temperature is simply not needed.

It has to be said that the difficulty of controllable fusion research has never been in the means of heating, but in how to maintain the constraints of high-temperature plasma.

However, compared with other technical routes, the Z machine has at least achieved certain results in power output.

"How?" Energy Minister Ernest Moniz asked in a deep voice.

As a minister who has been in office for three years, Ernest Moniz's life is not easy, because the United States can no longer be called the leader in energy, especially in shale oil, a large number of oil companies have gone bankrupt, and a large number of workers have lost their jobs. Many people are very dissatisfied with him as a minister.

Moreover, that stubborn old man has attacked him many times in speeches. It is foreseeable that once this stubborn old man makes a comeback, what awaits him will be a letter of dismissal.

Moreover, the latest polls for that stubborn old man show that the support rate is as high as 68%.

Therefore, many people pin their hopes on controllable nuclear fusion. Once the United States has made a breakthrough in the field of controllable nuclear fusion, it will leap into the world's first echelon of controllable nuclear fusion and realize the commercialization prospect of controllable nuclear fusion. Relying on this achievement, maybe we can turn things around.

"Minister, it's too early to ask this question. Whether the radiation resistance of the material can be solved, and the tritium element in the reactor can be self-sustaining. These are the most fundamental factors for controllable nuclear fusion. Now I am the person in charge of the laboratory." Said with an unhappy face.

But before he finished speaking, he was rudely interrupted by Ernest Moniz, who said: "I don't want to hear this, what I want is the result! You have already burned 10 billion US dollars in funding, and if you don't come up with another one, you can make people cry." Convincing results, the taxpayers will not allow you to waste their money!"

In order to achieve a breakthrough in controllable nuclear fusion, the Ministry of Energy gritted its teeth and spent a billion dollars to Sandia National Laboratory, hoping to overtake the experiment in a corner, so as to turn things around in the upcoming general election and keep its position Instead of being unemployed!
And Sandia National Laboratories is also quite competitive. It burned 10 billion US dollars in just one year. It can be said that it is a small expert in spending money. At the speed of burning money, even Ernest Moniz would feel that he would have a heart attack.

(End of this chapter)