Reborn Tech Scholar

Chapter 493 Spiral Stone 7-X
Nuclear fusion power generation, 50 years away!
This sentence has become a famous saying in the field of controllable nuclear fusion since the 70s and [-]s, when controllable nuclear fusion was unable to be born.

Everyone originally thought that controllable nuclear fusion would be like nuclear fission. In addition to producing nuclear weapons with powerful destructive power, it would also play a huge role in people's livelihood, just like nuclear power plants.

After all, from nuclear weapons to nuclear power plants, it took less than ten years to realize it. Although the first generation of nuclear power plants is not advanced, nuclear power plants with a single unit capacity of about 300MWe still provide society with huge energy and promote society. development of.

But no one thought that the date of the real birth of controllable nuclear fusion has been postponed by one year. It has been more than 50 years since it was said that human beings are about to usher in the era of controllable nuclear fusion. The road is still full of ups and downs. The era of controlled nuclear fusion has not come yet, and we are still facing huge difficulties.

For example, the problem of plasma confinement stability, such as tritium’s long-term stable self-sustainability and emissivity of tritium retention and leakage, such as the Q value problem, such as the problem of the first wall material, such as how to safely and reliably convert the energy of high-energy neutrons into thermal power generation For example, how to safely and cheaply dispose of radioactive fertilizers replaced by high-energy neutron bombardment, such as how to reliably and economically maintain the superconducting state of the confinement coil, and so on.

Not to mention the 50 years that people jokingly call controllable nuclear fusion forever, even experts in this field are not sure that they can solve this series of problems within 50 years.

Controlled nuclear fusion will always be "50 years away", not only the consensus of the public, but also the consensus of the scientific community.

But at the same time, there is also a saying in the field of controllable nuclear fusion, which says that when the world needs nuclear fusion, it will appear!
At present, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) is one of the largest, longest and most far-reaching international scientific research cooperation programs in the world, and all major countries have participated.The reason why everyone is enthusiastic about this plan is because everyone understands in their hearts that controllable nuclear fusion must be realized, otherwise, when the oil resources are exhausted, then human beings will have no future!

Controllable nuclear fusion represents unlimited energy, and it is the most critical factor related to whether human beings can fly out of the earth and immigrate to the universe to ensure the long-term survival of human civilization!

As oil consumption becomes larger and faster, and the useful life of oil reserves continues to decrease, the sense of urgency for controllable nuclear fusion will become stronger.

High oil prices have led to high enthusiasm for ITER, and they all hope that ITER can produce controllable nuclear fusion to solve the energy crisis.But at the same time, ITER exceeds the budget by hundreds of millions of dollars every year, and it is like a bottomless pit. No matter how much investment is made, there is no hope, and it gradually makes the participating countries lose patience.

However, high oil prices and the depletion of oil resources have forced major countries to increase research on controllable nuclear fusion.

And when this urgency is felt to a certain extent, then all countries will develop controllable nuclear fusion at all costs, and then at that time, the birth of controllable nuclear fusion can be predicted.

From the current point of view, countries all over the world are investing a lot of resources in the research of controllable nuclear fusion, which is to confirm this sentence!

"James, controlled nuclear fusion is not so easy to achieve. Look at our 'Spiralite 7-X' project. It has been planned since the end of the 20th century, but it did not enter the assembly stage until 2005, and the main assembly was completed in 2014. , Only produced helium plasma for the first time at the end of 2015, after these 6 years of exploration, we can manage to complete one operation and can continuously confine ultra-high temperature plasma for 6 minutes and 30 seconds, tying the record of the confinement time set by the Tokamak method!" A German scholars said.

"Huaxia wants to achieve a substantial leap in the controllable nuclear fusion project, and it will be impossible within 10 years. After 10 years, maybe our 'Spiral Stone 7-X' has already achieved the planned 30 minutes after being optimized. It has the possibility of commercialization!" The scholar emphasized: "Remember, this is just a possibility. At this point, it will take at least ten or even 20 years for the practical application of controllable nuclear fusion!"

Controllable nuclear fusion has a bright future, but it is not really "cheap to almost free" as some experts say, because controllable nuclear fusion is very complex in engineering technology, and there are many systems.This makes even if controllable nuclear fusion is born and can be used for commercialization, its initial construction investment must be astronomical, and the cost of operation, management, maintenance and decommissioning at the end of its life is also very high.There are also costs for the extraction of deuterium, the preparation of tritium, the treatment of radioactive waste materials, etc., and these costs must be apportioned into the electricity bill during its lifespan, which makes it impossible for controllable nuclear fusion to be commercialized. How far lower than the current electricity is, it is an optimistic estimate that it can be reduced by half.

"Bach, don't be too arrogant! You have to remember that Professor Qin is not an ordinary scientist. Such a monstrous scientist cannot be deduced with common sense!" Ganser Heisinger said in a deep voice.

As the director of the Institute of Plasma Physics of the Max Planck Society, Ganser Heisinger hoped that controllable nuclear fusion would be born in Germany, but he was very calm. He knew very well that China's terrible mobilization ability and Qin Yuanqing's Incredible magical ability.

No one can guarantee that Qin Yuanqing will not be able to produce controllable nuclear fusion.

"Everyone, I think 'Screwstone 7-X' must speed up the plan, and ITER must also speed up the plan, otherwise we will lose at the starting line!" James said.

As a representative of the United States, James wants to put pressure on 'Screwstone 7-X'.Helix 7-X is constructed by the Institute of Plasma Physics under the Max Planck Association and is located in Greifswald, a city in northern Germany. Supported by many scientific research institutions and enterprises.

Therefore, the influence of the United States on 'Spiral Stone 7-X' is not very great, and it can even be said to be very limited. In addition, Germany is currently the de facto leader of the European Union, and the United States wants to forcefully persuade 'Spiral Stone 7-X' 'It's not realistic, only threats and intimidation can be used.

James is very clear that because of the pressure from ecological and environmental protection organizations, Germany chose to close all nuclear power plants in the country, which made it difficult for Germany in the recent winter. The price of heating makes Germany actually face an energy crisis, and they are very eager for new and clean energy such as controllable nuclear fusion.

"This is impossible, 'Spiral Stone 7-X' has just completed the experiment, and is now under maintenance!" A German nuclear engineer said angrily.

Originally, according to the plan of the Institute of Plasma Physics of the Max Planck Society, the installation of the water-cooled divertor will completely solve the problem of the temperature of the reaction chamber, but the result is not as ideal as imagined.

The plasma heated to a high temperature of [-] million degrees was indeed confined within the electromagnetic field, and the water-cooled divertor did play a role, but the temperature of the first wall rose faster than the on-site staff expected.

As a large amount of thermal energy that is too late to dissipate is accumulated, the temperature of the first wall material continues to rise, gradually threatening the safety of the stellarator orbit.

In order to avoid a major safety accident, the staff had to turn off the equipment and terminate the test early.

In the end, after the installation of the water-cooled divertor was completed, the confinement of the high-temperature and high-pressure plasma lasted only 6 minutes and 30 seconds.

Under such circumstances, 'Spiral Stone 7-X' is undergoing a major overhaul, and only after a series of repairs to ensure that there are no problems, especially after solving related problems, 'Spiral Stone 7-X' will start the experiment again.

When James heard this, his face sank. These bastards are really stubborn. Do they think that those German soldiers who only drink beer, eat sausages, and whose obesity rate exceeds 80% can really guarantee their safety? ?

At the same time, James cursed secretly in his heart, if ten years ago, why would he need to be so aggrieved and annoyed.

It's a pity that even now, the United States is also powerless!
After the final meeting, the Max Planck Institute of Plasma still insisted on its position and views, and did not want to take the risk of starting the experiment again at this time. James left Germany with a harsh word.

"Bach, how did you solve the problem of a small amount of unbound plasma coming into contact with the first wall in the last experiment? Is there any progress?" Gunther Heisinger and Bach walked side by side.

The reason why the previous experiment stopped at 6 minutes and 30 seconds is because from 227 seconds onwards, a small amount of unbound plasma contacted the first wall and became the main cause of heat accumulation, which eventually led to the accumulation speed of heat on the first wall material. Exceeded the cooling effect of the water-cooled divertor, exceeding the initial expectations.

Otherwise, the time of the experiment will break the record, and a series of records will be broken to boost morale.

As the person in charge, Ganser Heisinger is also under a lot of pressure. He spent a huge amount of money to build the world's largest stellarator, so he must achieve results. Otherwise, the young people outside Maple will increasingly oppose him. , and then gathered together, shouting to stop the 'Screwstone 7-X' experiment, and use the funds to improve social welfare.

Just now James and several other people said that China is carrying out controllable nuclear fusion research. In fact, "Spiralite 7-X" is not only facing competition from China, but also from the United States.

Gunther Heisinger has not forgotten that the laser nuclear fusion device in the United States is a nuclear fusion experimental device with the strongest laser beam in the world. This national excitation experimental device in California, USA, is already using 192 large lasers The beam irradiates a tiny collection of hydrogen fuel to stimulate fusion of those fuels.This is a strong opponent of 'Spiral Stone 7-X'.

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(End of this chapter)