Great Power Technology.

Chapter 513

As for Hassan's strategy of "becoming friends with the Chinese people first", no matter how stubborn Mingsen is, he has to admit that this is probably the most reliable and feasible solution at present.

However, it is one thing to have a plan, and another to implement it. He has no idea where to open a breakthrough.

After all, the contradiction between the two countries has a long history. It can even be said that from the moment China was born, the relationship between the two countries was doomed to be confrontational or even hostile.

And this state of confrontation has indeed been maintained for quite a long time. Except for the occasional honeymoon period in decades, most of the other times, the two countries are in a state of tension.

This state did not ease until Huaxia achieved information hegemony through RSA decryption technology.

Therefore, it is not easy to "be friends" with them, even if it is only in the academic field.

Especially when designing major projects and major scientific development directions.

You can't be like those who engage in commercial bribery, put the money in a tea box and send it to the other party, and then tell the other party, "This is the money you bought the national debt before, and now I will pay you back part of it", right?

He has been troubled by this problem for a long time, but what he didn't expect was that the opportunity came to him so naturally.

On September 9, when the whole world was excited by Huaxia’s major breakthrough in BCI technology and believed that human beings were about to enter a new era, Rongcheng Huawu Institute released a more exciting news:
The Shenguang-[-] inertial confinement nuclear fusion device is about to conduct its first ignition test.

Before the official ignition this time, the Huawu Institute has conducted verification experiments on each component of the fusion device, and has made a judgment that the device has reached the experimental benchmark conditions.

Lasers, locators, target pellets, the first wall. Even for the divertor device, which is currently the most difficult to solve, Huaxia has achieved technological progress, and there is no problem in supporting small-scale nuclear fusion in a short period of time.

Everything looked perfect, but during a routine meeting at Birmingham National Laboratory, Minson had an important message.

In the conference room, key members of Healy's organization were sitting together, discussing the news that the Huaxia Shenguang No. [-] device was about to conduct experiments.

"So, what do you mean, Huaxia's Shenguang [-] project may still not meet the applicable nuclear fusion power generation standards?"

It was Aldo who was speaking. In the past period of time, he has been busy approving and handling various matters related to the consciousness uploading project, which took up a lot of his energy. After all the resources required for the project were basically in place, he Just as he was about to breathe a sigh of relief, Huaxia's news about inertial confinement nuclear fusion forced him to get busy again.

There is no way, the impact of this news on our side is too great. After all, our national ignition device has been ahead of the opponent for nearly 10 years before, but now, the national ignition device is still being rebuilt and upgraded, while the opponent has already Words began to be released to achieve steady-state discharge on Shenguang-[-].

The researcher on the opposite side nodded and replied:
"Yes. To explain this problem, we introduce a concept, which is the difference between nuclear fusion ignition and steady-state discharge."

"Actually, with our current level of technology, it is not difficult to ignite an inertial confinement fusion device. A long time ago, Huaxia's EAST device has achieved a plasma operation of 1.2 million degrees Celsius for [-] seconds, which is close to the fusion temperature. Temperature conditions. The later Shenguang-[-] project achieved fusion in a real sense, but the duration was extremely short.”

"However, the fact that fusion can occur does not mean that the energy of fusion can be used."

"The central issue for a fusion reactor to be able to do commercial electrical discharge is that it needs to burn in a controlled and stable way, rather than continuously emitting a bunch of high-energy pulses."

"Even if the three-fold Lawsonian criterion of self-sustainability of the fusion reaction is reached, if the steady-state discharge is not possible, the fusion device must consume a large amount of additional energy every time it is ignited to heat the plasma to the fusion parameters."

"That is to say, taking the inertial confinement device as an example, a large part of the electricity generated by the fusion reaction has to be put back into the laser igniter, causing serious energy consumption."

"This would be a serious problem for fusion power generation where the technology is still immature and the Q-value -- that is, the ratio of energy output to energy input -- is relatively low."

Having said that, the researcher paused for a moment, took a sip of water and continued:
"Judging from the data publicly released by Huaxia and the detailed parameters of the fields we have cooperated with, the design of this Shenguang No. [-] device is very perfect, and it can definitely achieve self-sustaining fusion reactions. However, it still has many question."

"These problems are likely to make steady-state discharge difficult to achieve, greatly weakening the practical significance of Shenguang-[-]."

Aldo on the opposite side nodded and replied:

"I understand what you mean, so what you want to say is that this Shenguang-[-] device is not a nuclear fusion reactor in the true sense, but a 'prototype reactor' for verification and experiments?"

"Yes, that's what happened. But it is still a major breakthrough, which is undeniable. In this field, the gap between us and China has begun to widen rapidly."

"According to the laboratory's feedback, if our device is to achieve self-sustaining fusion reactions, it will take at least five years."

Hearing this, Aldo sighed and said:

"The development of technology is like this. Who knows if one or two geniuses will suddenly appear in others, which will lead to explosive breakthroughs. After the application of BCI technology, their breakthroughs will become more and more."

"We will not discuss this issue. Now I want to ask, from your professional point of view, what are the main reasons that make you think that steady-state discharge cannot be achieved?"

The researcher handed Aldo the material in his hand. A lot of content had been densely marked on it, which looked extremely messy, but fortunately, although the font was scribbled, it was still distinguishable.

"We analyzed several defects, including the performance of the divertor not meeting expectations, such as the fact that the new material used for the first wall has not been rigorously verified, etc."

"However, we believe that the most likely reason for the failure of the experiment is that the material of the outer ablation layer of the fusion target capsule is backward."

"From the perspective of parameters, they still use the traditional HDC-W-CH ablation coating. Although this coating can ensure the uniform combustion of each layer of coating during the ablation process, but in the accelerated ablation stage, it The performance is very unstable.”

"The main reason is that the plasma expansion curve is inconsistent during the ablation process, so once the X-ray radiation field in the black cavity of the target pellet fluctuates unpredictablely, the ablation progress of the entire ablation layer will be affected."

"This problem cannot be solved by increasing the laser power and the strength of the target capsule. In fact, we have explored for a long time, and finally decided to use simple silicon material to make the spherical shell of the target capsule ablation layer, and finally solved it."

"Right now, the material of the ablative layer is still one of our biggest confidential information, and we think that if they still use the material of the ablative layer written in the parameters, it is possible to achieve a steady-state discharge, but the probability is very small."

Aldo nodded and replied:
"Okay, I've basically figured out the situation. This is good news, but it's also bad news."

"The good news is that they are not too far ahead and we still have a chance to catch up."

"But the bad news is that the entire human energy cause may have to be delayed for a while."

"Overall, though, it's a good thing for us. Now, let's move on to the National Ignition Facility—when are you going to start the new ignition pattern?"

The meeting lasted for two full hours, and the issues discussed were extremely professional and complicated. Aldo had a splitting headache when he heard it. When he finally announced the end of the meeting, his mind had almost stopped spinning.

At this time, the most important thing for him is not the life and death of human beings, let alone the struggle between China and itself, but to go home quickly, take a hot bath, and get a good night's sleep.

While packing up the materials on the table, he planned to get up and leave, but at this moment, a familiar figure suddenly appeared in front of him.

Aldo put down the things in his hands helplessly, and said:
"God bless, Minsen, tell me, you didn't come to me for resources this time, I'm already going crazy, I know the consciousness upload project is very important, but the Healey organization really doesn't have that many resources to give you .”

"No, it's not."

Minsen interrupted his complaint, and then said a little jokingly:

"This time it's not about resources, but for you, it might be worse."

Hearing this, Aldo's heart tightened, and then he asked tentatively:

"What are you going to do?"

Mingsen smiled, lowered his voice and replied:

"I want to hand over our nuclear fusion target pellet technology to Huaxia."

(End of this chapter)