Rebirth of science and technology academic master

In 2024, January 24, the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month, major enterprises across the country ushered in the Spring Festival holiday. All migrant workers could not help but feel the feeling of returning home. After fishing in troubled waters all day, they finally I still chose to go home from get off work early to avoid traffic jams.

The Spring Festival, for most Chinese people, is always so unique. It has a very special meaning, because the Spring Festival represents reunion! For most migrant workers, they are tired physically and mentally after wandering outside for a year. Home is a warm harbor where they can heal their bodies and minds.

The atmosphere of the Spring Festival has already been there ten days ago, and the Spring Festival travel time has entered ten days ago. Compared with the past, although the number of passengers during the Spring Festival travel is still a record high, the congestion of the Spring Festival travel rush has been solved, whether it is at the bus station or , the train station can no longer see the crowded scene of more than ten years ago.

Air transportation has become the choice of more and more people. As airports are built in various places and the construction of air transportation hubs is improved, there are more and more passenger planes, the price of oil has become cheaper, and the air tickets for passenger planes have also been reduced a lot, no more than train tickets. There are so many, and flying has become the first choice for many young people, which also greatly relieves the pressure of Spring Festival travel.

But just as the whole country is entering the countdown to the Spring Festival, amidst the howling northwest wind from Siberia, the "Golden Crow Project" scientific research center is in full swing, and every scientific researcher is working meticulously at his or her job.

"The substation is normal!"

"The power lines are normal!"

"All 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 been working hard for a month.

After a year, the "Golden Crow Device" started the experiment again. The significance of it is self-evident. When the "Spiral Stone 7-X" achieves 15 minutes of continuous operation, whether the second experiment of the "Golden Crow Device" can be successful, It represents whether China can continue to be the world leader in controllable nuclear fusion!

Once this experiment is successful and achieves continuous and stable operation for one hour, it will undoubtedly prove that China is still the unshakable leader in the field of controllable nuclear fusion. Moreover, China's controllable nuclear fusion will move from the experimental stage to the commercial application stage.

Compared with the first time when everyone started the experiment, everyone was unsure. This time, everyone was obviously full of confidence. After all, the first time the experiment was started, all aspects of the inspection were very good, and the materials had no obvious radiation damage.

Many people believe that when you first start an experiment, it can last not just half an hour, but an hour or even longer.

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

Even at a meeting, a technical leader proposed to set the time target for starting the experiment to 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 out of caution.

Anyway, once this experiment is successful, the next experiments will become more frequent, and the experiment will no longer be launched only once a year.

"Report to the Commander-in-Chief, all inspections have been completed and no abnormalities have been found. The second start-up experiment can be carried out as originally planned!" The scientific researchers summarized the reports from all aspects and reported to Qin Yuanqinghui.

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

Unlike the first "Golden Crow Device" start-up experiment, which had extremely 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 together with other command leaders in the general command conference room. Big screen, watch.

Qin Yuanqing is also full of confidence in this experiment. No one in the world understands controllable nuclear fusion better than him. He has solved many core technologies personally. If even he is not confident, then this experiment will be There is no need to proceed.

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

Monitoring in all aspects records data at any time. Once an abnormality is discovered, the experiment will be terminated.

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, at Sandia National Laboratories.

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

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

It is the most powerful X-ray device in the world, used for experiments and material reactions in high-temperature states. Its maximum temperature reaches 3.7 billion degrees. Even the strongest 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 build fusion reactors.

The Z machine was built since the 1980s, with a total cost of 80 million yuan. It has always been the pride of Sandia National Laboratories. The capacitors densely packed in the device can release up to 1,000 lightning bolts of electricity. Just press the switch, 2,000 Tens of thousands of amps of electric current will rush into a cylinder the size of an eraser in an instant, violently compressing the hydrogen atoms contained inside to the limit, and releasing terrifying fusion energy.

The United States has always wanted to achieve controllable nuclear fusion on the Z machine.

Because of the historical record set by China's "Golden Crow Project" and Europe's "Helix Stone 7-X" that achieved continuous and stable operation for 15 minutes, the United States, which had been leading the way, fell behind. This makes the United States so willing. Even though its finances are extremely tight, it still gritted its teeth and spared part of its funds to spend on the research of controllable nuclear fusion. This makes the United States' controllable nuclear fusion-related research have a pretty good life.

At least wages can be paid in a timely manner and funds can be provided for experiments.

In fact, it’s no wonder that the United States is nervous. Controllable nuclear fusion is really too important. Once it loses this controllable nuclear fusion competition, the consequences will be extremely serious, so severe that even the United States will be unbearable. Look at China’s After the first test video was released, global energy prices plummeted. The shale oil extraction technology that the United States once advocated went bankrupt. Countless shale oil companies declared bankruptcy and closed down. The situation was bleak.

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

Major energy giants have also increased investment in controllable nuclear fusion. I want to continue to be an energy giant in the new energy era instead of declining!

Of course, for Sandia National Laboratories, a research institution affiliated with the Department of Energy, they mainly conduct experiments with federal conquest point grants.

Different from the NIF in California, the Z machine is not inertial restraint in a pure sense, but uses the inertia of the fuel and the magnetic cage formed by strong current to produce pulse ignition in the microsecond time range - this is a kind of magnetic and inertial Mixed constraints.

Although this machine is not as famous as the famous NIF, it has set a world record for the highest temperature in the world - 3.5 billion degrees. Even the researchers who designed the device were surprised and confused by the unexpected temperature.

But to be honest, if you are using DT fuel, this temperature is purely redundant. After all, for a fusion reaction to occur, 100 million degrees is enough. Even for the ideal second-generation nuclear fusion using He3 as fuel, the critical temperature is only over 600 million, and such a high temperature is simply not needed.

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

However, compared to other technical routes, the Z machine has at least achieved certain results in electrical energy output.

"How's it going?" Energy Minister Ernest Moniz asked solemnly.

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 claim to be the leader in energy. Especially in shale oil, oil companies have gone bankrupt and workers have been unemployed, causing the Department of Energy to suffer. There was great dissatisfaction, and many people were very dissatisfied with him as a minister.

Moreover, the stubborn old man has criticized him many times in speeches. It is foreseeable that once this stubborn old man is allowed to make a comeback, a letter of dismissal will be waiting for him.

Moreover, the latest poll of the stubborn old man shows that his support rate is as high as 68%. It is no surprise that his comeback is already certain.

Therefore, many people place their hopes on controllable nuclear fusion. Once the United States makes breakthrough progress in the field of controllable nuclear fusion, it will jump into the first echelon of controllable nuclear fusion in the world and realize the commercial prospects of controllable nuclear fusion. Relying on this political achievement, maybe the situation can be turned around.

"Your Excellency, Minister, it is too early to ask this question. Whether the radiation resistance of the material can be solved, and whether the tritium element in the reactor can be self-sustaining, these are the most fundamental aspects of controllable nuclear fusion. Now I..." the person in charge of the laboratory He said with an unhappy look on his face.

But before he could finish speaking, he was rudely interrupted by Ernest Moniz. He said: "I don't want to hear this. What I want is the result! You have already burned 1 billion US dollars in funding. If you don't come up with another one, you will be shocked." Convincing results, taxpayers will not allow you to waste their money anymore!”

In order to achieve a breakthrough in controllable nuclear fusion, the Department of Energy gritted its teeth and spent billions on Sandia National Laboratories, hoping that the experiment could overtake others, thereby turning the tide in the upcoming election and keeping its position. Instead of being unemployed!

Sandia National Laboratories is also very impressive. It burned through 1 billion US dollars in just one year. It can be said that it is an expert at spending money. The speed of burning money would make even Ernest Moniz think he would have a heart attack.