Rebirth of science and technology academic master - Chapter 673

c667 The Dilemma of the “Helios” Project

The United States, a secret base, is the United States’ controllable nuclear fusion project “Helios” plan.

Regarding controllable nuclear fusion, as the former world superpower, the United States has naturally already planned it, and it is not in one direction, but in multiple directions. The United States has also spent a lot of money on magnetic confinement nuclear fusion represented by Tokamak devices and spiral stones. As long as there is a possibility, the United States will not give up research on laser nuclear fusion, beam nuclear fusion, etc. that are being researched.

In terms of tokamak devices, in 1993, the United States used deuterium and tritium 1:1 fuel on TFTR. The fusion energy released in the two experiments was 0.3 million kilowatts and 0.56 million kilowatts respectively, and the Q value reached 0.28. In September 1997, United Europe set a world record of 12,900 kilowatts with a Q value of 0.60, which lasted for 2 seconds. Only 39 days later, the output power increased to 16,100 kilowatts, and the Q value reached 0.65.

The scientific community has always believed that the most likely candidate for controllable nuclear fusion to move out of the laboratory and into the commercial stage is Europe’s ‘Helix 7-X’, followed by the United States, and China is ranked sixth.

But no one expected that Huaxia, which had always been considered the sixth eldest son, and even its own Tokamak device research may have started with equipment donated by Russia, would inexplicably make rapid progress in controllable nuclear fusion technology, and took the lead in mastering the controllable nuclear fusion technology. Controlled nuclear fusion has moved controllable nuclear fusion from the laboratory to commercialization. There are now five fusion nuclear power plants. Just five fusion nuclear power plants are equivalent to the 300 fission nuclear power plants in the past. This has enabled China to get rid of the energy crisis, and even China All small and medium-sized hydropower stations, thermal power stations, etc. have been closed down. Even so, China is still able to transport and supply electricity to surrounding areas. The market value of Asia Power Group is so eye-catching.

To solve the energy problem, with cheap power supply, China’s manufacturing industry has become even stronger. After all, the monthly electricity price alone is two-thirds lower than other places. In this aspect alone, it is a very impressive competitiveness. , other places simply cannot compete, and lower production costs mean an increase in corporate profits.

The industrial chain transfer imagined by all parties has unfortunately not been realized. Instead, it has been scattered to pieces. Low economic growth and negative economic growth abound. The low economic growth of many European countries is even due to their reliance on tourists from China. , relying on the consumption of Chinese people to maintain low growth, otherwise negative growth is inevitable.

After China mastered the controllable nuclear fusion technology and took the lead, neither Europe nor the United States gave up. They increased their own research on controllable nuclear fusion. Europe focused on ‘Helix Stone 7-X’, and the United States. The research direction of controllable nuclear fusion methods in other directions was concentrated on the direction of magnetic confinement controllable nuclear fusion, so the “Helios” project was born. The “Helios” project has cost 300 billion U.S. dollars so far, and has concentrated a large number of Americans. Nuclear technology experts, materials experts, etc. To this end, the United States has also promoted technical public relations cooperation with 28 universities.

Under such spending, the United States was originally relatively weak in magnetic confinement nuclear fusion, but it has continued to make new progress in recent years.

The ‘Sun God’ project has more than 100,000 people in the scientific research base alone. There are white people, yellow people, and black people. All ethnic groups on the earth can be seen here. White people do not make up the majority. On the contrary, they belong to Relatively few, and this also reflects a microcosm of the United States in the past few decades-other races occupy an extremely important position in scientific research positions.

“Zhang, the ‘Sun God’ has been inspected and there are no problems in all aspects. The experiment can be started at any time. I am confident that this time the ‘Sun God’ will continue to operate for more than 25 minutes and will generate considerable energy.” said an Indian. , and the ‘Zhang’ he is talking about is a Chinese immigrant from Southeast Asia. He is about 50 years old this year and serves as the chief engineer of the United States’ “Sun God” project.

It’s helpless to say that at the beginning, all the main positions in the ‘Sun God’ project were filled by other people, but problems were soon discovered. These people were either too good and lacked energy, or they had limited talents and insufficient technical skills. They suffered several losses. , coupled with the slow progress of controllable nuclear fusion technology, the Department of Energy made great determination and promoted a large number of Asians to important positions.

And it has to be said that with the continuous investment of money and sufficient manpower, the United States’ ‘Helios’ plan has achieved great changes. They are now going to launch an impact on continuously confining ultra-high temperature plasma for 25 minutes at a time. This step is still behind the 30 minutes set by the Max Planck Institute in Europe, but it is already a very big record.

Reaching this step also means that the American “Sun God” project is not far away from announcing that it has successfully left the laboratory.

At this point, although it cannot be compared with the long-term stable operation of China, the energy generated is already very considerable, much greater than the input energy. It is completely possible to build a fusion nuclear power plant. Such a fusion nuclear power plant will only have higher operating costs, but Still much lower than fission nuclear power plants.

The operating costs of a fission nuclear power plant include buildings, nuclear reactors, nuclear fuel, safety measures, etc. Because of the dangers of fission nuclear power plants, buildings and safety measures cost a lot of money, including the demarcation of control areas around fission nuclear power plants. It is not suitable for living and development within a radius of dozens of kilometers, and the disposal of the nuclear waste produced is not so easy, which is very troublesome. After all, no one is as shameless as Japan.

Once a nuclear accident occurs, the impact and losses will be staggering. Nuclear power plant accidents in history have told the world this. Japan still has lingering fears about nuclear power plants, and Europe has shut down more than half of its nuclear power plants.

Unlike fusion nuclear power plants, the reaction product of fusion nuclear power plants is helium without radioactive contamination. And because nuclear fusion requires extremely high temperatures, once there is a problem in a certain link and the fuel temperature drops, the fusion reaction will automatically stop. In other words, the fusion reactor is a subcritical reactor and will never produce the kind of scandal that makes people uncomfortable. Nuclear power plant accidents, there is no doubt that it is very safe.

“Zhang, at this point, controllable nuclear fusion can be applied commercially, but the problem before us is very serious. According to the current technical level, it will cost hundreds of billions of dollars to build a tokamak-type nuclear fusion device. , the cost is 100 times that of China!” A white middle-aged man said in a deep voice: “The investors are very dissatisfied with this and are worried. They feel that they cannot compete with China’s fusion nuclear power plant at all, and during the construction stage, they will not be able to produce it. So much money! I feel that the patience of investors has reached its limit.”

Zhang Dun frowned slightly. This is a problem. The ‘Helios’ plan chose the magnetic confinement nuclear fusion method. It did not choose the stellarator mode of ‘Helix 7-X’, but the tokamak device mode. .

But whether it is the stellarator mode of ‘Helix 7-X’ or the tokamak device mode, when it comes to building a reactor, you will face a problem, that is, the high cost of the reactor. The cost of a capable reactor is as high as 350 billion US dollars. , that is to say, a fusion nuclear power plant costs as much as US$450 billion as China’s, but China only needs US$30 billion in this regard, and it can be built in phases, but they cannot, so they have to build it together.

The cost difference is more than 100 times, which means that in fact, under fair competition in the world, they have no advantage. Even a pig knows how to choose.

But Zhang Dun was helpless about this. This was determined by the tokamak device or the stellarator device of the ‘Helix 7-X’. For example, the size of the tokamak device they built now is already very large, and this It is used for experiments. Once it is time to build a reactor device, the volume will be hundreds of times larger.

However, the world has been studying controllable nuclear fusion for almost a century. Whether it is the stellarator mode or the tokamak device mode, they have experienced more than half a world of tests, which shows that their structural design is already very scientific. If you want to change, you have to find a new way like Hua Xia and design a brand new magnetic restraint device.

But redesigning a new magnetic restraint device is not easy. There is no Professor Qin in the United States!

Zhang Dun sighed. Although he is an expert in controllable nuclear fusion and a world-class scholar, he now clearly feels the gap between himself and Qin Yuanqing, because he is helpless when facing this problem. He can learn from his predecessors. Basically, keep moving forward and keep solving problems, but there is no way to overthrow everything and open up a new world.

“Anderson, we don’t have the ability to solve this problem. Being able to continuously confine ultra-high temperature plasma for 30 minutes is our goal. As for how to solve the problem of reactor construction materials and further optimize it, I think it is a matter for others to consider.” Zhang Dun sighed. He took a breath and said helplessly: “Unless they can invite Professor Qin to give us a lecture and tell us the principles of the ‘Golden Crow Device’, or they have a way to get a ‘Golden Crow Device’, otherwise, I think they can only hand over the Give time to resolve it with the late comers!”

Zhang Dun is actually very helpless. He is very aware of the gap between the two in the field of controllable nuclear fusion. China’s controllable nuclear fusion has been miniaturized and used in aerospace aircraft, but they don’t even have controllable nuclear fusion technology. Neither has mastered it and realized commercial use. It is not an exaggeration to say that the gap between the two is a hundred years.

If he had no choice but to do it for the sake of his wife and children, Zhang Dun didn’t want to get involved in this muddy water. Unfortunately, he had no choice. The form was stronger than the person, and his arms couldn’t twist his thighs. Individuals appeared so powerless and weak in front of the state machine.

You are so weak that you are just a little ant, you can’t even resist.

The others also nodded in agreement.