Great Power Heavy Industry: Rise

Chapter 172 The Contamination Problem of Nuclear Fusion
Although Zhong Cheng was sure, he couldn't help but get nervous at this moment.

In case something unexpected happens...

Marven Ye, who was standing beside him, quietly held his hand, and the warmth from his palm calmed him down a bit.

Zhong Cheng and the others saw much more data on the display than the live broadcast.

The data shows that the ion flood injected into the reactor vacuum chamber has reached a temperature of 270 million degrees Celsius and a speed of 2700 kilometers per second.

We are approaching the critical point of nuclear fusion soon!

Zhong Cheng and Ye Wenxin's clasped hands began to sweat.

"97000 kilowatts!"

"98000 kilowatts!"

"99000 kilowatts!"

The narrator was counting down, when he finally shouted: "10 kilowatts!"

The nuclear fusion reaction in the vacuum chamber of the reactor began to take place on a large scale, and a huge amount of energy was released instantly.

I saw that the output power of the generator set on the live broadcast screen began to increase sharply in an instant, starting from 10 kilowatts in 8 seconds, and soaring all the way to 8 million kilowatts.

And the Q value has also risen to 20.

Then it stabilized, and the reactor was still operating normally, withstood the impact of the energy burst.

"The first nuclear fusion power generation was successful!"

"Together we have witnessed history and witnessed miracles!"

Following the excited voice of the narrator, the scene of the power plant was full of excitement, and the whole country was also full of joy.

It only took the Huaxia people more than seven months to complete the commercial application of controllable nuclear fusion from scratch.

Realized the dream of human beings for nearly half a century!

In terms of engineering speed and quality alone, it has also created a miracle!
The Chinese used irrefutable facts to destroy the scientific and technological leadership of the Westerners for more than two centuries, and even their psychological superiority.

At this moment, the Chinese nation has truly realized its dream of rising again!

It was only a matter of time before it went to glory again.

……

The Golden Crow project team has received congratulations and thanks from Chinese and Chinese friends from all over China and even all over the world!
At this moment, Zhong Cheng didn't care about others, and was working overtime to observe and analyze the operating conditions and operating parameters of the first Suihuang nuclear fusion power unit.

His main concern was dealing with the neutrons released by the fusion of deuterium and tritium.

Although nuclear fusion energy is said to be clean energy, the deuterium-tritium fusion currently used can only be regarded as the "first generation" nuclear fusion. The advantage is that the fuel is cheap, and the disadvantage is that it has neutrons.

The trouble is that neutrons can have a nuclear reaction with the inner walls of the reactor.

The inner wall from the vacuum chamber must be replaced after a period of use, which is very expensive.

And the replaced walls may be radioactive (depending on the choice of wall materials), becoming nuclear waste.

Another bad factor is that tritium is also radioactive, and tritium may also react with the inner wall.

Zhong Cheng considered the absorption of neutrons when designing the Suihuang nuclear fusion reactor.

After the nuclear fusion reaction, the fast neutron flow is mainly produced. Firstly, the fast neutrons are scattered and decelerated, and then the slow neutrons are absorbed to emit co-incorporated particles or gamma rays.

His measure is to slow down the fast neutrons, and then absorb the slow neutrons.

Materials containing lithium or boron are commonly used, such as lithium fluoride, lithium bromide, lithium hydroxide, boron oxide, boric acid and boron carbide, etc. to absorb slow neutrons and reduce the generation of secondary gamma rays.

With the help of Lin Wei, Zhong Cheng adopted a new type of lithium alloy. Although the relative price is much more expensive, the absorption effect is very good, and the service life is as long as ten years.

This reduces the shutdown maintenance time of Suihuang nuclear fusion reactor, and also reduces the generation of nuclear waste.

But in order to finally solve the problem of nuclear pollution, another nuclear fusion raw material must be used.

Helium-3 is the most ideal nuclear fusion clean energy!

Not only is the energy released high, but the reaction between helium 3 and helium 3 will not produce neutrons at all. This reaction can be called the ultimate fusion!
（PS：3He+3He→4He+2(1H)，ΔE=12.860MeV）。

But helium-3 can be said to be the most scarce element on blue stars.

The helium-3 element on the entire blue star is basically obtained from tritons through β decay.

The storage of tritium is inherently scarce, so the helium-3 element on the blue star is even more pitiful, and the purification cost is also very high.

The total amount of helium-3 that can be used by humans on the earth is only about half a ton!

But helium-3 is very abundant on the moon.

It is estimated that the helium-3 element that can be mined on the entire moon is as high as more than 70 tons.

If all of it is used for nuclear fusion reaction, it can provide human beings with energy supply for thousands of years!

Why is this so?
In the interior of the sun, the fusion process of hydrogen to helium is going on all the time, and one step of the reaction is the fusion of a protium nucleus and a deuterium nucleus, which are combined into helium-3.

This reaction is mainly carried out in a small core region of the star, and most of the helium-3 will continue to fuse into stable helium-4.

Only a very small part of the helium-3 element will leave the reaction zone, then reach the surface of the sun, and be blown around by the solar wind.

The moon has no magnetic field and atmosphere, and the helium-3 element in the solar wind will reach the lunar surface and be evenly distributed in the lunar soil.

But the blue star has a thick atmosphere and geomagnetic field, which blocks the helium-3 element and cannot reach the ground at all.

This is why the helium-3 element is scarce on the blue star, but there is a lot of helium on the moon.

In fact, the helium-3 element is widely distributed on those asteroids in the solar system that do not form a magnetic field and an atmosphere.

That is the origin of the inexhaustible clean energy raw materials for human beings.

Zhong Cheng had the idea of ​​building a helium-3 refining plant on the moon.

But when thinking of the "backward" aerospace technology of human beings, they have no choice but to give up.

It is necessary to transport tens of thousands of tons of equipment and materials to the moon to build factories, and then send tens of thousands of tons of helium-3 back to Blue Star.

This cost is not as good as directly disposing of nuclear waste.

After all, the amount of nuclear fusion waste is much less than that of nuclear fission, and it is easier to deal with, and the cost is still within tolerance.

This idea can only be realized after the construction of a large aerospace vehicle that uses Zhurong electric propulsion and is powered by nuclear fusion.

In fact, the technical reserves are sufficient now, the only difference is funds and timing.

Judging from China's current situation, it would not dare to use the power of the whole country to engage in lunar engineering without completely solving its worries.

Due to the international environment, most of the domestic space programs have been stopped, and national power has been poured into economic and national defense construction.

The enemy will not look at you a few times just because you ran to the moon and turned around, and then bow their heads and surrender.

Zhong Cheng agreed with the country's strategic change, so he didn't mention any plans to develop large aerospace vehicles.

But he thought it would be fine to bring it up a few years later.

He is already thinking about how to miniaturize the Fulihuang nuclear fusion reactor.

It is unrealistic to move a reactor with a length of more than 300 meters and a capacity of tens of thousands of tons to an aircraft, and an aircraft cannot use a generator set of 100 million kilowatts.

Now the most advanced nuclear-powered aircraft carrier-the nuclear reactor on the Ford aircraft carrier has an output power of only 6 kilowatts.

If the Suihuang nuclear fusion reactor can be reduced to less than 100 meters, the weight is less than 1 tons, and the power is enough even if it is only 30 kilowatts.

The aerospace plane equipped with this small Suihuang nuclear fusion reactor has a carrying capacity of tens of thousands of tons, and it has practical economic value only as a means of transportation between Blue Star and the moon.

At that time, the moon will become China's back garden!

(End of this chapter)