Simulation: Great Power Technology

At 3:30 in the morning, the final inspection of the Shenguang No. 4 device was completed, and the equipment entered the electronic system debugging stage, which lasted about 20 minutes, which ensured that the laser generator of the Shenguang No. 4 system could accurately and evenly distribute the laser light irradiated on the target.

In fact, thanks to the high-precision, high-energy fiber laser generator, the fusion device uses a so-called "direct drive" mode, or shooting mode, that is, without the need for extra gold cavities Converting high-energy lasers into x-rays avoids the energy loss that occurs in this step.

However, the improvement of the energy conversion efficiency brings higher requirements for the laser beam. On the one hand, it needs to ensure that the laser can be effectively absorbed through the collision process when passing through the corona region, so as to avoid the generation of excessive superheated particles; on the other hand, It also requires equalization of pressure near the ablation front, because the core of inertial confinement nuclear fusion is to compress the raw materials inward through the reaction force generated by material ablation, so as to complete fusion under high pressure and high temperature environment.

During the debugging of the electronic system, Ye Zhou held the latest version of the test report in his hand, and while doing the final inspection, he asked the staff:

"Has the peak energy output of the laser been determined?"

"It's confirmed, it is basically stable at 6.2mj when the pulse width is 3 nanoseconds, and the peak power is 1,100 trillion watts. This indicator is several times higher than the nif of the ugly country. In theory, they can use such a low energy. Ignition, we should have no problem igniting with this energy value.”

"It depends on whether the self-sustaining reaction can be achieved - our current target pellet contains too little fuel, and intuitively it can maintain the plasma burning for a moment at most, but through sensor monitoring, we can use the theory in the future. numerically to verify the feasibility of self-sustaining reactions.”

"Okay. Has the data sensor checked?"

"I checked and everything is fine."

"What about the power supply? Are the energy storage devices and capacitors working?"

Just as the electromagnetic gun needs to be driven by a super capacitor, the high-energy laser required by this device also needs a super capacitor. If there is a burnout or insufficient power supply during the process, it will cause a devastating blow to the entire experiment.

"Confirmed to be normal, the capacitance load ratio is now only 60%, which can fully cope with the voltage shock at the peak."

Hearing this, Ye Zhou let out a long sigh of relief.

Standing in front of the monitoring screen in the control room, he looked at the Shenguang No. 4 device like a giant mine through the surveillance camera, and a continuous wave was secretly set off in his heart.

It won't be long before this device that carries the hopes of all Chinese, and even all human beings, will have its first ignition. For this moment, all researchers have fully exhausted their nearly three years of life.

And at their feet, there are decades of technology accumulation.

He looked at Qian Lixun, who didn't see any nervousness on his face. Instead, he was sitting leisurely on the reclining chair in the control room, eating cherries he didn't know where to find it. .

Seeing Ye Zhou's gaze, Qian Lixun pushed the box containing the cherries in front of him and asked:

"Eat?"

Ye Zhou shook his head and replied:

"Don't eat, I'm so nervous now that my mouth is a little bitter."

"It's hard to eat, don't say you're nervous, I'm a little nervous, after all, it's of great significance..."

"It's a little.... Your mentality, I'm afraid it will take a few years before I can train it."

What Ye Zhou said is indeed the truth. Although he has gone through countless experiences in the simulator, he is still too young. When faced with such a major event, he is naturally nervous.

However, he was still fine, and the researcher on the side was even nervous and his hands were shaking.

Time passed minute by minute, the final electronic system detection was completed, and all the data were normal. Ye Zhou looked at Qian Lixun, who nodded slightly, and then said:

"Then, let's get started."

With his order, all the staff who had already been in place immediately began to act.

The capacitor charging process started first. As a huge amount of current poured into the capacitor from the energy storage battery, everyone's hair stood up slightly under the effect of induced static electricity. Ye Zhou saw Lin Ling's hair floating on the side, and subconsciously She thought she would be curious about this, but the latter just calmly played with her hair.

It was only then that Ye Zhou realized that she, an old fritter like her who has been in and out of high-energy particle colliders all the year round, is of course not surprised by this phenomenon.

The capacitance saturation value on the screen continued to rise. After it climbed to 80%, the staff on the side turned to look at Ye Zhou and Qian Lixun. The two nodded in unison, and then the staff pressed the button in their hands.

Everything happened in silence. From the periphery of Shenguang No. 4, everyone could not see any specific situation, but in fact, inside the first wall, the most violent energy explosion in the world was happening.

128 laser beams sprayed out from the optical fiber, carrying the incomparably hot temperature, and impacted the central target pellet.

Within nanoseconds, the thin plastic sheet used to fix the target pellets was completely ablated. Subsequently, the outer shell of the target pellets was also violently ablated, and high-temperature plasma began to form, but within itself Under inertia, before the plasma has time to spread, it turns and squeezes towards the core position.

The temperature in the Shenguang No. 4 device rose to 160 million degrees Celsius in an instant, and without any accident, the fusion reaction occurred.

Then, light blue plasma began to form in the target chamber. If a camera can record it at this time, what everyone sees will be a mass suspended in the vacuum like a ghost, clearly containing the world The most explosive energy, however, is calm and stable, like a dazzling blue cloud like the dawn.

In this world, the highest temperature that can be reached in nature is the sun, but its core temperature is just over 20 million degrees. But now, in front of Ye Zhou and others, in this seemingly calm device, the temperature has already It reached 180 million degrees Celsius, which is 9 times the temperature of the core of the sun.

All of this happens between breaths, and the laser stops working as soon as the ignition is complete, but the fusion reaction continues.

Everyone stared nervously at the temperature numbers on the screen, the most intuitive indicator of the progress of the reaction, and found that the temperature readings did not drop when the lasers were completely turned off.

Clearly, a self-sustaining fusion reaction is in progress.

1 second, two seconds, three seconds.

Ye Zhou felt his heartbeat stagnated for these three seconds, and then, when the reading on the screen beat to 3.46 seconds, the temperature began to drop.

This also means that the self-sustaining fusion reaction lasted for a full three seconds, and in these three seconds, the energy released by the fuel was equivalent to the energy when hundreds of kilograms of gasoline were all burned.

Ye Zhou looked at the staff next to him, the latter noticed his gaze, and replied with a slightly trembling voice:

"Reading....reading stable."

"Judging from the existing data, the self-sustaining steady-state discharge fusion reaction is basically... basically realized!"

Until this moment, Ye Zhou finally let out the breath that was in his chest.

He looked at Qian Lixun again, who nodded slightly, and then announced:

"Shenguang No. 4's first ignition experiment, it was a success!"