Great Country Academician

In the observation room, on the screen recording the current output information, a series of numbers are constantly beating.

Witnessing the arrival of this scene, everyone in the observation room had excited expressions on their faces, and all the researchers clenched their fists excitedly because of the scene in front of them.

Reusing nuclear waste to generate electricity sounds like a fantasy idea, but they actually did it.

Standing behind Academician Peng Hongxi, looking at the values ​​jumping on the screen, Xu Chuan also had a smile on his face.

Although this is a technology he has already made in his previous life, but in a different environment, the meaning is completely different.

When the problem of nuclear waste is resolved, nuclear power plants will be active in every piece of land in the motherland.

The energy problem can not be completely solved, but it can also be alleviated to a considerable extent.

After all, the storage of uranium resources on the earth is quite abundant, and the average content of uranium in the earth's crust is almost 2.5%.

The global conventional uranium resources and unconventional uranium resources add up to be enough for human beings to use for hundreds of thousands of years, not to mention that there are still a large amount of uranium resources in seawater.

If all the uranium in seawater in the world is extracted, the total amount will exceed four billion tons.

If such abundant uranium resources can be fully utilized, the energy problem will be completely solved.

Of course, this is a long, long way to go.

The value on the screen fluctuated with time, and finally hovered in a stable range.

5.3C, which is a unit used in laboratories to measure power generation.

If you convert it, it means that the radiant power conversion equipment that is being tested can provide about 0.7 kWh of electricity per hour.

That number doesn't sound like much, but it's pretty good.

If calculated according to this standard, a nuclear waste power station covering an area of ​​2,000 acres and using 500 tons of nuclear waste can provide almost two billion kilowatt-hours of electricity every year.

Although this figure cannot be compared with conventional nuclear power plants, it is equivalent to a thermal power plant with an installed capacity of about 1 million kilowatts.

A one million kilowatt thermal power station is considered a medium-to-large thermal power plant in China.

Based on last year's annual electricity consumption of 40 billion kilowatt-hours in Jinling, 20 such power stations can provide the corresponding amount of electricity.

But for now, China doesn't have that much nuclear waste.

At the end of 2018, according to the detailed data provided above, the current high-level radioactive nuclear waste in China is less than 1,000 tons.

This number can only be used by two nuclear waste power stations.

But compared with ordinary nuclear power plants, these two nuclear waste power plants have a huge advantage.

That is, its fuel has a very long service life, and the service life of the nuclear waste inside is several times or even ten times longer than that of ordinary nuclear fuel rods.

The nuclear fuel rods in ordinary nuclear power plants generally have a service life of about four to five years, while the radioactive decay of nuclear waste can last for hundreds of thousands of years.

Of course, its actual power generation time cannot be maintained stably for that long.

After all, as time goes by, the radiation intensity of nuclear waste will also decrease.

This results in a drop in power generation.

But it is not impossible to solve it. Special means can be used to stimulate the increase. The accelerator can inject high-speed particles to hit the nuclear waste, which can accelerate the radioactive decay of the nuclear waste and maintain the scale of power generation.

Theoretically speaking, after the construction of a power station using 500 tons of nuclear waste is completed, it can last for about 50 to 60 years.

During this period, the output of power generation can be maintained stably, providing about 100 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity.

Based on the current calculation that one ton of ordinary nuclear fuel rods can generate about 330 million kilowatt-hours of electrical energy, this figure is almost two-thirds of that of five hundred tons of nuclear fuel rods.

It sounds incredible that nuclear waste could provide electricity comparable to nuclear fuel.

But in fact it can really do it, and the energy provided by atomic fission is quite terrifying.

It's just that humans can't make perfect use of it at present.

The utilization rate of nuclear energy in current science and technology is less than one percent, and the day when it is really used perfectly, energy will not be an obstacle to the development of civilization at all.

In the observation room, Academician Peng Hongxi stood in front of the monitor for a long time, his face flushed, his hands clenched tightly, and his lips trembling slightly.

After a long time, he turned around, looked at the young man standing behind him with complex reddish eyes, and asked nervously and expectantly:

"Is this a success?"

Although the value in front of him verified his thoughts, he needed this person's affirmation even more at this moment.

He hoped to see the other party nodding, but he was afraid that the other party would shake his head and make his dream shattered.

But fortunately, the young man standing behind him nodded lightly with a bright smile: "If there are no accidents, we have succeeded."

After getting an affirmative answer, the old man put his heart down immediately, put a smile on his face, and said with emotion: "The difficult problem of a century has come to a successful conclusion in your hands. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I can't believe it's real."

"The reuse of nuclear waste sounds like a dream, but now it has come out of the dream. It not only solves the most troublesome pollution problem, but also turns it into energy."

Xu Chuan smiled and said, "Isn't this just science and the meaning of our existence?"

Hearing this, Peng Hongxi was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said: "Yes, but there are very few people who can really do this."

Xu Chuan smiled, looked at the display screen, landed on the numbers that were still beating constantly, and continued: "Actually, this technology is not perfect at present."

Hearing this, Peng Hongxi's heart tightened, and he quickly asked, "How should I say it?"

Xu Chuan said: "Theoretically, this technology cannot use all the radiation energy emitted by nuclear waste."

"Whether it is alpha rays with extremely weak penetrating power, or neutron flow with strong penetrating power that basically does not interact with materials, it is basically impossible to use. The former was blocked outside the semiconductor from the beginning, while the latter mainly Rely on the outer protective material to resist."

"This technology mainly collects a part of beta rays and gamma rays, and it uses the electron pair effect and photoelectric effect of these two rays to generate energy."

"It will also cause most of the radiant energy to actually overflow and be wasted."

"If you can go further."

Hearing this, Peng Hongxi was stunned again, then interrupted him with a wry smile: "Hey, you just said that!"

"I thought it was some major flaw in the design, but I didn't expect you to be talking about this."

After a pause, he continued: "If this is considered a flaw, then there is nothing perfect in the world."

"This is already very strong!"

PS: I have something to do today, so I wasted my time. I only wrote more than 2,000 words, and I will add another chapter tomorrow.