Great Country Academician

Huaguo announced the construction of a controllable nuclear fusion demonstration reactor, and it is not just the United States that is in dire straits.

Almost all the countries that have the ability to independently build a controllable nuclear fusion experimental reactor, or participate in the ITER project, have been busy working overtime all night because of this sudden news.

Europe, Germanic.

In the Planck Institute of Plasma Research, after hearing this news, Professor Tillman Lent, who was busy planning to restart Helix 7X to conduct a fusion ignition operation of deuterium-tritium raw materials and collect neutron irradiation data, looked The bewildered.

"Demonstration pile? Are you sure?"

Shocked and dazed for a long time, after digesting the news, Tillman swallowed and asked in surprise.

On the opposite side, Robert Mack, director of the Planck Institute for Plasma Research, nodded and said, "The news from the media over there cannot be false."

"It's unbelievable, it's unbelievable. Have they solved the problem of the first wall material? How did they solve it? There are also problems such as tritium self-sustainability, and the tearing of the magnetic surface of the tokamak device. These have been solved? You must know that the demonstration reactor And but are two completely different things."

Tillman Lunt couldn't help throwing out a series of questions, he had too many doubts in his heart.

Robert Mac sighed, and said: "No one has heard that these problems have been solved, except for the two-hour high-density plasma operation experiment, that Professor Xu never disclosed the progress to the public. "

"Let's not talk about us, even the United States, they don't know how far they have progressed. The United States is also in a state of desperation because of this. It is increasing infiltration, hoping to obtain more information."

After a pause, he then said with emotion: "I have to say, that Professor Xu really made a big deal this time."

"The demonstration reactor, ITER was originally expected to start construction until 2025 or even 2035, but this time it was directly advanced by several years."

On the side, Tillman Lunt couldn't help asking: "I just want to know how he solved the neutron irradiation problem of the first wall material, and what material he used."

Robert smiled wryly, and said, "How could this kind of technology involving the core of controllable nuclear fusion be spread?"

"However, there is news that the first wall material may be related to the radiation technology developed by Professor Xu to deal with nuclear waste."

"'Nuclear beta radiation energy concentration conversion technology'?"

"Well, this is it."

Hearing this, Tillman Lent thought about it. He had naturally heard of this technology applied to nuclear waste.

Germany has also traded with Huaguo. Two years ago, the government used technology in exchange for Huaguo to build a nuclear waste power station in Bavaria, and then planned to use all the nuclear waste from 17 nuclear power plants in the country. It was transferred and disposed of in one go.

This is a very good thing for Germany, which relies on Tsarist Russia for energy.

After all, they were originally limited by the difficulty of disposing of nuclear waste, so they planned to gradually shut down all nuclear power plants.

But now, after the nuclear waste problem has been dealt with, nuclear power plants have been promoted on a large scale.

Of course, the energy problem is still a big trouble for them.

Otherwise, the EU will not increase its investment in controlled nuclear fusion.

But what is worrying now is that they seem to be left far behind by Hua Guo.

Regardless of how anxious countries are about this news, the financial market has already reacted from the moment Qixia Controllable Nuclear Fusion Project announced the construction of the demonstration reactor through the news media.

Wall Street, like people in the field of nuclear fusion, these financial elites who usually sit in their offices with the air conditioner blowing on their heads are sweating, panicked and anxious.

In particular, financial institutions speculating in fossil energy areas such as coal, oil, and natural gas are selling off their stocks and futures with all their strength.

Does the construction of the demonstration reactor mean that the commercialization of controllable nuclear fusion is almost here?

If the ultimate energy in the dream of human civilization is realized, fossil energy and other things will all be swept into the dust of history, right?

Oil and natural gas are okay, even if they are separated from the fuel and energy attributes, they still have the attributes of chemical raw materials.

However, although coal can indeed obtain some chemical raw materials through gasification, distillation, etc., the importance of energy attributes accounts for more than 90% of its various attributes.

What's more, Huaguo is also the world's largest coal-consuming superpower, and the coal imported from other countries every year is an astronomical figure.

There are even some countries, such as South Asian countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines, that export coal to China, and even account for a relatively high proportion of their own economic GDP.

If one day Huaguo no longer needs their coal, anyone can imagine the consequences.

Although there is still a long way to go between the demonstration reactor and the real commercial fusion reactor, no one knows that it will take a few years, or a dozen or even decades before it can be truly completed.

But for the market, when such news is released, it will cause panic in itself.

Of course, it is certain that some capital crocodiles are playing fish in troubled waters and adding fuel to the flames.

Either way, the decline of fossil fuels is doomed.

If in the future, good news about controllable nuclear fusion comes out again from that professor Xu, I am afraid that it is not impossible for the plates related to fossil energy to be smashed directly.

Xu Chuan can think about the troubles in the western countries and the slump in the stock futures market, but he doesn't care much about them.

Compared with these things, he is more concerned about the construction of the demonstration reactor.

This is a super project, although the Qixia Controllable Nuclear Fusion Engineering Base has been divided according to the standards of demonstration reactors from the very beginning, and some experiment-related configurations have also been made according to the standards.

But the experimental pile and the demonstration pile are two completely different things after all.

In comparison, the demonstration reactor needs a lot more supporting equipment.

For example, ultra-vacuum pumps, plasma exchange systems, generator sets, power grid control, and a series of related supporting equipment are not available in experimental reactors.

In fact, Xu Chuan is also in the research institute, discussing these matters with two academicians arranged by the nuclear industry group.

"For the generator set, six sets are tentatively set aside, and space for four sets is reserved. There is no problem with this. Just follow Academician Xu's request."

"It's just about the way of generating electricity, do we still use heat engines?"

"If you use a heat engine, we have a complete design drawing and structural drawing here, and you can use it with a little modification, which is very convenient."

In the office, Academicians Wang Yongnian and Hou Chengping of the Nuclear Industry Group, Xu Chuan and Peng Hongxi exchanged details about the supporting equipment for the demonstration reactor construction.

Hearing this question, Xu Chuan said with a smile: "Using nuclear fusion to boil water, to be honest, it's a bit overkill."

On the opposite side, Academician Hou Chengping shook his head and said: "But it is undeniable that boiling water is still the most efficient way of generating electricity that we can create at present."

Since Watt and Faraday started the steam age and the electromagnetic age, no matter how energy and social technology changes, in terms of electric energy, how to generate electricity has not changed much.

Boiling water is still the most common and most efficient means of generating electricity.

Although countries are constantly optimizing this set of technologies, they have never left.

How about a joke:

"Hey, look! We have discovered xx new energy again."

"What can we do with it?"

"We can use it to boil water!"

It is a black humorous joke, but it truly reflects the current technical level of human technology in terms of power generation.

How to put it, anyway, with the current human technology, it is difficult to directly convert the chemical energy and nuclear energy in coal, oil, etc. into electrical energy on a large scale.

The whole process is still the same as that of Watt and Faraday two hundred years ago.

First find a way to convert it into internal energy of water, then the water vapor drives the steam turbine to convert it into kinetic energy, and then cuts the magnetic induction line to convert it into electrical energy.

Modern thermal power is essentially to use fuel (coal, natural gas, nuclear energy, garbage, etc.) to boil water to generate water vapor, convert its kinetic energy into the kinetic energy of turbine rotation, and then drive the generator set.

If it is further expanded, hydropower and wind power can actually be planned into this category, and the core mechanism is the same.

The only difference is solar power generation, the core of which is the photovoltaic effect.

In addition, there is also a rare bioelectric power generation, which uses the electrical energy generated by a special chemical reaction of the organism itself, but it has basically not been used commercially, and is still being studied in the laboratory.

Xu Chuan smiled and said: "It is undeniable that the efficiency of boiling water is indeed a very high efficiency among the past power generation technologies."

"For mainstream heat sources such as coal combustion, solar energy, nuclear fission, and geothermal heat, no other material can replace water, a seemingly insignificant material, until the supercritical carbon dioxide cycle technology matures."

"It can be said that as the source of life, water is amazing. Human beings are lucky that such a good material can be used to generate electricity in addition to drinking."

After a pause, he continued with a smile, "But when it comes to efficiency, the efficiency of boiling water may not be the highest."

"Especially in technology like controlled nuclear fusion."

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