Great Power Technology

At 3:30 in the morning, the final inspection of the Shenguang 4 device was completed, and the equipment entered the electronic system debugging stage. This stage takes about 20 minutes to ensure that the laser generator of the Shenguang 4 system can accurately and evenly distribute the laser. irradiate onto the target pill.

In fact, due to the high-precision and high-energy fiber laser generator, this fusion device uses the so-called "direct drive" mode, or target mode, which means that it does not require the use of extra gold cavities. Converting high-energy laser light into X-rays avoids energy loss in this step.

However, the improvement in 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 zone to avoid the generation of excessive super-heated particles; on the other hand, It also requires equal pressure near the ablation front, because the core of inertial confinement nuclear fusion is to compress the raw material inward through the reaction force generated by material ablation, thereby completing fusion in a high-pressure and high-temperature environment.

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

"Is the peak energy output of the laser determined?"

"Confirmed, it is basically stable at 6.2MJ with a pulse width of 3 nanoseconds, and the peak power is 1100 trillion watts. This indicator is several times higher than the NIF of Chou Country. Theoretically, they can get close with such low energy. Ignition, with our energy value, there should be no problem with ignition.”

"It depends on whether the reaction can be self-sustaining - our current target pellet contains too little fuel. From an intuitive point of view, it can only sustain the burning of the plasma for a moment. However, through sensor monitoring, we can use theoretical values ​​to Verifying the feasibility of a self-sustaining reaction."

"Okay. Have the data sensors been checked?"

"Checked, everything is fine."

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

Just as the electromagnetic gun requires a very large capacitor to drive, the high-energy laser required by this device also requires a very large capacitor. If it burns out or the power supply is insufficient during the process, it will cause a devastating blow to the entire experiment.

"Confirmed to be normal, the capacitor carrying ratio is now only 60%, which can fully cope with the voltage impact at the peak."

Hearing this, Ye Zhou breathed a long sigh of relief.

He stood in front of the large monitoring screen in the control room, looking at the Shenguang No. 4 device that looked like a giant mine through the surveillance camera, and he secretly felt a continuous wave in his heart.

Soon, this device that carries the hope of all Chinese people, and even all mankind, will be ignited for the first time. For this moment, all researchers have already exhausted nearly three years of their lives.

And under their feet, there are decades of technological accumulation.

He looked at Qian Lixun aside. There was no sign of any nervousness on the latter's face. Instead, he was sitting leisurely on the recliner in the control room, eating some cherries that he took out from nowhere. .

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

"Eat?"

Ye Zhou shook his head and replied:

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

"You have to endure hardships. Don't tell me that you are nervous. I am also a little nervous. After all, it is of great significance."

"A bit. I'm afraid it will take me a few years to develop your mentality."

What Ye Zhou said was indeed true. Although he had gone through countless experiences in the simulator, he was still too young after all. When faced with such a major matter, he was naturally nervous.

However, he was still fine, and the researcher beside him was so nervous that his hands were trembling.

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

"Then, let's get started."

Following his order, all the staff who had already been in place immediately began to take action.

The first thing to start is the charging process of the capacitor. As a huge amount of current flows into the capacitor from the energy storage battery, everyone's hair stood up slightly under the action of induced static electricity. Ye Zhou saw Lin Ling's floating hair tips and subconsciously I thought she would be curious about this, but the latter just played with her hair calmly.

Only then did Ye Zhou realize that a veteran like her, who has been in and out of high-energy particle colliders all year round, was certainly 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, no one could see any specific situation, but in fact, within the first wall, the most violent energy explosion in the world was taking place.

128 laser beams erupted from the optical fiber, carrying extremely hot temperature, and impacted towards the central target.

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

The temperature inside the Shenguang-4 device rose to 160 million degrees Celsius at this moment, and without any accident, the fusion reaction occurred.

Subsequently, light blue plasma began to form in the target chamber. If a camera could record it at this time, what everyone would see would be a ghost-like mass suspended in the vacuum, clearly containing the world's The most explosive energy is calm and stable, like a blue cloud like the dense morning sun.

In this world, the highest temperature that can be reached in nature is the sun, but its core temperature is only 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 a full 9 times the temperature of the core of the sun.

All of this reaction occurs between breaths. The laser stops operating immediately after the ignition is completed, but the fusion reaction still continues.

Everyone was nervously watching the temperature numbers on the screen, which is the most intuitive indicator of the reaction process, and they found that when the laser was completely turned off, the temperature readings did not drop.

Clearly, a self-sustaining fusion reaction is underway.

One second, two seconds, three seconds.

Ye Zhou felt that his heartbeat had stagnated for three seconds. Then, when the reading on the screen jumped to 3.46 seconds, the temperature began to drop.

This means that the self-sustaining fusion reaction lasted for a full three seconds, and within these three seconds, the energy released by the fuel was equivalent to the energy of burning hundreds of kilograms of gasoline.

Ye Zhou looked at the staff aside. 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 realized!"

It was only at this moment that Ye Zhou finally let out the breath he was holding in his chest.

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

"The first ignition experiment of Shenguang 4 was successful!"