Technological power starts with upgrading lenses.

Chapter 390 That is something unimaginable
After Byrne finished the call, he froze in his place, still in the posture of answering the phone.

His expression was pale, as if he had seen a ghost.

Duke couldn't help but ask curiously: "What happened?"

"China's magnetized target device...successfully ignited..."

Although this matter had nothing to do with him anymore, Duke still felt nervous after hearing it, and then he had the same doubts as Byrne.

"How is this possible? They changed the technical route in less than four months, and they built the device?"

"These industrial demons... have done more than just create the equipment..."

Byrne seemed to be talking to himself, then silently opened the browser on his mobile phone and prepared to search for relevant news.

In fact, he still doesn't quite believe what Malek just said on the phone...

But Byrne soon discovered that there was no need to search at all.

The hot news in major media outlets are filled with headlines containing words such as "China", "controlled nuclear fusion", "Kang Chi", and "breakthrough".

The two numbers that frightened Byrne the most were 23 and 120.

"Oh my god! Not only did they succeed in lighting the fire, but they also got the Q value to 23?!!"

Duke, who was lying on the hospital bed, saw Byrne using his mobile phone to check information, so he also took out his mobile phone. Then he quickly understood the meaning of Byrne's words just now, why did they build the device...

"If this news is true, it's not just a Q value of 23," Byrne replied, "but also a running frequency of 120 times per minute..."

"Not only did they build the magnetized target device and successfully ignite it, they also directly solved all the problems of the magnetized target device at once!"

When he said this, what was revealed in Byrne's eyes was no longer just shock.

There is also a fear from the depths of the soul...

Perhaps in the eyes of many ordinary people, these two numbers are just a report card of successful ignition.

But Byrne, who has studied magnetized target devices for many years, knows better than anyone what this means.

In the face of these two numbers, lighting a fire is as ridiculous as a primitive man who had just learned how to make fire by drilling wood and then showed off to modern people.
Byrne couldn't imagine how they did it.
What kind of monster could create a machine with such outrageous performance?
Is this really something that humans could possibly create?
If these reports are true, then controlled nuclear fusion has actually officially entered commercialization!

The way humans obtain energy will enter a new chapter starting today...

But in this chapter, there is no Byrne, no General Fusion, no Maple Leaf Country, and no Mobil and M Country.

That will be a carnival belonging to Eastern China!

With extremely complicated feelings, Byrne quickly found the complete original video of the Chinese news release of this breaking news.

This video is 15 minutes long, and as far as Byrne knows, the Chinese evening news is only 30 minutes long.

Now half of the time has been given to Jinwu No. 1, which seems to indirectly confirm the authenticity of the news.

Just as both of them were staring at their phones, there was a sudden sound of hurried footsteps outside the door. After knocking on the door twice, they pushed the door open before the people inside could say anything.

Watching a group of men in black suits walk into the ward, the two quickly guessed something.

"Professor Byrne, I'm sorry to bother you. We are from the National Energy Security Administration and we have an emergency meeting that requires your participation."

Byrne nodded: "Wait a moment, at least let me finish watching this video first."

"Sorry, I'm afraid you'll have to watch it on the way."

"..."

Byrne had no choice but to put away his phone, say goodbye to Duke, and follow the group of men out of the room.

He originally thought that they would take him downstairs, but unexpectedly they took him directly to the rooftop, where a helicopter was already waiting for him.

Byrne could fully understand the National Energy Security Administration's anxiety, but the helicopter's subsequent route confused him.

It wasn't until the helicopter landed at Vancouver International Airport that Byrne couldn't help asking, "Aren't we going to the Energy Bureau?"

"We just received a new order. The emergency meeting has been changed to a technical cooperation meeting with Country M. We are now heading directly to Washington."

"..."

Although Byrne felt a little uncomfortable with the hasty schedule, he had actually figured it out when he was on the helicopter just now.

At this juncture, as one of the world's leading experts in magnetized target technology, I can definitely be said to be a national treasure.

Not only in the Maple Leaf Country, but also in other countries including Country M, the level of attention paid to him in the future will be unprecedented.

Therefore, the success of China's controlled nuclear fusion has, to some extent, caused his importance and status to skyrocket.

As long as you figure out the reasons behind this, it doesn't seem so hard to accept...

After flying for more than six hours, the special plane finally landed slowly at Ronald Reagan National Airport, and then directly transferred to a helicopter and arrived at the office building of the National Science Council of the United States.

When Byrne entered the meeting, it was obvious that they had been discussing it eagerly for some time.

After Byrne came in, the officials and scholars at the meeting immediately stopped their discussion and turned their attention to the magnetized target device expert from the Maple Leaf Country.

Hadley, the director of the Maple Leaf Energy Bureau, who had arrived at the venue in advance, immediately came forward and shook hands with Byrne, saying, "Professor Byrne, thank you for taking the time to attend this meeting."

Find some time?

Did he just have a choice?
Byrne smiled somewhat reluctantly, and then, with Hadley's introduction, he got to know the main people attending the meeting.

In addition to officials from the energy bureaus of the two countries, most of them are scholars from major laboratories, especially the engineers and physicists who study controlled nuclear fusion at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Their technical director, Friedrichs, is also an old acquaintance of Byrne.

Previously, at the International Controlled Nuclear Fusion Technology Exchange Conference, Freehughes had publicly ridiculed their LM-26 magnetized target device, saying that their use of outdated steam engine technology to develop nuclear fusion was as ridiculous as trying to use automobile engine technology to develop space rockets.

Thinking of this, Byrne couldn't help but sneer at Forrest: "You never expected it, although the car engine I built exploded, the one made in China actually flew into outer space."

"Really? How do you know that the news they release is definitely true?"

"At this point, are you still deceiving yourselves?"

"Quiet!"

After hearing the two people's sharp words, the Minister of Energy of Country M, Poirot, who was presiding over the meeting, could not help knocking on the table, and then said to Byrne: "Professor Byrne, welcome to Washington, but I'm afraid no one is in the mood to hold a welcome ceremony for you..." "Next, I will first ask you a few questions. I hope you can answer truthfully. If your answers are proven to be lies one day in the future, we and your Maple Leaf Country will sue you for endangering national energy security..."

Byrne couldn't help but glance at Hadley after hearing this, but he pretended not to see it.

This is a tacit acknowledgement of Poirot.

Byrne had no choice but to nod. "I promise that everything I say next is true, but I believe I have the right to refuse to answer certain sensitive questions."

Poirot just smiled faintly, then glanced at the notebook in front of him and said, "First question, the explosion of the general fusion magnetized target device on December 12 last year, did you foresee this?"

"I have answered this question more than three times before. If I didn't think the experiment was too risky, why would I refuse to do it?"

“The second question is, if the LM-26 project is successful, what is its actual performance?”

"This is a trade secret of General Fusion, and I think I can choose not to answer."

Poirot shook his head. "General Fusion's business secrets are not secrets here. Your major shareholders, the Maple Leaf Energy Bureau, ExxonMobil, and the heads of Amazon are all here. They have just decided to disclose the specific technical details of the LM-26 project to us."

At Poirot's signal, all three men stood up and nodded to Byng.

"Duke has been fired by the board of directors. The three of us can now make all the important decisions about General Fusion. We now agree that you will disclose General Fusion's trade secrets."

Byrne nodded, then said to Poirot: "What performance do you want to know?"

"What is the maximum Q value it is actually designed for?"

"2.5."

"But as far as I know, you previously announced that each plasma compression consumes 140 megajoules of energy and produces an energy output of 704 megajoules, which is a Q value of 5.02."

"That's just Duke beautifying the data to attract investment."

Wow, the data beautification has doubled?
Poirot nodded somewhat heavily, and then asked: "What are the specific data of input and output energy?"

"280 megajoules and 704 megajoules."

"What's the highest number of runs per minute?"

After hearing this question, Byrne hesitated.

This is actually an issue that General Fusion has avoided discussing.

Because once this issue is discussed, General Fusion will definitely be labeled as an investment scam...

However, now that general fusion is almost complete, and the feasibility of the magnetized target device no longer requires him to evade the main point and deceive people.

China’s success is the best endorsement of the magnetized target route.

Therefore, after hesitating for a moment, Byrne finally spoke up: "Although we haven't experimented with it, according to our data, it takes at least five minutes for the LM-26 to dissipate heat before the next reaction. Otherwise, the liquid metal will accumulate heat, and in serious cases, it will melt the second wall or even the entire device."

"five minutes?!!"

After hearing this number, the scene suddenly became lively.

The Q value above is not bad. Although it is almost ten times lower than the 23 announced by China, it is at least more than 1.

Moreover, General Fusion has never had sufficient research funding, and it feels like it is just a small-scale effort. It is understandable that the performance of the experimental equipment is poor.

Now that the two countries plan to jointly carry out research on magnetized target devices, there is no need to consider funding issues, so they are fully confident that they can quickly catch up with this gap.

But this reaction time is not just a little bit off.

The Jinwu-120 can run 26 times per minute, but the LM- can only run once every five minutes.
This 600-fold gap is a bit outrageous...

Ignition once every five minutes means that even if the device runs 24 hours a day, it can only ignite 288 times.
According to the data Byrne just mentioned, after deducting the input energy, the energy generated each time is actually only 424 megajoules. If we take into account the power generation loss rate of about 55%, even if the LM-26 project is successful, it can only generate 6.7 kWh of electricity per day at most...

This is a nuclear fusion project!

It's not even as powerful as a high-powered ship diesel generator.

Besides, this is the ultimate goal of their project...

No wonder Byrne and General Fusion never mentioned the issue of running times before!

After two minutes of commotion, Poirot finally suppressed the situation and asked the next question: "Do you think the data of China's Golden Crow No. 1 is reliable?"

"I'm not an intelligence officer. I want to ask you this question..."

"Well, let me ask it another way. Do you think it is technically possible for the magnetized target device to run 120 times per minute?"

Byrne thought for a long time before answering, "I don't know. I think this performance is completely beyond my comprehension..."

"The operating efficiency problem of the magnetized target device is actually a heat dissipation problem, and this problem has many branch problems that need to be solved. The first problem that needs to be solved is the thermal conductivity of the liquid metal on the first wall, and the second problem is the heat-resistant material of the second wall."

"Although the liquid metals evenly absorb the energy generated by the fusion reaction, if they come into contact with the second wall too quickly, it will still cause great damage to the device. There are hundreds of such material and engineering problems."

"Each of these problems may be a huge scientific research problem. Like the bucket effect, they seriously restrict the operating efficiency of the magnetized target device..."

"So I think your question is like asking me whether it is technically possible after we have all seen UFOs with our own eyes... It's a bit redundant."

"Of course I know what you really want to ask is whether I can build this UFO... and I can only say sorry for that."

"I really can't do anything about things that I can't even imagine, but I think we can build on LM-26 and work down-to-earth to solve every problem we encounter. Maybe one day in the future, all the problems will be answered."

"Really?" Poirot could not help asking in a low voice. "Does the day in the future refer to five years from now, or ten years, fifty years, or even a hundred years from now?"

"..."

Byrne was silent for a moment.

Not only him, but everyone in the venue felt extremely heavy-hearted, just like Poirot.

Byrne's answer just now made them all realize once again how big the gap between them and China is in the field of controlled nuclear fusion.

This is no longer something that can be described as a 'huge gap'.

But it’s a mountain range that stretches as far as the eye can see!
God knows that this mountain range was built almost single-handedly by a Chinese man named Kang Chi in less than four months!
This made them truly feel what it meant to be a genius, and what it meant to be desperate and suffocated...

(End of this chapter)