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The significance and importance of the controllable nuclear fusion reactor need not be said much.

In the foreseeable future of mankind, fossil energy will be exhausted one day. According to the current proven fossil energy reserves and consumption on the earth, oil will probably last for 40 years, natural gas for 80 years, and coal for 200 years.

However, with the gradual reduction of fossil energy, the cost of mining these energy sources will only increase in the future. Therefore, almost all countries in the world place their hopes of obtaining cheap energy on controllable nuclear fusion.

According to calculations, every liter of seawater contains 0.03 grams of deuterium, and there are 45 trillion tons of deuterium in seawater alone on the earth.

The deuterium contained in 1 liter of seawater can provide energy equivalent to that released after burning 300 liters of gasoline through nuclear fusion.

The nuclear fusion energy stored on the earth is about 1000 million times of the total nuclear fission energy that can be released by the stored nuclear fission elements, which can be said to be an inexhaustible energy source.

More importantly, controllable nuclear fusion will not produce radioactive substances that pollute the environment, and it can be carried out continuously and stably in a thin gas, which can be regarded as a model of safe and environmentally friendly energy.

Therefore, top point? Novel, in a sense, the driving force of controllable nuclear fusion to the energy revolution is much greater than that of metal batteries, but due to cost, process and strategy considerations, Chen Xin is not going to use it When the controllable nuclear fusion technology is brought out, unless the promotion of metal batteries in the world is hindered in the future, he will sacrifice this pair of super killers.

As for now, the first thing he has to do is to build a nuclear fusion reactor belonging to the War Ignoring Bureau with Gangbun.

The principle of a nuclear fusion reactor is simple and well understood.

first step.The mixed gas used as the reactant must be heated to the plasma state—that is, the temperature is high enough to allow the electrons to break away from the shackles of the nuclei, and the nuclei can move freely. At this time, it is possible to make direct contact with the nuclei. At this time, it takes about 10 temperature in degrees Celsius.

In the second step, in order to overcome the Coulomb force, that is, the repulsion between the same positively charged nuclei, the nuclei need to run at an extremely fast speed. The easiest way to get this speed is to continue heating.Takes Brownian motion to an insane level.To make the nucleus reach this operating state, a temperature of hundreds of millions of degrees Celsius is required.

Then it is simple, the nuclei of the tritium and the nuclei of the deuterium collide with each other at great speed.New helium nuclei and new neutrons are created.release a huge amount of energy.After awhile.The reaction body no longer needs to be heated by external energy sources, and the temperature of nuclear fusion is sufficient to continue the fusion of atomic nuclei.In this process, as long as the helium nuclei and neutrons are removed in time, a new mixture of tritium and deuterium is introduced into the reaction body.Nuclear fusion can continue, and a small part of the energy generated stays in the reaction body to maintain the chain reaction, and most of it can be exported and used as energy.

It seems very simple, there is only one question, where do you put this reaction body with a temperature of hundreds of millions of degrees Celsius?So far, humans have not created any chemical structure that can withstand 1 degrees Celsius, let alone hundreds of millions of degrees Celsius.

This is the reason why human beings have not been able to effectively obtain energy from nuclear fusion after 50 years since the one-off hydrogen bomb was manufactured.

Well, human beings are very smart and cannot use chemical structure methods to solve problems, so let's experiment with physical methods.

As early as 50 years ago, two theories of confining high-temperature reactants were produced.

One is inertial confinement, where a few milligrams of deuterium-tritium mixture gas is packed into a small ball with a diameter of about a few millimeters, and then a laser beam or particle beam is evenly injected from the outside, so that the inner layer of the spherical surface is squeezed inward.The gas in the ball is squeezed, the pressure rises, and the temperature rises sharply. When the temperature reaches the required ignition temperature, the gas in the ball explodes and generates a lot of heat.Such explosions occur three or four times per second, and continue continuously, releasing energy that can reach the level of millions of kilowatts.One of the founders of this theory is the famous Chinese scientist Wang Ganchang.

The other is magnetic constraint. Since the nucleus is positively charged, as long as my magnetic field is strong enough, you will not be able to escape. If I build a ring-shaped magnetic field, then you can only follow the direction of the magnetic field lines and the helix Shaped movement, out of my range, and a little distance outside the ring magnetic field, I can build a large-scale heat exchange device (at this time, the energy of the reactant can only be transferred to the heat exchange body in the form of thermal radiation), Then use a method that humans are already familiar with to convert heat energy into electrical energy.

Although the principle is simple, the power that can be achieved by existing laser beams or particle beams is dozens or even hundreds of times worse than what is needed. In addition to various other technical problems, inertial confinement nuclear fusion is expected and out of reach.

Therefore, countries around the world are currently focusing on the field of magnetic confinement in controlled nuclear fusion research.

In order to achieve magnetic confinement, a device that can generate a sufficiently strong annular magnetic field is needed. This device is called a "tokmak device" - tokamak, which is composed of "ring", "vacuum", "magnetic field" in Russian. ", the abbreviation of the initials of "coil".

As early as 1954, the world's first tokamak device was built at the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy in the former Soviet Union.

The progress seems to be going smoothly, but it is not, because in order to be put into practical use, the energy of the input device must be much smaller than the energy of the output. We call it the energy gain factor——q value.

The tokamak device at that time was a very unstable thing. After more than ten years of work, it did not obtain energy output. It was not until 1970 that the former Soviet Union obtained the actual energy output for the first time on the tokamak device that had been improved many times. The energy output can only be measured with the most advanced equipment at that time, and the q value is about one billionth.

Don't underestimate this one-billionth, which makes the whole world see hope, so the whole world is motivated by this, and they have built their own large-scale tokamak devices one after another. Europe has built a joint ring-jet , The Soviet Union built t20 (later shrunk to t15, the coil was smaller. But superconducting), Japan's jt-60 and the United States' tftr (abbreviation for Tokamak fusion experimental reactor).

These tokamak devices refresh the record of energy gain factor (q) value time and time again.

In 1991, the United Ring in Europe realized the first deuterium-tritium operation experiment in the history of nuclear fusion. Using a 6:1 deuterium-tritium mixed fuel, the controlled nuclear fusion reaction lasted for 2 seconds and obtained an output power of 0.17 kilowatts, q The value reaches 0.12.

1993年，美国在tftr上使用氘、氚1：1的燃料，两次实验释放的聚变能分别为0.3万千瓦和0.56万千瓦，q值达到了0.28。

1997年9月，联合欧洲环创1.29万千瓦的世界纪录。q值达0.60。持续了2秒。仅过了39天，输出功率又提高到1.61万千瓦， q值达到0.65。

Three months later, a deuterium-deuterium reaction experiment was successfully carried out on Japan's JT-60.Converted to the deuterium-tritium reaction. The value of q can reach 1.later. The q value exceeded 1.25 again.This is the first time that the q value is greater than 1. Although the deuterium-deuterium reaction is not practical, the tokamak can actually generate energy in theory.

In this environment.China is no exception. In the 70s, several experimental tokamak devices were built—Circle 1 (hl-6) and ct-6. Later, ht-6, ht-1b, and hl2m were rebuilt. Gyre [-] was newly built.

There is a saying that the research on China's tokamak device started with the equipment donated by Russia, which is wrong. The construction of ht6hl1 was earlier than the ht-7 system donated by Russia.

Before ht-7, several of China's equipment were ordinary tokamak devices, but the ht-7 donated by Russia was China's first "superconducting tokamak" device.

So what is a "super tokamak device"?

Looking back, the core of the tokamak device is the magnetic field. To generate a magnetic field, a coil must be used and electricity must be applied. Where there is a coil, there is a wire, and where there is a wire, there is a resistance.The closer the tokamak device is to practicality, the stronger the magnetic field is, and the greater the current must be passed through the wire. At this time, the resistance in the wire appears, which reduces the efficiency of the coil and limits the large current passing through. Generate enough magnetic fields, and the tokamak appears to have run its course.

Fortunately, the development of superconducting technology has made the tokamak turn around. As long as the coil is made into a superconductor, the problem of large current and loss can be solved theoretically. Therefore, the tokamak device using the superconducting coil was born. This is the superconducting coil. Tokamak.

So far, 4 countries in the world have their own large-scale super-tokamak devices, the tore-supra of France, the t-15 of Russia, the jt-60u of Japan, and the east of China.

Except for east, the other four can probably only be called "quasi-super tokamaks". Their horizontal coils are superconducting, and their vertical coils are conventional, so they will still be troubled by resistance.In addition, the cross-sections of the three coils are all circular, and in order to increase the volume of the reaction body, east tried to make a non-circular cross-section for the first time.In addition, there is also the German Helix-7 under construction, which is larger in scale than East, but has a similar technical level.

Due to the huge cost required for the research of the controllable nuclear fusion project, it is difficult for any single country to bear independently. An experimental fusion reactor (iter). (Note: iter is no longer a tokamak device, but a test reactor, which is a big improvement)

The original plan was to build an experimental reactor in 2010, with a power output of 1500 megawatts, at a cost of US$100 billion.

Unexpectedly, due to the different ideas of various countries, the disintegration of the Soviet Union coincided with the disintegration of the Soviet Union, and the limitations of technical means, there was no result until 2000. During the period, the United States withdrew midway, and iter was in danger of being stillborn.

Until 2003, the energy crisis intensified, and countries paid more attention to it. First, China announced that it had joined the iter plan. Europe, Japan, and Russia were naturally very happy, and then the United States announced its return to the plan.Immediately afterwards, South Korea and India also announced their participation.

In 2005, the iter project was formally established. The site is in Cadarachen, France. The basic design remains unchanged. It will strive to be fully completed by 2015. The cost is 120 billion US dollars. The EU will contribute 40%, France, China, Japan, and the United States will each contribute 10%. They want others to share equally, but South Korea and India don't do it. They strive to let Russia contribute 10% and themselves contribute 5%. In the end, the United States, Japan, Russia, China, South Korea, and India each contribute about 9%.

Iter means "road" in Latin, which shows how much hope everyone has for this thing.It is very likely that she is the "road" for mankind to solve energy problems.

If iter can succeed, the next step is to use iter's technology to design and build a demonstration commercial reactor. By then, it will not be far from real commercial nuclear fusion power generation.However, in the construction of iter, there are still a lot of technical problems to be solved, and a prototype is needed for reference. On this basis, the advanced superconducting tokamak devices of various countries have become the blueprint for designing iter.

Of course, iter's research is far from a tokamak device, and it still has many problems to overcome.

Here we will talk about the q value (the ratio of output power to input power). At present, countries in the world can generally achieve a q value above 1.5, but there are still two problems that have not been solved by all countries.

The first is to continuously provide the energy required for high temperatures. A q value of 1.5 means: to produce 150 tons of tnt equivalent energy, 100 tons of tnt equivalent energy must be invested, and it will continue!It's like in a blockbuster movie: When a sci-fi device is turned on, the lights of the whole city go out.

Second, even if the power supply can be sustained, you put in 1 electricity, but it produces 1.5 heat and radiation.And if it is converted into electricity, if the conversion rate is less than 66%, it is still a loss.At present, there is no breakthrough in this technology in the world.

Therefore, for people, the principles and solutions of controllable nuclear fusion are available, but the most difficult thing is engineering technology, and this is precisely what steel is best at.

This is also one of the reasons why Chen Xin is confident in creating the world's first cataclysmic reactor that can be operated commercially.

For example, in order to obtain a strong magnetic field, countries around the world generally use superconducting coils to confine high-temperature plasma, but human beings' existing superconducting materials can only maintain superconductivity at minus 100 degrees, and they must soak the magnet system in liquid helium Among them, this not only increases the construction cost of the fusion reactor, but also greatly limits the miniaturization of the fusion reactor.

In addition, high-frequency current ignition and high-power laser ignition all require the support of a new generation of material technology.

But it doesn’t matter to the steel 镚, it can now combine elements such as thallium, barium, calcium, copper, oxygen, etc. to produce a normal temperature superconductor with a critical temperature of 340K, that is, in 90.00% of the regions above nine on the earth , this material can achieve superconductivity in the bare state.

As for the high-frequency current and high-power lasers required for nuclear fusion reaction ignition, that is a piece of cake. (To be continued..)