Chapter 417, the two major problems of controllable nuclear fusion
There are two difficulties in implementing controllable nuclear fusion: one is how to heat the materials for nuclear fusion to a high enough temperature. Nuclear fusion requires a high temperature of hundreds of millions of degrees. Scientists have now solved this problem by using laser polymerization to produce high temperatures of hundreds of millions of degrees.
to solve this problem.
Using laser ignition seems simple, but in fact it is very difficult, because it must be ensured that within a short heating time, the heated object is heated evenly in all directions and collapses toward the center of the ball uniformly. A simple understanding is to imagine the heated material as a football. If you want to
To squeeze the air inside the football, the best way is to apply force from all directions to compress its volume. If you only apply force from two directions, the football will deform and the effect of squeezing the air inside the football will be greatly reduced.
This not only requires extremely precise control of the alignment direction of each laser, but also requires strict control of the energy of each laser in this extremely short period of time. Currently, Uncle Sam's research progress is the fastest in this field.
The National Ignition Facility is currently capable of focusing 192 lasers on the same point.
The same principle applies to Galaxy Technology's nuclear fusion laboratory on the moon. It was built with reference to Uncle Sam's National Ignition Facility. It can focus 365 laser beams on the same point, instantly generating a high temperature of hundreds of millions of degrees, enough to ignite nuclear weapons.
Fusion materials.
And compared to Uncle Sam's National Ignition Facility, which takes several hours to conduct an ignition experiment, this ignition device from Galaxy Technology can ignite 10 times per second and release 10 pulses.
This ignition device first enhances the external laser by 10,000 times, then splits one laser beam into 2 laser beams, and then splits the 2 laser beams into 4 beams. In this way, step by step, it finally splits into 365 beams. During the splitting process
The beam is continuously enhanced, and its total energy increases to 5,000 trillion times the initial energy. Finally, it is focused on a deuterium-tritium fusion fuel with a diameter of 3 mm, which can generate a high temperature of over 100 million degrees, which is enough to trigger a nuclear explosion.
fusion.
Some people may ask, how much energy is required to ignite it?
The photons of the laser are all directional. Unlike ordinary light sources, the photons are spread out. The sunlight will not burn the paper when it shines on the ground, but focusing the light on a point can burn the paper. The reason
are the same.
Laser energy is highly concentrated, but the energy contained in it is not necessarily very large, and the energy consumption is not too terrible.
But there is still a long way to go before we can solve this problem and achieve controllable nuclear fusion, because the temperature during the nuclear fusion reaction is very high. The temperature of hundreds of millions of degrees is comparable to the temperature of the core of the sun. How can we build a nuclear fusion reactor?
?
You must know that the most high-temperature resistant material developed by scientists now is tantalum-hafnium pentacarbide, with a melting point as high as more than 4,200 degrees. However, this temperature is nothing compared to the high temperature of hundreds of millions of degrees.
The most high-temperature-resistant materials will be directly vaporized at such high temperatures and become the most basic ionic state. This problem of nuclear fusion reactors is the real problem that troubles scientists.
Controlled nuclear fusion technology is different from hydrogen bomb technology. Hydrogen bombs are only responsible for destruction and detonating atoms. The rest is as powerful as possible.
But this is controllable nuclear fusion. If they want to control this nuclear fusion and control this huge energy, scientists must find a way to solve this terrifying high temperature problem.
Before solving the problem, you must first know the three modes of heat conduction, heat conduction, heat radiation and heat convection.
Heat conduction is a heat transfer phenomenon when there is no macroscopic motion in the medium. It can occur in solids, liquids and gases, but strictly speaking, it is pure heat conduction only in solids, and even if the fluid is in a stationary state, there will be
Natural convection occurs due to the density difference caused by the temperature gradient. Therefore, thermal convection and heat conduction occur simultaneously in the fluid.
Thermal radiation is the phenomenon that objects radiate electromagnetic waves because of their temperature. All objects with a temperature higher than absolute zero can produce thermal radiation. The higher the temperature, the greater the total energy radiated, and the more shortwave components there are.
The spectrum of thermal radiation is a continuous spectrum, and the wavelength coverage range can theoretically be from 0 to ∞. General thermal radiation is mainly propagated by visible light and infrared rays with longer wavelengths. Since the propagation of electromagnetic waves does not require any medium, thermal radiation is the only one in a vacuum.
heat transfer method.
Thermal convection, also known as convective heat transfer, refers to the heat transfer process caused by the relative displacement of particles in the fluid. Thermal convection only occurs in the fluid.
Knowing the three modes of heat transfer, scientists have also imagined several methods to control high temperatures of hundreds of millions of degrees.
At present, earth scientists have proposed many methods for controlling nuclear fusion, including ultrasonic fusion control method, laser confinement control method, inertial confinement control method, magnetic confinement control method, etc.
Among them, the most feasible one is the magnetic confinement control method. The "superconducting tokamak" device was developed to be able to store materials with hundreds of millions of degrees in it. The specific principle is very simple and is mentioned in high school physics textbooks.
, by constraining these substances in a closed ring and causing them to rotate at high speed, thereby fixing them in a closed space, thereby achieving disguised blooming.
It seems that the two major difficulties in nuclear fusion have been solved by the people on earth long ago, but there is currently a more serious problem, that is, there is no way to combine these two solutions that respectively target two difficulties!
That is to say, at the current level of the earth, we can only ignite nuclear fusion fuel or use a "superconducting tokamak" to install it. However, it is very difficult to focus hundreds of laser beams on such a small point!
The fusion material needs to be stationary at a designated target position waiting for heating and ignition. The superconducting tokamak device is a magnetic confinement process. If the fusion material is stationary, it will not be affected by the corresponding Lorentz force in the magnetic field and will be
Confined to a designated confined space.
Therefore, although scientists on earth have solved the two major problems of nuclear fusion, they still have no way to achieve controllable nuclear fusion. These two solutions can only find ways to solve one problem when they have great advantages in solving the other.
One question.
Qin Yi looked at the huge and complex ignition device in front of him and thought a lot in his mind. There are many ways to achieve nuclear fusion in the technology tower.
Such as space control method, freezing method, gravity constraint method, etc. The space control method is designed with space technology. Because thermal radiation is the only conduction method in vacuum, it is very simple to use space technology to convert temperatures of hundreds of millions of degrees.
Get it under control.
As for the freezing method, which is the cold nuclear fusion technology in the transmission, this technology is one level higher than the thermonuclear fusion technology, and it is really too far away.
The gravity constraint method is to send the nuclear fusion fuel into a spherical three-dimensional space, and then apply strong gravity to the three-dimensional control, relying on the strong gravity to restrain the energy of hundreds of millions of degrees, and at the same time, the energy can be guided as needed.
, used for various purposes.
For the current level of Galaxy technology, the closest and most likely to be realized is the gravity constraint method. Since anti-gravity technology has been mastered and utilized, it is still possible to develop gravity technology.
And gravity technology is very important. It can not only be used to control nuclear fusion, but can also be used to add gravity to the spacecraft. You must know that there is no gravity in space.
If humans stay in such an environment for a long time, their bones will slowly lose calcium. After returning to the earth, they will most likely become paralyzed and become a disabled person.
The universe is too vast and vast. Even the Centauri galaxy, which is the closest to the earth, is 4.3 light-years away. With such a far distance, it takes a very long time to navigate the interstellar universe.
Therefore, spacecraft and space battleships used for space navigation must have a gravity generating device so that the people on the spacecraft can live in a gravity environment and simulate the environment on the earth as much as possible, so as to reduce various factors as much as possible.
Various problems arise.
Now it happens that research on nuclear fusion technology also requires the use of gravity technology, which can be said to serve multiple purposes.
If gravity technology can be developed, spaceships and space battleships that sail through the interstellar universe in the future will have a super-powerful energy heart. The energy generated by nuclear fusion is powerful enough that spaceships and space battleships will never have to worry about energy issues.
If a gravity generating device can be installed on the spacecraft, the spacecraft can also have gravity. Living on the spacecraft will not be much different from living on the earth. It is very conducive to long-term navigation in the interstellar universe and greatly reduces void synthesis.
the appearance of symptoms and protect health.
In order to study gravity technology, Qin Yi had taken out related technologies from the science and technology tower a few years ago. While studying anti-gravity technology, he also established a corresponding gravity research laboratory. Lu Qingwei is the person in charge of this laboratory.
people.
He is not only an expert in the field of anti-gravity, but also an expert in the field of gravity technology. He leads a large scientific team on the moon to secretly study gravity technology and controllable nuclear fusion technology.
Although this interstellar mining is technically difficult, there is no need for Qin Yi to arrange Lu Qingwei there. He is a talent, a high-end talent that Qin Yi dug out from major national projects.
The real role is naturally to focus on scientific research like Yang Hongyan and Zhang Jian. As for the management of companies and enterprises, it can be left to professional managers. There is no need to waste talents like Lu Qingwei.
All this is to deceive people, to facilitate frequent trips to and from the moon, and to conduct scientific research in this laboratory on the moon.