China announced the construction of a controllable nuclear fusion demonstration reactor, and it is not just the United States that is troubled.
Almost all countries that have the ability to independently build controllable nuclear fusion experimental reactors, or have participated in the ITER project, are busy working overtime and worrying about this sudden news.
Europe, Germania.
In the Planck Institute of Plasma Research, after hearing the news, they were busy planning to restart Helix 7X for a deuterium-tritium raw material fusion ignition operation. Professor Tillman Lunt, who was collecting neutron irradiation data, had a look on his face. Confused.
"Demonstration pile? Are you sure?"
After being shocked and stunned for a long time, Tillman swallowed and asked in surprise after digesting the news.
Opposite, Robert Mack, director of the Planck Institute of Plasma Research, nodded and said: "The news conveyed by the media over there cannot be false."
"Incredible, really unbelievable. Have they solved the problem of the first wall material? How? There are also problems such as tritium self-sustainment, magnetic surface tearing of the tokamak device, etc., these have been solved? You need to know the demonstration reactor He is two completely different things.”
Tillman Lunt couldn't help but ask a series of questions. He had too many doubts in his heart.
Robert Mack sighed and said: "No one has heard that these problems have been solved. Except for the two-hour high-density plasma operation experiment, Professor Xu has never disclosed the progress. ”
"Don't talk about us, even the United States doesn't know how far they have progressed. The United States is also very worried about this and is increasing penetration, hoping to obtain more intelligence."
After a pause, he continued with emotion: "I have to say that Professor Xu really did something big this time."
"The demonstration reactor, ITER was originally expected to start construction in 2025 or even 2035, but this time it has been moved forward by several years."
On the sidelines, Tillman Lunt couldn't help but ask: "I just want to know how he solved the problem of neutron irradiation of the first wall material and what material he used."
Robert smiled bitterly and said: "How can 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 that Professor Xu previously developed to deal with nuclear waste."
"'Nuclear energy beta radiation energy concentration and conversion technology'?"
"Well, this is it."
Hearing this, Tillman Lent began to think about it. He had naturally heard of this technology applied to nuclear waste.
The Germanic country has also had transactions with China. In the past two years, the government used technology in exchange for China to build a nuclear waste power station in Bavaria, and then prepared to collect the nuclear waste from 17 nuclear power plants across the country. It was transferred and disposed of in one go.
This is a good thing for Germany, which relies on Tsarist Russia for energy.
After all, due to the extremely difficult disposal of nuclear waste, they were planning 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, energy issues are still a big trouble for them.
Otherwise, the EU would not increase investment in controlled nuclear fusion.
But what's sad now is that they seem to be far behind China.
No matter how anxious countries are about this news, the financial market has already reacted from the moment the Qixia Controlled Nuclear Fusion Project announced the construction of a demonstration reactor through the news media.
On Wall Street, just like those in the field of nuclear fusion, these financial elites who usually sit in their offices with air conditioners blowing on are now sweating coldly, panicking and anxious.
In particular, financial institutions in areas that speculate in coal, oil, natural gas and other fossil energy areas are on the verge of selling off the stocks and futures in their hands.
Does the construction of the demonstration reactor mean that the commercialization of controllable nuclear fusion is approaching?
If the ultimate energy in the dream of human civilization comes true, fossil energy and other things will all be swept into the dust of history, right?
Oil and natural gas are not bad. 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 and other methods, the importance of its energy attributes accounts for almost more than 90% of its various attributes.
What's more, China is still the world's largest coal consumer, and its coal imports from other countries every year are astronomical.
There are even some countries, such as Indonesia, the Philippines and other South Asian countries, the economic gain from exporting coal to China even accounts for a high proportion of their own economic GDP.
If one day China no longer needs their coal, everyone 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 how many years, ten years or even decades it will take to truly complete the process.
But for the market, when such news is released, it will create panic in itself.
Of course, it is certain that some capital giants are taking advantage of the troubled waters and adding fuel to the flames.
But no matter what, the decline of fossil fuels is doomed. If good news about controllable nuclear fusion comes out from Professor Xu again in the future, it is not impossible that the fossil energy-related sector will be directly penetrated.
Xu Chuan could think of the distress in Western countries and the collapse of the stock and futures markets, but he didn't really care.
Compared with these things, he is more concerned about the construction of the demonstration reactor.
This is a super project. Although the Qixia Controlled Nuclear Fusion Engineering Base has divided the site according to the standards of the demonstration reactor from the beginning, and some experiment-related configurations are also made in accordance with the standards.
But the experimental reactor and the demonstration reactor are two completely different things after all.
Relatively speaking, the demonstration reactor requires a lot more supporting equipment.
For example, ultra-vacuum pumps, plasma exchange systems, generator sets, and power grid control. A series of related supporting equipment are not available in experimental reactors.
In fact, Xu Chuan was also in the research institute, discussing these matters with two academicians arranged by the Nuclear Industry Group.
"For the generating units, we will tentatively select six groups and reserve space for four groups. There is no problem with this. Just follow your request, Academician Xu."
"But as for the way to generate electricity, we still use heat engines?"
"If you use a heat engine, we have complete design drawings and structural drawings here, and you can use it with slight modifications. It is very convenient."
In the office, academicians Wang Yongnian and Hou Chengping from the Nuclear Industry Group, Xu Chuan and Peng Hongxi exchanged details about the supporting equipment for the construction of the demonstration reactor.
Hearing this question, Xu Chuan smiled and said: "Using nuclear fusion to boil water is honestly overkill."
Opposite, 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 currently create."
Since Watt and Faraday started the steam age and the electromagnetic age, no matter how energy and social technology have changed, there have never been any big changes in terms of electrical energy and how to generate electricity.
Boiling water is still the most common and most efficient way to generate electricity.
Although countries are constantly optimizing this set of technologies, they have never broken away.
How to tell 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's a dark humorous joke, but it truly reflects the current level of human technology in power generation.
How should I put it? With current human technology, it is difficult to directly convert chemical energy and nuclear energy in coal, petroleum, etc. into electrical energy on a large scale.
The whole thing is still the same as Watt and Faraday did two hundred years ago.
First find a way to convert it into the internal energy of water, then the water vapor drives the steam turbine to convert it into kinetic energy, and then cuts the magnetic field lines and converts it into electrical energy.
Modern thermal power essentially uses fuel (coal, natural gas, nuclear energy, garbage, etc.) to boil water, generate water vapor, convert its kinetic energy into kinetic energy for turbine rotation, and then drive the generator set.
If we expand it further, 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 bioelectric power generation that is almost rarely heard of. This uses electricity generated by a special chemical reaction of organisms themselves, but it has basically never been used commercially and is still being studied in laboratories.
Xu Chuan smiled and said: "It is undeniable that the efficiency of boiling water is indeed very efficient among past power generation technologies."
"For mainstream heat sources such as coal combustion, solar energy, nuclear fission, and geothermal heat, until supercritical carbon dioxide cycle technology matures, no other material can replace water, which seems to be an unremarkable material."
"It can be said that as the source of life, water is very magical. Human beings are very lucky that such a good material can not only be drunk but also used to generate electricity."
After a pause, he smiled and continued: "But when it comes to efficiency, boiling water is not necessarily the most efficient."
"Especially in technology such as controllable nuclear fusion."
PS: There are two more updates tonight! Asking for a monthly ticket.
PS: Thank you to the reader, book friend 151201040954786, for the reward (ten additional chapters, one chapter today), thank you for Let It Be 2023 (3000 points), there is one missing sheep (1500 points), so white, big and round __Fifteen moon (500 points) reward, thank you guys
(In addition, as I promised before, I owe the two bosses Yiwanzhou and Arrietty for the reward and extra updates. I still remember it. There are four chapters in total, which adds up to 14 chapters. I will work hard to write it! Pay it back as soon as possible)
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