Chapter 667 Did It?
Haizhou.
China National Nuclear Corporation laboratory.
Academician Wang Zengguang was sitting in front of the experiment table while wearing a pair of glasses. He was meticulously staring at the blueprint in his hand while thinking intently.
The goal of the miniaturization of the controllable fusion project was to design a smaller ferrofluid electric energy source, specifically for the spacecraft. This task was now assigned to the China National Nuclear Corporation, which worked on the Pangu reactor.
Even though China National Nuclear Corporation wasn’t optimistic about the miniaturization of controllable fusion, they still agreed to undergo this project.
There was only one reason.
Because, other than the fact that Lu Zhou had already brought them a victory, this was their responsibility.
The phone on the desk began to ring.
Wang Zengguang squinted his eyes. He was a bit annoyed at this phone call because it was interrupting his work. However, when he saw the name of the person calling, he immediately picked up the phone.
The call connected, and before he could speak, he heard them say, “Hello?”
“Academician Wang, is the ferrofluid electric energy generator done or what?”
Since Lu Zhou spoke in a half-serious manner, Academician Wang relaxed a bit and said, “Don’t worry about us, we’ll produce a prototype in a month. How about you? Is there any progress?”
The ferrofluid electric energy generator was only a small project, it wasn’t anything particularly high tech. The main problem was still the reactor itself. If they couldn’t build a reactor, the ferrofluid electric energy generator would be useless.
Lu Zhou smiled and said, “What do you mean if there’s any progress? Does completing the project count as a type of progress?”
The other side went silent for a few seconds.
After a while, Academician Wang spoke.
“Um, I didn’t hear you, what did you just say...”
Lu Zhou raised his voice and spoke clearly.
“I said, we’ve already solved the miniaturization of controllable fusion!”
When Lu Zhou heard a bang sound through his phone, he moved his phone away from his ear and looked at his phone screen.
Did he drop his phone?
He’s not that surprised, is he?
Academician Wang quickly picked up his phone from the ground and began asking a string of questions.
“Solved? Already? Did you solve the heat dissipation problem? That thing is going to space! You didn’t just build a smaller version of Pangu, did you?”
Lu Zhou smiled and said, “The reactor isn’t using magnetic confinement fusion, but rather a combination of inertial confinement fusion and fast ignition... I can’t convey it clearly through the phone, come by when you have the chance.”
Academician Wang: “I’m coming over right now!”
The phone call ended.
...
The China National Nuclear Corporation’s nuclear fusion research center was in Haizhou, right next to the Pangu reactor. This was so that it could provide technical support for East Asia Energy and be protected by the military troops.
Jinling was halfway across the state from Haizhou, making this trip very inconvenient.
However, the next morning, Academician Wang Zengguang still brought two of his students to the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study.
Also, Academician Wang wasn’t the only person that came, Director Li also came.
“Professor Lu, long time no see!”
Director Li looked at Lu Zhou with a smile on his face as he reached out his right hand.
Lu Zhou shook his hand and smiled as he said, “It’s an honor, Director Li. It hasn’t been that long, right?”
When Academician Wang saw that Director Li was about to make some small talk, he was getting impatient, so he interrupted them.
“Okay, go have your small talk later, ok? Where is it? I want to see it.”
Director Li smiled and said, “Uh... Mr. Wang is correct. Professor Lu, let’s chat inside?”
Lu Zhou smiled and turned around.
“Come with me.”
With Lu Zhou leading the way, the group arrived at a laboratory located at the corner of the institute.
Located in the middle of the laboratory was the experimental reactor, which was designed by the miniaturization of controllable fusion project team.
Academician Wang looked at the black cylinder, which had a diameter of around two meters. He looked at the chaotic wires and electrical circuits. He stood there with his mouth wide open.
After a while, he finally said, “You plan on using this thing... for nuclear fusion?”
He started to think.
Can this thing...
Even achieve nuclear fusion?
The two PhD students standing behind Academician Wang were also in disbelief.
Not only does this thing look ugly as hell...
But it seems a little small...
Because they needed to add an insulation layer and a neutron shielding layer, a two-meter diameter cylinder would only be able to accommodate a two-centimeter wide nuclear core.
When Lu Zhou saw that Academician Wang was in disbelief, he chuckled.
“It does look a little simple, but it’s compact and has everything we need. After all, this is only the experimental reactor. When the time comes, we’ll adjust the components.”
Lu Zhou paused for a second and didn’t bother explaining the principle behind it. He looked at Sheng Xianfu and said, “Can you please give Director Li and Academician Wang a demonstration?”
“Yes, sir!”
Sheng Xianfu walked up to the reactor and ordered the two researchers next to him.
“Start the heating machine!”
“Yes, sir!”
The heating machine was turned on, and the reactor began to heat up. When it reached around 180° Celsius, the lithium material inside the insulating layer gradually began to melt into a liquid.
After that, a deuterium-tritium gas mixture was injected into the ionization chamber, before turning into plasma. The liquid lithium was like a machine gun as it was shot into the nuclear core.
The second the bubble collapsed to its minimum volume, the bubble’s temperature instantly increased into the hundreds of millions of degrees.
However, this wasn’t the most shocking part.
Academician Wang Zengguang and his two students stared at the neutron detector value, which was increasing.
Director Li was muddled. He gulped and asked softly, “Is it... a success?”
Academician Wang nodded. His voice was trembling as he confirmed, “It is!”
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