December 31st.
Sandia National Laboratory, New Mexico.
Several engineers in protective suits were standing in a hemispherical device, inspecting the cooled down equipment.
Z-machine, this was the name of this device, commonly known as the Z machine.
The capacitors densely packed in the device could release up to 1,000 lightning bolts of electricity. As long as the switch was pressed, 20 million amperes of electricity would surge into the cylinder that was only the size of an eraser in an instant, violently compressing the hydrogen atoms contained inside to the limit and releasing a terrifying fusion energy.
Because of the demonstration reactor on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, the controllable fusion laboratories in the United States had been doing quite well.
Especially after witnessing the turbulence in the energy futures market some time ago, the politicians in Congress finally took the controllable nuclear fusion technology seriously. They were no longer stingy with their funding.
In addition to the politicians in Congress, the major energy giants also increased their investment in this technology. However, for the Sandia National Laboratory, a research institute under the Department of Energy, they mainly used federal government funding to conduct experiments.
Unlike the NIF in California, the Z machine wasn't purely inertial confinement. Instead, it used the inertia of the fuel and a magnetic cage formed by a strong electric current to perform pulsed ignition within the range of microseconds. If you didn't understand this sentence, you could think of it as a hybrid of magnetic and inertial confinement.
Even though this machine wasn't as famous as the NIF, it once set a world record for the world's highest temperature — 3.5 billion degrees. Even the researchers who designed this device were surprised and confused by this temperature that exceeded their expectations.
But honestly speaking, if they were using DT fuel, this temperature was completely unnecessary. After all, 100 million degrees was more than enough for a fusion reaction to occur. Even the ideal second-generation nuclear fusion using He3 as fuel only had a critical temperature of 600 million degrees. There was no need for such a high temperature.
Needless to say, the difficulty of controllable fusion research wasn't in the heating method, but in maintaining the high-temperature plasma confinement.
However, compared to other technical routes, the Z machine had at least achieved some results in terms of electrical energy output.
Rick Perry, the United States Secretary of Energy, was sitting in the lounge area outside the laboratory. He raised his hand and looked at his watch.
When the hour hand pointed to the hour, Dean Rofan, the chief researcher of the Sandia National Laboratory, appeared at the door and walked toward him.
After Luo Fan sat opposite him, Perry asked in a deep voice, "What's the result?"
Dean Rowan shook his head.
"It's too early to ask this question. Can the anti-radiation ability of the materials be resolved? Can the thorium in the reactor be self-sustaining? These are the most fundamental aspects of controllable fusion —"
Perry took in a deep breath and interrupted him. "Listen, I need a specific time. When can you guys produce results that we can see?"
Luo Fan couldn't help but say, "You're making things difficult for me! I can't give you a specific time unless the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory can give us a time to tell us when the neutron source based on the D-Li interaction can be made. "
Perry felt a headache coming on. "So the problem now is the neutron source?"
"Obviously more than that …" With a bitter smile on his face, Luo Fan went silent for a while and said, "But if we solve the neutron source problem, we can at least do radiation resistance testing on the material."
At this moment, footsteps suddenly came from outside the resting area.
Perry frowned when he saw the man rushing in from outside, and he gave him a questioning look.
"What is it?"
The man in the suit took a deep breath and spoke with difficulty.
"It's a call from the White House. The president wants you to go back immediately … There's a very important meeting tomorrow."
"What happened?"
"I only heard …" The man in the suit took a deep breath and lowered his voice as he said, "Our allies sent news … In twelve hours, the demonstration reactor in Haizhou, China, will conduct ignition tests."
The moment Perry heard this sentence, his pupils shrunk slightly.
Luo Fan, who was sitting opposite him, jumped up from his chair and cried out involuntarily.
"This is impossible!"
…
Haizhou, STAR demonstration reactor base.
Looking up, the sky was clear and cloudless. Looking down, the blue waves of the sea surged. As far as the eye could see, everything was calm.
Inside the base, whether it was the researchers or the soldiers stationed there, they were all working in an orderly manner.
Since last night, the farthest checkpoint had been set up 20 kilometers away. With the cooperation of armored vehicles, all roads leading to this area were blocked, and all tourists and pedestrians were advised to leave. Soldiers with live ammunition patrolled inside and outside the base, eliminating all potential threats and security risks.
Just three nights ago, the regimental combat units stationed in this area used terrorists with heavy firepower and flying units as imaginary enemies. They conducted live-fire exercises that included surface-to-air anti-missile, anti-carrier-based aircraft, and other subjects.
They had already considered all possible scenarios and made sufficient preparations to deal with them.
On the other hand, inside the reactor building, engineers from the China National Nuclear Corporation were conducting a final inspection of the equipment.
If the STAR-1 was a steel behemoth, then the fully assembled STAR-2 was a dragon armed to the teeth.
The SG-1 superconducting magnet was its running legs, the supercomputer was its brain, the plasma control scheme evolved by artificial intelligence told it how to run, and the He-3 atom probe was its disdainful eyes. The LPC-1 composite material was its internal organs, and the liquid lithium that circulated back and forth was its blood …
In addition to these, there were many other things on its body, all of which were the result of the painstaking efforts of countless researchers.
It was an honor that this project was finally completed.
After all of the inspection work was completed, the engineers in the factory quickly left with security personnel.
On the other hand, inside the demonstration reactor control room on the other side of the base, everything was being carried out in an orderly manner.
As early as three days ago, they had already completed the ignition operation drill. Every operator sitting there had already memorized the contents of the safety manual and the operation guide.
What they needed to do now was to repeat what they did three days ago on a real machine.
"Superconducting magnet inspection completed! Injecting liquid helium … "
"Liquid helium injection completed, confirming that the temperature has reached critical value, starting power!"
"Current reached critical value …"
"Magnetic field configuration adjustment completed …"
"Inject fuel!"
Finally, it was time for the last step.
As long as the ICRF heating antenna was turned on, all of the work would be done …
Lu Zhou looked at the button in front of him and suddenly felt a little hesitant.
He took a deep breath and looked at Academician Pan.
"Why don't you do it?"
"No, you do it." Academician Pan shook his head and said with a smile, "I'm happy to be able to witness this day in my lifetime!"
All of the researchers in the control room had their eyes focused on Lu Zhou.
The CTV camera was facing Lu Zhou, and they were ready to press the shutter at any time.
Lu Zhou took a deep breath and slowly reached out his right hand.
Ever since the 863 Project, China had been inextricably linked to controllable fusion for almost half a century. Internationally, this technology was born in the early 1950s, and it was almost the same age as the United States.
Tomorrow would be 2020.
People had been waiting for this day for a long time.
And now, the key to a new world was right in front of them.
No one was closer to the future than he was.
Lu Zhou gulped and stared at the dial on the control panel. He had his back to the researchers as he slowly spoke.
"… I'm honored to witness this moment with you all.
"We've done all the work. We've done everything to the best of our ability with a clear conscience."
"Regardless of success or failure, history will remember this day. It will remember all of us."
After that, he pressed the button.
It was like the rising sun.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
