The first law of thermodynamics:
Heat can be transferred from one object to another. It can also be exchanged with mechanical energy or other forms of energy. However, during the conversion process, the total value of the energy remains the same.
The plasma cutter was also a form of thermodynamics.
The energy module that provided the power source for the plasma cutter also followed the principle of conservation of energy. Its energy density was directly related to the working time of the plasma cutter.
The nuclear reactor, strictly speaking, was also a type of energy storage device. It was just that the energy density was many times higher than that of the energy module.
It relied on the fuel rods in the nuclear core to provide a continuous source of heat. This heat source heated the cooling water of the primary circuit and boiled the working fluid of the secondary circuit. It turned into ultra-supercritical fluid to drive the gas turbine to generate electricity.
Why did Dian Jing design the amorphous torpedo as a thousand-ton big guy from the beginning?
It could barely fit in a small nuclear reactor.
The reactor generated electricity, and with electricity, it could drive various equipment or weapons.
If the plasma cutter was driven, the reactor could provide almost unlimited power, allowing the plasma cutter to cut the hull of the ship.
Then …
Under the principle of plasma using high-temperature arcs to melt metal, these energy conversion steps could be directly skipped, skipping the nuclear core, the reactor, the primary circuit water, the secondary circuit water, the gas turbine, and so on.
What if it was just holding a fuel rod?
What would happen if it was holding a fuel rod?
Under normal circumstances, of course, the nuclear fuel inside the fuel rod would gradually heat up and release some radioactive elements that could penetrate the protection of the zirconium alloy fuel rod.
Without cooling measures, it would gradually rise to a high temperature of more than 3,000 degrees. While it melted itself, it also melted the protective shell of the zirconium alloy.
Once the internal uranium dioxide fuel block melted, its fission reaction could no longer be interrupted.
The fission knife was an extreme weapon that Ye Qing thought of.
There were no messy energy conversion steps. He directly redesigned a fuel rod into a weapon that could continuously release terrifying heat.
The plasma cutter could release electric arcs up to 8,000 degrees to melt metal.
A fuel rod, although there was no way to heat it up to 8,000 degrees.
However, energy was conserved.
There was a loss in the energy conversion process. The more conversion steps there were, the greater the loss.
The heat efficiency of nuclear power generation was only 33%. The electricity was converted into high-temperature electric arcs through the plasma cutter, further increasing the energy loss.
Therefore, the destructive power of the electric arc could not be compared to the destructive power of the heat released by the fuel rod.
…
As soon as Ye Qing proposed the Fission Blade, Dian Jing cried out crazily and felt that it was very, very much to her liking.
How big was a fuel rod?
A standard fuel block in a nuclear power plant was a cylinder with a diameter of one centimeter and a height of one centimeter. Hundreds of these fuel blocks were installed in a zirconium alloy sleeve with a thickness of one millimeter to form a standard fuel rod that was four meters long.
In that case, redesign the fuel rod to be a knife filled with hundreds of fuel blocks.
Before cutting, the fuel block in the fission knife was activated and ignited, allowing it to continuously release terrifying heat.
Of course, once the Fission Blade was activated, there was no way to lower the temperature. Without cooling measures, it wouldn't take long for it to melt itself, causing a nuclear leak.
"That's not a problem!" Dian Jing cheered.
If it couldn't be extinguished after being activated, it wouldn't be extinguished.
After the task of cutting the warship was completed, the fission blade of the indeterminate torpedo would be removed and placed on the submarine. The submarine's space was large enough, and it was hidden in the sea. The water circulation could continuously cool the fission knife.
The next time it was used, it would be taken out and installed.
As soon as the design idea of the Fission Blade was proposed, everyone from Ye Qing to Dian Jing to the Master Craftsman became extremely enthusiastic. They didn't have the mind to care about the cargo on the Humpback Whale.
Ye Qing directly activated the Lord's Battleship and returned to the secret factory behind the Sooto Rainforest, where the nuclear reactor and a large amount of fuel blocks were located.
In less than twenty minutes of the journey back to the nuclear factory, Dian Jing had already started to design the Fission Blade.
First of all, a metal that was more resistant to heat and corrosion than zirconium alloy was needed.
Humans used zirconium alloy to make fuel rods, but it didn't mean that zirconium alloy was the most heat-resistant alloy that humans could make.
However, zirconium alloy had high hardness, high ductility, and corrosion resistance characteristics. It could maintain its strength in a high-radiation and high-corrosion environment for a long time.
In addition, its welding performance was also quite excellent. It could be easily welded into various components, so it was the most suitable material for making fuel rods.
Dian Jing was just about to use the holographic glasses to look through the alloy metal catalog in the factory when she suddenly slapped her transparent head.
What alloy? Just use the amorphous metal.
The zirconium alloy fuel rods used in commercial nuclear power plants would slowly rise to about three thousand degrees once the fuel rods lost cooling water and the reaction was not stopped. At this temperature, the zirconium alloy wouldn't last long before it melted.
The amorphous metal was the alloy with the highest known melting point. Its melting point was 4,622 degrees.
And when it reached the melting point, it could no longer enter the solid state. When the temperature dropped, it could once again switch between two of the three metal forms at will.
The higher the density of the metal, the stronger the radiation resistance.
The density of the amorphous metal was higher than that of gold. If two hundred standard fuel blocks were packaged, the amorphous metal would be able to completely block the nuclear radiation released by two hundred standard fuel blocks as long as the thickness of the amorphous metal exceeded nine millimeters.
Of course, during the cooling and maintenance period after the completion of the mission, the cooling water containing boron would be used to absorb the high-energy neutrons slowly accumulated on the fission blade to extend the lifespan of the fission blade.
In addition, after using the amorphous metal to make the fission blade, the fission blade would lose the ability to freely transform.
This was because there was a large amount of radiation inside the fission blade, and this radiation would disturb the deformation magnetic field released by the manufacturer. Rashly transforming the blade was likely to cause a leak.
Ye Qing and Dian Jing both agreed that as long as the fission blade looked cool, it didn't matter if it transformed or not.
At the same time, Dian Jing also planned to prepare a new batch of fuel blocks.
The fuel blocks used in nuclear power plants all incorporated moderating materials during the manufacturing process to slow down the speed of fission.
Dian Jing wanted to minimize the proportion of the moderating materials within the safety threshold. This would allow the fission speed of the fuel blocks to approach the critical point, greatly increasing the fission speed and temperature.
In theory, the fission blade could be heated to 4,000 degrees.
What did 4,000 degrees mean?
It was known as the hard stainless steel in the metal processing industry, but its melting point was only between 1,400 and 1,500 degrees.
The melting point of pure titanium was 1,678 degrees, and the melting point of titanium alloys was even lower.
A high temperature of 4,000 degrees didn't seem as high as the 8,000 degrees plasma arc temperature after energy accumulation.
But how big was the cutting diameter of the plasma arc?
The deeper the cutting depth, the smaller the cutting diameter. When cutting 30 millimeters of alloy, the cutting diameter was less than one millimeter.
The fission blade cut with a diameter of 10 centimeters. It was as easy as cutting a piece of paper to cut a ship with a melting point of only 1,400 degrees.
Just imagining the scene of an indeterminate torpedo cutting through the hull of a ship, and then slicing and dicing inside, Ye Qing felt very excited.
"That's right, the name 'amorphous torpedo' is not appropriate."
When they arrived at the nuclear factory, Ye Qing said to Dian Jing, "If you want to maximize the power of the fission blade, you can't rely on the shape of a fish."
"Yes, yes. I'm going to design it as an amorphous robot that can transform into multiple forms."
Dian Jing thought for a moment but couldn't think of a suitable name. "Boss, what name should we give it?"
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