Chapter 248

Xiao Yi was also invited on this day.

According to what Li Jiangan said before, he will be responsible for pressing the ignition button today to ignite this artificial sun.

Control Center.

"Vacuum group, reports current vacuum status."

Zhao Zhanyou held a walkie-talkie in his hand and asked inside.

"The vacuum team is in place, and the main reaction chamber pressure is stable at 1.0*10^-6 Torr, which meets the experimental requirements." The leader of the vacuum team replied.

"Received in the control room, have you completed checking the operating status of the magnetic constraint group and magnetic field coil?"

"Still checking the magnetic field distribution map, it will be completed soon." The voice of the magnetic constraint team engineer came from the intercom.

"Speed ​​up."

Zhao Zhan said something, then he looked at Xiao Yi next to him, and asked with a smile: "Professor Xiao, I heard that you will hold a report meeting on NS equations in March?"

Xiao Yi nodded and said: "Yes, March 15th."

"Tsk, I heard that the whole province is now preparing for this matter." Zhao Zhanyou sighed with emotion: "It is indeed one of the seven major problems of the millennium. This momentum is huge."

Xiao Yi laughed: "When the day when controllable nuclear fusion is realized, I am afraid that even if the Riemann Hypothesis is proven, it will not be able to compare."

Zhao Zhanyou shrugged and said: "These two things are more distant than the other."

He also didn't forget to incite Xiao Yi to study nuclear fusion, so he used the topic to his advantage: "But Professor Xiao, if you come to help us study nuclear fusion first, you might be able to see such a day."

Xiao Yi couldn't laugh or cry, and said, "Then why don't I study the Riemann Hypothesis? After all, don't forget that I am a mathematician."

"Uh...that's true."

Zhao Zhanyou was stunned.

But at this moment, the voice of the engineer from the magnetic restraint team came over the intercom.

"The magnetic constraint team reports: All superconducting magnets are cooling normally, the spiral magnetic field coils and toroidal magnetic field coils have reached the default current intensity, and the magnetic field distribution diagram shows no abnormalities."

"Control room received!"

After hearing the report on the walkie-talkie, Zhao Zhanyou stopped chatting with Xiao Yi, became serious, and said to the walkie-talkie: "Plasma heating group, prepare to start the neutral beam injection and radio frequency heating system."

"The plasma heating pack is ready, neutral beam injectors and radio frequency heaters are calibrated and awaiting start commands."

"Diagnostic team, confirm all sensors and detectors are functioning properly."

"The diagnostic team reports: All diagnostic equipment, including Thomson scatterometers, interferometers and flexible X-ray detectors, have passed the test and the data acquisition system is normal."

"Okay!" Zhao Zhanyou said: "Now that all groups are ready, I will hand over the command to Professor Xiao Yi."

Then he handed the walkie-talkie in his hand to Xiao Yi next to him.

"Ready to light the fire."

Xiao Yi nodded, took the walkie-talkie, and walked to the console.

There is a switch on the console that controls the flow of current.

As long as this switch is pulled, a huge current will be quickly input to each coil to heat the interior.

The so-called input value in the Q value of nuclear fusion refers to this part of the input current.

Xiao Yi took a deep breath. It was the first time for him to do such a thing, and he was still a little excited.

Then, he said into the intercom: "Hello everyone, I am Xiao Yi, and I will be in charge of the command next."

Responses from each group came over the intercom: "Hello, Professor Xiao! We are all just waiting for your order!"

Xiao Yi smiled, and then said: "Okay, all groups, pay attention, prepare to ignite, and all personnel will enter the highest alert state."

"Start the countdown now!"

"10!"

"9!"

"8!"

"..."

"1!"

"ignition!"

As Xiao Yi pulled the gate, the lights in the entire control room dimmed, and all eyes were focused on the large screen in the center, which displayed real-time plasma data.

The voices of each group quickly came over the intercom.

"Start the vacuum pump and start pumping out air."

"The magnetic field coil warms up and the current rises to the set value."

"Start neutral beam injection and turn on the radio frequency heating system simultaneously!"

On the screen, the plasma gradually formed and its temperature rose rapidly.

On the large central screen, the plasma electron density and temperature are also rising, approaching the expected ignition conditions.

About forty seconds later, the excited voice of the person in charge of the diagnostic team rang out: "The plasma temperature reaches 100 million degrees!"

One hundred million degrees!

Basically meet the requirements of nuclear fusion reaction.

The reason why nuclear fusion requires high temperatures is to take advantage of the extremely high kinetic energy of various particles at such high temperatures, which can overcome the strong interaction between particles, thereby colliding together and causing a fusion reaction.

The higher the temperature, the stronger the kinetic energy of the particles, the higher the probability of collision, and the more intense the fusion reaction.

Of course, nuclear fusion will actually occur at tens of millions of degrees. For example, the core of the sun reaches 15 million degrees. However, the sun is because its center still has an atmospheric pressure of hundreds of billions of times. In this kind of At atmospheric pressure, the probability of nuclear fusion occurring is higher.

As for the artificial sun, it will definitely not be able to meet those conditions in terms of air pressure. There are still several orders of magnitude in between. What's more, even if it can really be achieved, even from a safety perspective, it is estimated that no government will allow it. Such a facility is built within the territory.

Just kidding, if we can really build a device with a pressure of hundreds of billions of times the atmosphere, it will really bring the sun to the earth. If it explodes, it will really be equivalent to the sun exploding on the earth.

Within the Eastern Super Ring.

As the temperature reached over 100 million degrees, the plasma density began to rise rapidly. Similarly, the nuclear fusion reaction gradually became more intense.

A red line on the large central screen kept rising, and everyone almost held their breath, waiting for the critical moment to arrive.

Until the above value exceeded the data of 1.57×10^20/m^3, cheers rang out in the entire control room.

"The plasma density has exceeded the previous Greenwald limit! And the current plasma flow is still stable!"

"Awesome!"

"Nais!"

"..."

Amidst the cheers, Xiao Yi also smiled slightly, but his eyes were fixed on another screen next to him. This screen displayed real-time modeling of the internal plasma through an infrared detector.

It allows them to visually see the trajectory of the internal plasma flow.

Xiao Yi looked at the fluid trajectory above and started to launch a perfect project, simulating these trajectory processes in his mind, and thinking about how to use the energy in this trajectory?

But the final conclusion is that there is still no good way.

Wear is still a key issue, and due to the structure of the tokamak itself, such wear will become more serious.

"Materials are still the key..."

Xiao Yi narrowed his eyes.

"But just solving the material problem is far from enough. The degree of wear of the tokamak will be too serious."

"And the key problem is that it is not convenient to replace the worn inner wall material inside the tokamak."

"So, it is necessary to add a buffer zone. When the wall material is replaced inside the fusion device, the plasma flow can be controlled in the buffer zone without entering the power generation area."

"Besides..."

Xiao Yi gradually began to think in his heart.

“But the most important thing is the material!”

"If the problem of the first wall material is not solved, the realization of nuclear fusion will always only be 50 years later!"

Material! Material!

Looking at everything on the road of human development, materials are the eternal key issue.

The imaginative super technologies in science fiction works also require more advanced materials.

For example, the super strong carbon nanotubes involved in the space elevator.

Another example is the super-strong materials needed for Dyson spheres.

There are also room temperature superconductors and so on.

Even if it is not so sci-fi, just talking about the materials and technology required in spacecraft is still a problem that always exists.

But could those incredible-sounding materials actually exist?

Xiao Yi couldn't help but wonder, where are the aliens in the Fermi Paradox?

Maybe those aliens are also thinking about how far material technology can break through?