by <unknown>
It had been several months since the successful assembly of the inertial confinement nuclear fusion reactor. In this duration, it had been successfully ignited a total of thirteen times during various experiments. The internal deuterium-tritium fuel had catalyzed a nuclear fusion reaction, which transformed it into a miniature sun with a diameter of one centimeter.
Furthermore, after revisiting the parameter calculations many times, the inertial confinement nuclear fusion could now be maintained for more than five minutes. The Q-value had effortlessly broken through the ten-digit reading, reaching up to eighteen-digit now.
Just when he was so close to seeing the world's first truly controllable nuclear fusion reactor coming to fruition, there were suddenly reports of atmospheric pressure leak. It was no surprise that Chen Chen panicked at the notion.
Fortunately, it was just a false alarm.
Half an hour later, when Chen Chen took the elevator and arrived at the Spire Experimental Base. He saw a newly erected gigantic structure by the south-west corner of the underground space.
This was a standard shed-structured building resembling an assembly line factory. At this time, dozens of Black Knights were constantly coming in and out of the building. They appeared very busy.
This new shed-structured building was the inertial confinement power station Chen Chen had constructed.
Unlike nuclear fission power plants, nuclear fusion was a completely clean source of energy where the only byproduct of the reaction was water. Additionally, due to the harshness and peculiar nature of nuclear fusion, the reaction automatically stops upon meeting any failure condition in the reactor. This way, it negated any chances of unwanted accidents such as nuclear radiation proliferation.
It was for this reason that Chen Chen was not worried about establishing the nuclear fusion factory inside the Spire Experimental Base.
When Chen Chen stepped into the factory, he was immediately greeted with the sight of a gigantic cylindrical structure measuring more than 30 meters in diameter.
The entire building was made of reinforced concrete. Right inside the fortified five-meter-thick building was the inertial confinement reactor.
Who could have ever imagined that this gigantic structure sheltered ultra-high pressure the likes which the Earth had never seen before, with temperature up to hundreds of millions of degrees and exceeding 1,000 atmospheric pressure?
Chen Chen glanced at the control station at the side and then raised his head to ask, "X, what's the situation now?"
"There had been fifteen consecutive successful ignitions so far. The reaction period of the inertial confinement nuclear fusion reactor had surpassed an hour and the Q value reading had broken through 20."
"Has the stability issues been addressed yet?"
Chen Chen flicked an eyebrow upon hearing the report. "I remember that in the previous experiment, even the room temperature superconductor was unable to completely stabilize the plasma, isn't it?"
Little X answered, "The reason it's difficult to stabilize is that once the plasma undergoes nuclear fusion, it becomes very turbulent. This causes it to disperse and suspend the reaction. To alleviate this problem, I went to the major well-known international forums and offered a reward for a solution. I also modified the database so that my questions would award more than hundreds of experience points.
"Which means that anyone who can solve the question I presented will be awarded more than a hundred experience points on the forum site.
"To get more experience points, the particle physicists fervently contributed and came up with a total of 341 solutions. Unfortunately, I doubt they would be of much use at all.
"In the end, I found an actual useful answer on Zhihu from a person whose ID is 'Nuclear Boy Sakikawa'."
Little X continued. "Add 0.1mg of heavy elements to the deuterium-tritium fuel pellets to function as the core. The heavy elements will gravitate toward the center of the sphere, which after the fusion reaction occurs, the pellets will remain in a high temperature and high-pressure state. This will help maintain the temperature of the plasma as well as its directed pressure at the center of the sphere.
"Since the pressure is kept at a constant, the pellet will not immediately undergo omnidirectional-fusion. A portion of plasma energy on the surface will be released to the surrounding reaction chamber, which maintains a balance between the two entities. The pellet will neither expand nor shrink and the fuel of the pellets will be squeezed to the surface in moderate amounts to further the reaction process, making the reaction more durable and stable..."
"It's that simple?"
Chen Chen was in shock and awe. "Is this person a particle physics savant? X, could you dig up any information about his true identity?"
"I've already looked him up. This person founded a studio where he's the sole employee. It deals with writing software, spambots, trademark squatting, and many other aspects of businesses."
"…"
It had to be said that no matter how sophisticated Chen Chen's replication of the nuclear fusion design was and how much he tried to mirror the technology in Elysium, there was always going to be a technological gap.
However, what Chen Chen did not expect was that Little X would take a different approach and solve the problem by gathering ideas from the masses. Although doing so may cause the reactor to not reach the efficient scale of the original version, it was more than enough for Chen Chen.
Inertial confinement nuclear fusion.
In truth, the fundamental of inertial confinement nuclear fusion was to aim multiple lasers on a tiny target containing nuclear fuel in a short period. This created a micro-nuclear fusion which released a large amount of energy.
After the first nuclear fusion commenced, the reactor would automatically be refilled with new fuel agents. This way, nuclear fusion was reignited continuously to acquire a vast amount of energy.
Apart from producing hyper-symmetrical laser components, another challenge was that the laser generator had to exhaust a large amount of electricity to ignite and prompt a fusion reaction.
In other words, even if the nuclear fusion reaction was not at the desired level yet, the energy generated by the nuclear fusion reaction must be at least greater than the energy consumed by the ignition of the laser generator to break even.
Therefore, the subject of the gain factor of nuclear fusion energy, otherwise known as - "Q Value" had to be brought up.
Simply abbreviating the "Output energy / Input energy" as "Q Value", Q exceeding 1 implied that the "output was greater than the input", this was after factoring in the energy cost. In the vein of a regular boiler steam turbine, the "thermal efficiency" was about 40%-70%. After adding some other miscellaneous losses, a Q of 2.5 could be roughly tabulated as the actual cost.
In other words:
Q value exceeding 0 implied that fusion reaction was achieved. This was a sign of a breakthrough in the fundamentals of a man made fusion reactor.
Q value exceeding 1 meant that the energy output was greater than the energy input, thus "breaking-even".
Q value exceeding 2.5 meant that the output energy was still greater than the input after being converted into electrical energy. This was the true indication of the success of "practical-use" nuclear fusion.
Q value exceeding 50 implied that the output energy after being converted into electrical energy could be used for profiteering, thus a step toward "commercialization".
This was the reason that there was this saying in the particle physics field: "Don't trust anyone who doesn't discuss the Q value of controlled nuclear fusion."
The current Q value of Chen Chen's inertial confinement fusion reactor at this time had reached as high as 20, which was more than enough to cover the operational cost.
One minor gripe was that Chen Chen could not use the "water-boiling" method to generate electricity due to insufficient space in the underground base, which rendered it unable to withstand a large amount of hot air emission. Therefor
e, Chen Chen resorted to using the "magnetohydrodynamic generation" technique which had lower energy conversion efficiency.
The technique was not acquired from the Elysium dimension as it was a founded technology in the real world and its principle was very simple.
The miniature sun in the reactor was a high-temperature plasma confined by a magnetic field. The plasma within was also a charged particle structure composed of positively-charged and negatively-charged particles. Based on Lorentz force theory, magnetic fluid device charged particles could be used to concentrate the charged particles to two-pole conductors to produce a potential differential. After that, the current could be transmitted as output simply by connecting a wire to it.
The advantage of this form of magnetohydrodynamic generation technique was that it was very easy to operate as there were almost no technical difficulties whatsoever. Its shortcoming was that the energy conversion rate was not exemplary, otherwise, the Q value of the inertial confinement nuclear fusion reactor may have very well exceeded 50.
The current Q value of nuclear fusion reactors in the forefront of the world only hovered around 1.5 and there was still a long way to go before reaching a self-sufficient Q value of 2.5.
One way or another, Chen Chen had verified that the nuclear fusion reactor in the Spire Experimental Base was an unqualified success. This was also the first truly mature nuclear fusion reactor in the world.
Based on Little X's calculations, the highest energy output of the fusion reactor could reach as high as 200,000 kilowatts. It may not be an impressive amount, but its energy consumption was merely a fraction of the energy generation, thereby making it a far more cost-effective solution than nuclear fission power plants.
[ol][li data-annotation-id="166710b9-6dda-59d2-db82-5ddbb1691ac4"]The act of registration of a trademark on a product, service, etc. belonging to other companies[/ol]
Chapter 284: Underground Port Completion |
Moving forward, there would be a training camp for the inertial confinement fusion reactor that should last one to two months. After ensuring everything was in order, the fusion reactor would officially take over as the power system of the Spire Experimental Base. From there on, the underground base would become a full-fledged self-sufficient bunker.
Meanwhile, an L-shaped inland port was excavated by the section of the Spire Experimental Base bordering the ocean, according to the initial planning. Reinforced concrete was used to fortify the structure.
The port extended to the open sea through an underwater tunnel approximately one kilometer long. There was no seawater in the tunnel yet as it was not opened.
Chen Chen had designed three gates that respectively labeled as gates A, B, and C. They functioned similarly to floodgates seen in reservoirs so that the Spire Experimental Base would not be overflowed with seawater after the tunnel was opened.
For the submarine to pass through the tunnel and enter the Spire Experimental Base, the first gate would have to be opened. Upon the submarine entering, the gate would have to be closed while the other two gates were to be opened.
As for the submarines themselves, Chen Chen knew better than to order titans like "kilo" or "lada" class submarines. The reason was simple.
First of all, those submarines were too large. There was no chance of Chen Chen's port sheltering them.
Secondly, although the submarine was not classified as nuclear submarines, they were still a significant destruction force. Ordering such units would only attract the unwanted attention of the major continents since the destructiveness of these units were monumental compared to regular tanks and combat helicopters.
Thirdly, due to the design of military-grade submarines being too sophisticated, they ended up not being able to dive into deep ocean territory. A kilo-class submarine could only dive to a depth of 300 meters while the lada-class submarines may reach up to 400 meters. Some nuclear submarines with double-hull holds could dive to a depth of 500 meters at most.
Meanwhile, Chen Chen's Spire Experimental Base was 723 meters below sea level.
Therefore, Chen Chen only had Little X forge an identity and ordered batches of submarines all across the world. There was a variety of exploration-based and patrolling type submarines, most of them were micro submarines capable of carrying just three to five people.
Unlike military-grade submarines, the exploration submarines were not fitted with any weapons or adapted for long-term haul requirements due to their size. As a result, this class of submarine was able to dive up to 700 to 800 meters. The submarines Chen Chen had purchased were a class of tourism submarines that could dive up to a thousand meters.
These tourism submarines were mini-submarine models five meters long and three meters wide. Unlike other submarine models, these submarines were U-shaped like a pair of giant pliers. At the center of its U-shaped design was a spherical cockpit.
This spherical cockpit was almost entirely made of tempered glass which evenly distributed underwater pressure. There were three evenly-sectioned seats on its inside, allowing a 360-degree panoramic view. Such qualities were largely desired by wealthy tourists.
What was even more impressive was the price of such tourism submarines, priced at 1.8 million U.S. dollars.
These submarines were already posted at the Blacklight Cruise awaiting dispatch. Meanwhile, after nearly a year of construction at the Spire Experimental Base, the port project was finally approaching its final stages.
At this time, the tunnel to the outside world had been completed. This was a 1,200-meter-long circular passage with a diameter of ten meters. It connected the cave of the Spire Experimental Base to an endpoint by the coastline.
Inside the tunnel, the three giant gates had been installed. The farthest gate was installed at the very end of the tunnel, only several meters away from the open sea.
"The next step from here on is pretty simple. All we need to do is to use dynamites to blow up the outermost layer of the Earth to open up the tunnel. Just like that, we have a new entrance to the Spire Experimental Base."
After listening to Little X's explanation, Chen Chen went to the port construction site again upon leaving the inertial confinement power station. He first inspected the 100 square meters and 30 meters deep square wharf and saw the tunnel excavated underneath the wharf. He had to ask, "Once the Spire is connected to the open seas, how will the entrance be disguised? A gate propping out of the underwater rock formation should be rather eye-catching."
"There's no need to worry about that."
Little X replied, "I've already had the Black Knights operate submarines to cut out a portion of the outermost layer of the rock formation on the other end of the passage. This outer wall could be made into a camouflage for gate A. This way, nobody would notice the tunnel unless the gate was opened."
"Not bad."
Chen Chen tipped his head agreeably. "Then let's begin now."
"Yes."
After Little X had issued the order, Chen Chen saw a gigantic, fortified gate several meters thick descending by the entrance located by a lower section of the pit-shaped port. The tunnel was completely sealed off after that.
There was a gigantic letter "C" written atop the gate.
At the same time, the artificial intelligence X-111 of the Spire Experimental Base issued a warning across the entire laboratory. "Caution, in ten minutes, the air pressure in the Spire Experimental Base may experience unstable disruption. All personnel is advised to remain awake to avoid damage to the middle ear canal while sleeping…"
"Five seconds countdown: Five, four, three, two, one!"
"Boom, boom, boom…"
The faint rumbling of repeated explosions. Chen Chen could feel the ground below his feet trembling slightly which was soon followed by a distinctive reoccurring shockwave coming from a distance that was slowly drawing closer.
"The rock formation is broken through, seawater is now surging in and filling the space between gate A and gate B…
"The space bet
ween gate A and gate B is now filled with seawater, now closing off gate A…
"Gate A is fully closed, opening gate B…
"Gate B is opened!"
With each of Little X's caution, the rumble approached even closer. The tremendous vibration coursed through the Earth and the gate C below Chen Chen's feet and was felt across the entire Spire cavern.
Surely enough, the seawater had reached gate C.
However, Little X still kept gate C shut while repeating the previous procedure.
"Closing gate B… Gate B is closed, opening gate A again…
"Closing gate A… Opening gate B…"
After repeating the sequence many times, the entire tunnel was finally filled with seawater. At this point, Little X shut off gate A again and prompted. "Sir Godfather, I'm making the preparations to open gate C."
"Open it."
Chen Chen nodded without the slightest inclination of wanting to leave.
So, Chen Chen beheld as the titanic gate let out a low and deep wail as a tiny gap appeared below it parallel to the motions of the rumbling.
In an instant, water that had been compressed into thin sheets surged in through the gap. Even by the port, Chen Chen could smell the distinct, sulphury smell of the sea.
After that, the gate continued to rise taller and taller as more seawater rushed inside the base. Chen Chen's ears were filled with a deafening rumble. The port was quickly filled with seawater from the tunnel!
The billowing waves only came to a halt after the water level in the port had risen just slightly below where Chen Chen stood. After that, the underwater gate C was closed again, sealing off the tunnel.
With that, the construction of the artificial inland port had been wrapped up.
Moving on, the purchased mini-submarines would have to be docked by the port, which would allow easy access to the base through the port instead of having to enter from the stations spread across Eco Science City.