In controlled nuclear fusion facilities, there is an extremely important concept, that is, the Q value.
It is the ratio of the output energy of a nuclear fusion reactor to the input energy.
Assuming that 1MJ of energy is input to start fusion and maintain its operation, but the nuclear fusion reactor can only produce of energy, then the Q value is , which is less than one, and the expenditure is not enough to cover the income. This set of reactor technology is obviously not practical.
As early as the human era, people have actually mastered the technology of controlled nuclear fusion, and have even achieved a Q value of around 5.
But this technology still faces great challenges.
The first is that the ignition time is insufficient. Such a device usually only lasts for a few minutes before it goes out, and cannot last for a long time.
Secondly, the Q value of 5 is still too low.
If a nuclear fission reactor is measured using the Q value concept, its Q value will usually remain above 100.
The Bluetuks' mature nuclear fusion reactor technology usually maintains a Q value above 300.
That is to say, if 1MJ of energy is input to maintain a nuclear fusion reactor, it can produce more than 300MJ of energy.
The difference between them is huge.
Before the Bluetuk came to the solar system, Li Qingsong also conducted controlled nuclear fusion research for a period of time and achieved some results. However, with the subsequent large-scale war preparations, research in this area also stopped.
Now, under the guidance of about 200 experts in Blueprint controlled nuclear fusion, Li Qingsong has picked up this technology again.
Soon, a huge nuclear fusion reactor was built.
Overall it looks like a gigantic stone, more than 20 meters high, and 40 to 50 meters long and wide, extremely huge.
But most of these facilities are auxiliary, and only a small part of the area is used for nuclear fusion.
This small area is in the shape of a ring, like a pipe.
Outside this pipeline, various densely packed facilities are functioning.
At this moment, a portion of the deuterium gas and the tritium gas used for startup were input into it.
The deuterium-tritium mixed gas is first ionized, and then enters the reaction area under the action of the magnetic field.
Afterwards, Li Qingsong used neutral beam injection, radio frequency heating, laser heating and other methods to raise the temperature of the mixed gas to over 100 million degrees Celsius.
At such high temperatures, direct contact is impossible for any known object.
So how do we hold them together? After all, once they disperse, the pressure decreases and nuclear fusion cannot be sustained.
At this time, Li Qingsong's previous research on secondary pressurization propulsion technology and a technology used in electromagnetic guns came in handy.
Magnetic confinement technology.
Use electric current to form a magnetic field, and use the invisible magnetic field to restrain the high-temperature gases without any substantial contact with them, preventing them from running around or dispersing.
Under the strong magnetic field, in the circular reaction chamber, this ball of deuterium-tritium mixed gas, although possessing extremely huge energy and pressure, still cannot disperse.
Then the nuclear fusion reaction finally began to occur.
Under extremely high temperatures and pressures, the deuterium and tritium nuclei finally overcame the Coulomb barrier, began to approach each other, and eventually combined into unstable intermediate nuclei, which then quickly split into helium nuclei and neutrons.
During this process, about of the mass was converted into energy and radiated to the outside world in the form of helium nuclei and high-energy neutrons.
Li Qingsong only added some tritium gas to the nuclear fusion reactor at the beginning, and did not add any more afterwards, but only continued to add deuterium gas.
But nuclear fusion reactions occur between deuterium and tritium. How can fusion be maintained without replenishing tritium gas?
Here, Li Qingsong used a special technique.
Tritium self-sustaining technology.
In simple terms, the wall material of the annular reaction chamber contains lithium. The deuterium-tritium fusion process releases high-energy neutrons, which bombard the lithium element, causing the lithium nuclei to react with the neutrons to generate tritium and helium.
Therefore, lithium is continuously converted into tritium gas, which is then replenished into the reaction chamber and continuously reacts with the deuterium gas input from the outside. After the reaction consumes the tritium gas, the lithium from the cavity wall is converted into tritium, and the cycle continues.
This is tritium self-sustaining technology.
Through this technology, nuclear fusion reactors avoid the problem of needing to replenish large amounts of tritium gas.
Because the half-life of tritium is too short, only a dozen years, there is almost no natural tritium in nature, and there is no way to mine it.
At this moment, nuclear fusion has been started. The energy generated by nuclear fusion is collected through the heat dissipation device of the annular reaction chamber and used to boil water and generate electricity.
The heat mainly comes from high-energy neutrons, while the other part of the helium nuclei carrying energy is used to heat the deuterium-tritium plasma to maintain the fusion environment.
In this way, a complete nuclear fusion device completes the entire operation process.
At this moment, this huge nuclear fusion reactor was in continuous operation. In the control room far away, hundreds of blueprint scientists and numerous clones were closely monitoring its operating status.
The blueprint scientists are certainly clear about the principles and composition of the entire nuclear fusion device, but this is a complete scientific device after all, involving many technical details. Without millions of people, it would be impossible to memorize even the relevant knowledge.
At this moment, these hundreds of blueprint scientists only know the technical framework, and Li Qingsong still has to study a lot of technical details by himself.
But even so, it has saved Li Qingsong countless years and countless energy.
This nuclear fusion reactor ran for a full hour before it was stopped under control.
Li Qingsong was filled with joy to see that during the entire operation cycle of this nuclear fusion reactor, if the total energy input from the outside was recorded as 1, the energy it produced reached 12, that is, the Q value reached 12!
Directly surpassing the most advanced technology of the human era!
If we have to say it, this nuclear fusion device is practical, but its power is relatively low.
Li Qingsong was not in a hurry to apply it on a large scale, but continued to carry out research and experiments under the guidance of blueprint scientists and a lot of information collected from the Blueprint civilization.
Iteration and optimization generation after generation, while carrying out many other crucial scientific research at the same time, there are always about ten million clones concentrating on the research of controlled nuclear fusion.
With the combination of various conditions, Li Qingsong's controlled nuclear fusion technology developed rapidly at a speed that left Blueprint scientists dumbfounded.
In just less than 50 years, Li Qingsong's latest generation of controlled nuclear fusion reactor has achieved a Q value of 260, which is about to catch up with Blueprint's most advanced technology!
