The day before yesterday, the Institute of Plasma of Chinese Academy of Sciences suddenly announced that the experimental device of magnetic confinement nuclear fusion, which is known as "artificial sun" and "oriental super ring", has made great scientific progress, and achieved the results that the heating power exceeds 10 MW, the plasma energy storage reaches 300 kJ, and the electron temperature in the plasma center exceeds 1 100 million degrees Celsius for the first time.
What is the concept of 100 million degrees Celsius? Equivalent to five suns! After all, even the real core temperature of the sun is only 20 million degrees. The difficulty of this technology lies in how to improve the heating efficiency while ensuring the slower heat loss. Generally speaking, the core temperature can be raised relatively easily by making the "furnace" bigger.
It is rare that the plasma institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences can achieve 100 million degrees Celsius on the relatively small "Oriental Ring", but this is not the limit. If it is operated according to the standards of international thermonuclear fusion reactors in the future, the temperature can even soar to 200 million degrees Celsius, and the difficulty is lower.
"Oriental Hyperloop" is the fourth generation nuclear fusion experimental device independently designed and developed by the Institute of Plasma, Hefei Institute of Material Science, China Academy of Sciences, and has complete intellectual property rights. It is also the first fully superconducting tokamak fusion experimental device with non-circular cross-section in China and even in the world, with top-notch technology.
Its height is only 1 1 m, its radius is only 4 meters, but its overall weight is as high as 400 tons. Although it is called "artificial sun", in fact, this device looks more like a huge pressure cooker, but under this ugly appearance, there is a powerful force that can change the whole world.
The fossil energy reserves of China and even all mankind are limited and will be exhausted one day. With the rapid growth of population, I believe this day will not be too far away. By then, no one can guarantee that mankind will not return to the era of slash-and-burn cultivation, and the emergence of "artificial sunshine" is expected to completely get rid of the energy dilemma of mankind.
The concrete working principle of "artificial ocean" is to fuse deuterium and tritium in seawater at ultra-high temperature, thus providing endless energy. Deuterium and tritium extracted from one liter of seawater can be converted into energy equivalent to 300 liters of gasoline through nuclear fusion, and the existing deuterium on the earth is enough for human beings to burn for hundreds of millions of years.
Of course, it is equally important that nuclear fusion is very clean and hygienic, and the fusion products are stable isotopes, so there is no radiation pollution. Oil, coal, natural gas and other existing energy sources will emit wastes that pollute the environment more or less after transformation. The nuclear fission reaction currently in use will also produce nuclear waste and heavy metal waste with a half-life of thousands of years.
At present, it is not that the productivity of nuclear fusion cannot be restricted, but the cost, because fusion does not mean that it will change. Not only does it take energy to heat fuel to hundreds of millions of degrees, but it also takes energy to maintain this number. If the energy produced by fusion is not enough to support the consumed energy, it means that it is not cost-effective.
The key is how to improve the temperature, density and confinement time of plasma. If these units can be substantially improved, they may generate more energy, thus obtaining a more thorough net energy output and realizing a real "artificial sun". We can imagine what the human world will look like after gaining endless energy.
It can be said that "artificial sun" is a ticket to enter the future world, so it is also a project that all countries are vigorously developing at present. Compared with us, similar projects in the United States have basically stopped, and Europe has also come to a standstill because of funding problems. Japan and South Korea have similar powerful projects, but the current parameters can't be compared with ours. Everyone, I'll see you in the future!