Chapter 97: So Wonderful
The first nuclear fusion reaction experiment lasted one hour. The energy data produced by the fusion reaction, the stability of the container wall, the overall safety assessment, and other experimental projects have all been successfully completed.
The high-strength material formed by the strong combination of tri-titanium alloy and carbon nanotube has completely solved this problem that has plagued the development of countless human scientific projects.
Just take a simple and straightforward number for comparison.
The energy produced by the reaction of one gram of deuterium and tritium is 180 million times that of the energy produced by burning one gram of gasoline.
Meanwhile, the deuterium element has nearly 400 trillion tons of reserves in Earth’s oceans.
The only pity is that the tritium element, due to its extremely short half-life, has very little natural reserves in Earth’s environment. Currently, the production method is generally only through artificial nuclear reactions.
But it doesn’t matter.
With the success of the moon landing, the moon contains a large amount of helium-3 element, which can also produce a fusion reaction with the deuterium element.
Moreover, the fusion reaction between these two does not produce the radiation from the tritium element or the high-energy neutrons that appear during fusion, greatly reducing the damage impact on the container wall.
This is also one of the important factors for future nuclear fusion reactors to be miniaturized and safely used in the civilian field.
Not to mention that the cost of storing and transporting tritium element is extremely high, completely incomparable to the safer and more stable helium-3.
Therefore, the fuel used in this reaction experiment is precisely the helium-3 element collected from the moon.
As well as the deuterium element refined from seawater in the ocean.
The experimental results can be said to be perfect.
That day, this news was delivered to Li Jiandong of the Ministry of Industry through special channels.
Immediately after, Li Jiandong did not dare to delay at all and hurried to the Imperial Palace to report.
The next day, Ye Rongshan arrived at the laboratory for inspection.
In the not very large laboratory hall, the remnants of yesterday’s celebration had not yet been cleaned up.
Fan Ren looked embarrassed at the mess on the ground. To be honest, after announcing the success of the experiment yesterday, he didn’t care about these at all.
“Elder Ye, you didn’t even give a heads-up before coming. Everyone was too happy yesterday.”
At this moment, Ye Rongshan was full of energy, his eyes bright and spirited as he scanned this laboratory illuminated by the light of science.
He didn’t care about these.
“Chief Li reported to me. Fan Ren, I still can’t quite believe it until now. Tell me, has our controllable nuclear fusion reaction experiment really succeeded? Not like the past, where it only lasted a dozen minutes before being forced to shut down, that kind of ‘success’?”
“Elder Ye, rest assured. This experiment is absolutely a true success in terms of long-term, continuous, stable-state nuclear fusion reaction. As long as the reaction fuel is sufficient, in a certain sense, it can continue indefinitely until the fuel is exhausted.”
Fan Ren’s face was full of proud smile, his tone very firm.
“Good, good, good! Excellent! Hearing you say that, my suspended heart has finally settled. Amazing! And all of you too, all amazing. Well done.”
Ye Rongshan excitedly praised repeatedly, without ignoring the other scientists in the hall.
Fan Ren stepped aside and followed behind the elderly person as he walked toward the scientists standing straight.
Although the contact time wasn’t long, Fan Ren could basically call out the names of these scientists from the Ministry of Industry.
He followed beside the elderly person, introducing them one by one.
Ye Rongshan walked very slowly, extending both hands to firmly shake with each scientist he passed.
This was the highest affirmation from Great Xia.
After the last scientist was introduced, Ye Rongshan looked through the hall glass, his gaze slowly sweeping over the complex and inscrutable equipment inside the laboratory.
He turned around and came before everyone.
“This road has been very difficult. Perhaps you don’t know, when General Manager Fan first proposed nuclear fusion research, he had no other plans. He, Chief Li, and I, at the very beginning, never imagined that ordinary crystal stone ore reserves on Earth would be so scarce.
Moreover, what is even more infuriating is that the South Australia side arbitrarily raised the selling price for our request to purchase ordinary crystal stone, and afterward, in order to obtain our secrets about tri-titanium alloy, they unprincipledly increased the price of all raw ore exported to Great Xia by 8%.”
When he said this, even after being in a high position for many years, his face rarely failed to control itself, revealing dissatisfaction.
This was extremely rare for him.
Everyone quietly listened to the elderly person’s narration, their emotions also becoming angry.
“After that, General Manager Fan proposed a very imaginative idea, which you should all know now, that is, ordinary crystal stone exists in lunar soil.”
He turned his head to look at Fan Ren, his face full of appreciation.
“Next, it was the proposed lunar mining plan. I’m not afraid of you laughing, at that time I had many concerns and was opposed.”
Ye Rongshan said this, reached out and patted Fan Ren on the shoulder, his eyes full of praise.
“At that time, General Manager Fan was determined that Xinghai would invest all the company’s revenue into this project. Such determination, in my many years of life, among enterprise bosses, only he alone could achieve this level.”
“Fan Ren, congratulations. This is an amazing achievement.”
Ye Rongshan praised him without reservation.
After this, Fan Ren led Ye Rongshan and the security personnel to the office to sit down.
“General Manager Fan, tell me. Today I have plenty of time. You are the founder of this technology, so you must have more plans for it than others.”
Fan Ren nodded. Although there was no prior preparation, he had long had many ideas and arrangements for these.
“It’s like this. Although I can confidently say that this experiment is an absolute success, it is currently only the first round of testing. Next, we need to conduct a large amount of data testing to balance the container wall materials and explore research on energy conversion.
In my vision, this technology is not just for boiling water to convert into electrical energy to provide us with energy sources.
We also need to research how to efficiently and directly convert the energy produced by fusion into the required energy output methods.”
Fan Ren quietly recounted.
In his vision, next they would use tri-titanium alloy and carbon nanotube produced on the moon to build a space elevator.
This is an extremely costly project, but also an inevitable part of future development.
Because of Earth’s gravity, the energy required to send objects into space is too enormous. Using rocket launches each time would have extremely low cost-effectiveness.
Once there is a space elevator, akin to a train track transportation method, under the condition of meeting material strength requirements, the energy source needed to send substances into space can be satisfied with electrical energy.
Now, with the controllable nuclear fusion reactor, no matter how large the electrical energy consumption, it can be afforded.
At that time, the low-cost aerospace era will fully arrive.
The lunar base will be the same, building a space elevator and conducting large-scale engineering construction on the moon’s surface.
The plan is to carry out the refinement of ordinary crystal stone ore directly in moon factories.
Then transport it via space elevator to the Star Transport Series Rocket responsible for Earth-moon transportation missions, and bring it back to Earth for further processing.
He gazed at the sky outside the window, his tone calm without excessive excitement, as if recounting a very ordinary matter.
