Chapter 674: 100 MW!
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
The group of people followed Lu Zhou’s footsteps and went into the main factory building of the a.s.sembly center.
The moment Academician Zhang Jianrong walked through the factory door, it was like he became a statue that was frozen in time.
The two researchers behind him were the same. Their mouths were wide open as they were rendered speechless.
Dozens of industrial equipment in the factory were running on high-speeds, completely unmanned. They processed raw materials into necessary components and a.s.sembled the components together. These people had seen a lot of Chinese processing sites, but this was their first time seeing a factory automated to this extent.
Lu Zhou looked at his phone and typed a few words.
[How much longer?]
Xiao Ai: [Soon! (๑•̀ᄇ•́)و✧]
Soon after, an AGV logistics vehicle carrying a two-meter diameter cylinder slowly moved next to two ferrofluid electric energy generators, which were just a.s.sembled. The AGV waited for the robotic arm to finish the final long-awaited a.s.sembly.
Academician Zhang Jianrong finally realized what was going on, and he closed his mouth.
He then asked, “This is?”
Lu Zhou walked next to the strangely shaped equipment and knocked on the cylinder. He smiled and replied, “This is the sound fusion reactor you saw on the blueprints, and this is the ferrofluid electric energy generator. The shape is quite simplistic, but it’s going to be installed inside the s.p.a.ce shuttle, so aesthetics don’t matter here.”
Academician Zhang Jianrong couldn’t help but ask, “So this thing was a.s.sembled just now?”
Lu Zhou gave a simple reply.
“I guess.”
More precisely, it was a.s.sembled half an hour ago.
Both the ferrofluid electric energy generator and the nuclear core reactor began production at the same time. While these three components were in production, the vacuum production room next to them was also working. A high-temperature liquid metal was being poured into the nuclear core mold.
By the time Lu Zhou and the other three people got here, Xiao Ai already finished a.s.sembling the two ferrofluid electric energy generators, and it had just finished the nuclear core and the nuclear core container. As for the final a.s.sembly process, that was easy as a piece of cake.
Academician Zhang Jianrong asked, “Can you demonstrate it for us? It’s a working process.”
“Of course I can.”
Lu Zhou gestured to the camera in the factory.
After Xiao Ai saw its master’s gesture, it immediately began to operate the robotic arms, connecting electrical wires to the reactor.
The control program software was already installed, and the debugging had already been completed. After the heating and ultrasonic generating device were turned on, the entire machine went into a preheating state, in preparing for the activation of the nuclear core.
They quietly waited for a few minutes. Soon, the liquid lithium inside the nuclear core was heated to several hundred degrees, slowly flowing due to the sound driving pressure.
On the other hand, the air inlet began to discharge the deuterium-tritium gas mixture, which was then heated to a state of plasma. Bubbles began to continuously collapse under the ultrasonic sound pressure while it traveled from the bottom of the container to the top.
Right after that, the green signal lights on both sides of the reactor were lit up. A huge amount of electrical energy emerged from the ferrofluid electric energy reactor, and this power was sent to the outside of the factory through a dedicated power line…
When Academician Zhang Jianrong saw that nothing special was happening, he couldn’t help but ask, “It’s already activated?”
Lu Zhou nodded and replied confidently, “Yes.”
The researcher next to them whispered, “I feel like nothing is happening.”
Lu Zhou smiled.
“We can’t see anything here, let’s go outside.”
Lu Zhou turned around and brought the three skeptical people outside the factory.
As they pa.s.sed through the factory, a strong gust of wind blew in their faces.
Academician w.a.n.g was wondering why the wind was so strong, and he looked at the direction of the wind. He then suddenly froze.
There were several tall windmills that were spinning near the factory.
Wind turbines?
Wait… No!
Academician Zhang Jianrong was shocked, and he immediately asked, “Wait… Those are being powered by the reactor?”
Lu Zhou nodded and answered his question.
“Of course.”
Lu Zhou looked at the towering windmills and said, “We have to find a way to use the electricity generated by the fusion battery. There’s no lake or river nearby, so we have to use this.”
Academician Zhang asked anxiously, “What’s the maximum power? Of the sound fusion device!”
Lu Zhou thought for a bit. He then replied, “Theoretically, it can reach 100 MW. We just have to control the injection rate of the deuterium-tritium gas. However, it’s a bit expensive to generate electricity this way, and I can’t find a place to consume the excess energy, so I won’t be able to demonstrate.”
Lu Zhou looked casually at the academician.
10 MW could be used up by the few windmills outside the factory. If they increased the power to 100 MW, Lu Zhou would have to find a laser transmitter and convert the electrical energy into laser energy.
Zhang Jianrong and the two researchers looked astonished.
100 MW!
Even though this number wasn’t very high, many thermal power plants could only reach a couple of hundred megawatts. However, this thing wasn’t powered by an entire facility. It was only a “portable” controllable fusion battery!
The two A1G pressurized water reactors on the Nimitz aircraft carrier only had a combined power of 194 MW. However, that device weighed 900 tons!
Even though this fusion battery was heavy as well, it was nowhere near 900 tons.
Also, the other important thing was its volume.
One of the biggest goals in nuclear power was how to reduce the size of the power plant. This fusion reactor had huge advantages in terms of energy density and ma.s.s-energy density. This undoubtedly would be beneficial for nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.
Also what surprised Academician Zhang Jianrong the most was that this was only the first generation of fusion batteries.
Once this technology became mature, the power output would increase!
As for the two researchers standing behind Academician Zhang Jianrong, they had a mix of emotions on their faces.
Before they came here, they didn’t even believe that sound fusion could generate fusion energy.
However, the truth was right in front of their eyes, they were in a state of cognitive dissonance.
They didn’t want to believe this was real, but they had to admit that Lu Zhou was right.
Controllable fusion energy was miniaturized.
Lu Zhou was able to complete this near-impossible task!