On November 24, a "China's ' artificial sun ' is rising slowly, the dawn of future energy" information has attracted widespread attention at home and abroad, and people have countless doubts about it.
In ancient times, Houyi shot the sun to prevent too much sun from being exposed to the earth, causing drought victims to live in vain; but thousands of years later, people began to study how to "man-made" the sun?
What is an artificial sun? What is the purpose of artificial sun? Let it hang from the sky to provide people with heat? Will such a sun lead to the global warming of ? Will the situation of become more serious? Is its existence pros and cons for humans?
What is artificial sun?
Faced with a lot of questions and confusions, the first thing we need to know is what is the "artificial sun".
"Artificial Sun" is also called the " Tokamak " device. It is actually a nuclear fusion research device controlled by humans that simulates a series of reactions occurring during the sun's luminous and heating process.
Two nuclei of collided, and polymerization reaction can release huge energy. This energy is just like the energy released by the sun. The raw materials of do not be restricted, the products do not pollute the environment, and do not produce high radioactive nuclear waste , which can provide the necessary light source and heat for human survival. It is precisely because of this that it got the nickname "Artificial Sun".
In fact, the entire human race’s research on the “artificial sun” - nuclear fusion energy began as early as the 1950s. At that time, the United States successfully tried to explode the world's first hydrogen bomb, , and discovered the energy resources brought by the hydrogen bomb explosion, but such an explosion was not controlled by humans. It is invincible to make weapons, and it is somewhat whimsical to use to generate electricity. Although
cannot be a source of effective energy, the explosion of the first hydrogen bomb has opened the research path of humans to study the energy of controlled nuclear fusion .
From the secret research of a few major powers to the cooperation and participation of countries around the world - ITER program
China's "artificial sun" path also began in the 1950s, and it has been nearly 70 years since then. In 1956, China began the research of "controllable thermonuclear reactions" under the advocacy of scientists such as Qian Sanqiang . In 1965, China's professional research institute specializing in nuclear fusion energy development was established in Chengdu, Sichuan. In 1984, my country's first large scientific device in the field of nuclear fusion, the China fusion device No. 1 (HL-1), used for nuclear fusion through magnetic fields, was completed in , the Southwest Physics Institute of Nuclear Industry.
Time comes in 2006, and China, together with the United States, Russia, EU , South Korea, Japan and India, signed the world's largest "artificial sun" - the International Thermal Nuclear Fusion Experimental Reactor (ITER) plan . This means that the world's major nuclear-holding countries and several major countries covering nearly half of the world's population have joined forces to participate in the research on nuclear fusion, a future energy source.
As the world's largest and most important international energy cooperation project, the construction of International Thermal Fusion Experimental Reactor Program will take at least a full decade and 5 billion US dollars in funds. It is worth mentioning that this is 5 billion US dollars in 1998. This huge experimental reactor requires about 1 million components of and at least 10 million parts of . Since the 2006 sketch , that is, the official implementation, all countries have begun to prepare their respective responsible parts for the installation of the experimental reactor.
In the nuclear fusion energy "artificial sun" project, why is China the most promising
[1] The core components of the ITER project under China have completed the first manufacturing
CCTV news mentioned in the "rise" actually refers to the core components of the international thermonuclear fusion experimental reactor program under China's responsibility - the first wall of the enhanced thermal load has completed the manufacturing of the first full-size prototype. What is the first wall of enhanced heat load? The first wall refers to the vacuum chamber wall that directly faces the inner core plasma of the experimental reactor during nuclear fusion. How critical is it? The first wall can enclose the plasma and directly absorb 20% of the energy released by the plasma.
Everyone knows that the temperature of the nuclear fusion experimental reactor is as high as hundreds of millions of degrees Celsius. The first wall of enhances the thermal load is to "carry" the ultra-high temperature of hundreds of millions of degrees Celsius at a certain distance from reactor . must maintain performance when experiencing high-temperature radiation does not melt - to ensure that the plasma is constrained by a strong magnetic field in a vacuum and continuously produces large-scale reactions.
Without its barrier, the sputtering radiation of the inner core of the experimental reactor hydrogen ion body will cause extremely serious corrosion, and the materials used for the outer wall manufacturing will be of no help and will only be directly vaporized. Even the reactor cannot be isolated, let alone control the nuclear reaction "artificial sun".
This most critical core component was manufactured by the Southwest Institute of Nuclear Industry of China National Nuclear Corporation. It is not only better than the initial design requirements, but also realizes mass manufacturing of the component. At present, the technology mastered by China has taken the lead in passing international certification, which shows that China has already been at the forefront of the world in this field .
【2】China's "quality and quantity guaranteed" in ITER project has promoted the progress of assembly
The scale of the international thermonuclear fusion experimental reactor program is still very large. Except for the EU that undertakes 46% as a "group", other countries, including , China undertakes 9% of the work in it. In addition to the difficult "first wall of enhanced heat load" mentioned above, it also involves other design, manufacturing and construction tasks. For example, China has contracted the manufacturing tasks of 18 procurement packages, and there are hundreds of universities, scientific research institutions and enterprises involved.
It can be said that China's role in the international thermonuclear fusion experimental reactor program is not only important, but it is important. After all, it was China that dragged the assembly progress of the experimental reactor upwards .
According to the original plan, the experimental reactor should have been assembled as early as 2019. If it has not stopped, there is no idea how much plasma is produced. However, the epidemic, politics, and various sudden interest pulls and accidents, the construction period was seriously lagging, and the assembly of the French headquarters did not officially begin in July 2021.
It is worth mentioning that even the assembly that finally arrived this time was jointly established by China and France, who could not bear it anymore, and signed an agreement with the original project organizer: the manufacturing and installation of core components are from our China! Get it fast! If you continue as planned, the daylily will be completely cold!
Sure enough, after the core task of was handed over to China, the speed was accelerated by "ratically" . In May this year, the "Duwa Base" that launched the entire "artificial sun" equipment was completed. In July, two core feeder components shipped out by China since April arrived in France. The long-awaited experimental reactor assembly of the entire plan's member states finally began.
During this period, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Chinese Academy of Sciences and other ion-related units stayed in France for receiving goods regardless of the epidemic or festivals, and worked overtime to ensure the progress.
It seems that overnight, China has transformed from a member state that later joined to a "leading" person . However, for the entire international thermonuclear fusion experimental reactor program, starting assembly is only the first step, and there will be nearly 20 years of operation and testing time afterwards. The variables are not small. At least if several other countries still lose their chains like this, it is estimated that time will have to be delayed.
【3】ITER "Artificial Sun" project, China has benefited a lot
As the world's first commercial experimental project for controlled nuclear fusion power generation technology, ITER really brings together physical engineering elites and management talents from all over the world.Many people have a new question about this: has participated in so many countries, so who will the patent after success belong to? Can China get a share of the pie?
After China showed certain capabilities in the field of nuclear fusion, it officially stood on the world's nuclear fusion stage. After joining the ITER project, he fired the first loud shot with the "first wall of enhanced heat load". And this shot, the real put two key technologies, "nuclear fusion first wall" and "controllable nuclear fusion power generation device" into our own pockets. There is no doubt that these two technologies are processes and principles independently mastered by China, and the invention patent involved must belong to China's application.
In addition to patents, China has gained more things from "working" in ITER: how to achieve the extraction, separation and circulation of tritium elements at the kilogram level; how to achieve remote automatic control and operation of deuterium, tritium and other elements from millimeters to tons; including ultra-high vacuum technology, ultra-large low-temperature technology, etc.... Once these technologies are known, China will make a big leap.
China's "artificial sun" has never been placed in the same basket
[1] Participated in China's "artificial sun" project before ITER
China actively joined the ITER project. On the one hand, it is because it can only learn more because it participates more, and on the other hand, it is because China's technology in the "artificial sun" project has indeed been outstanding to the extent that these major countries want to win over together to "make trouble".
China's first medium-sized fusion research device HT-7 was improved on the basis of the Tokamak T7 donated by the Kurchatov Institute of Moscow (formerly the Institute of Atomic Energy of the Soviet Academy) after the collapse of the former Soviet Union. It is a modest statement to say that it is improvement. It is said that when it is delivered, it is not much different from the scrapped copper and iron. China's nuclear engineering team redesigned and transformed it, and finally built the HT-7 in 1994. Because it was built in Hefei, Anhui, where the Chinese Academy of Sciences is located, people were nicknamed "Hefei Super Ring" .
"Hefei Super Ring" was unanimously recognized by an evaluation team composed of 12 international nuclear fusion scientists as "the most advanced tokamak device in developing countries ". Therefore, China has become the fourth country to have a superconducting tokamak device after Russia, France, Japan and Japan.
After HT-7, the Chinese Academy of Sciences team's determination to create China's independent design, independent development and full intellectual property rights has become increasingly obvious. Because some components of the HT-7 are technology only available in the former Soviet Union, if there is a failure, Russian experts must be asked to repair it. With this determination, the Chinese team built "EAST" in 2006.
"Oriental Super Ring" has broken many world records since its birth and has now, including but not limited to achieving heating power exceeding 10 megawatts, plasma energy storage increased to 300 kilojou, plasma center electron temperature reached 100 million degrees Celsius, and running at an ultra-high temperature of 100 million degrees Celsius for nearly 10 seconds. This means that the faster the nuclear fusion speed of , the higher the temperature generated, the easier it will explode and the greater the energy released. And this energy release can be controlled by humans, and from a physical and engineering basis, this is a big step towards commercial use.
【2】After participating in ITER, China's CFETR project
Whether it is "Hefei Super Ring" or "Oriental Super Ring", their construction has cultivated more talents and accumulated more experience for the field of nuclear fusion. Therefore, while is participating in the international thermonuclear fusion experimental reactor program, China is also preparing its own fusion engineering experimental reactor - CFETR. Thanks to the days when ITER's "working" has been done, we have learned a lot and are preparing to use it on ourselves.The
CFETR project is led by the domestic University of Science and Technology of China, Institute of Plasma, Institute of Nuclear Industry Southwest Physics, and Institute of Mianyang No. 9. It is planned to complete the construction by 2035 and complete the experiment by 2050.
At the same time, the experimental project of "Oriental Super Ring" is still continuing, taking the lead in achieving high-constraint mode operation in the order of hundreds of seconds in the international order of high-constraint mode; the "Tokamak" - China Circulator No. 2 M device hosted by the Nuclear West Institute was also built and discharged in Chengdu in 2020. Now the ionic current has exceeded 1 million amperes... The faster the operation and more current transmission in the high-constraint mode of the magnetic field, the more it can prove the safety of nuclear fusion power generation under the subsequent magnetic constraint.
Currently, most countries around the world have their own nuclear fusion experimental devices, such as Russia's T-15, Japan's JT-60U, etc., but Only China's fusion experimental reactor is advancing experiments and models to reality and practicality. This is also the significance of China's nuclear fusion experimental reactor construction - the goal of building commercial fusion experimental reactors.
There is a long-lasting joke in the field of physical engineering in China. " will always take fifty years to achieve controllable nuclear fusion ". Whenever people see related news that there is a further breakthrough, they will also talk about this joke "I hope this is the last fifty years."
Although it sounds a bit sad, there are mainly countless nuclear workers working hard for this and even "burning" themselves. Then every little progress can be regarded as hope.
Human research on the utilization rate of nuclear fission reactions has also been growing in recent years, and the rigid demand for nuclear fusion is also emerging. All of this is the reason why China and the world have never given up on the "artificial sun" project.
Reference:
- Chen Ke: The first core component of the "artificial sun" ITER was made in China, Science and Technology Daily
- Tang Lin: my country's "artificial sun" device set a new world record, scientific news. 2022, 24(03)
- Luo Xu: Light up the first "fusion lamp" in China - a new generation of "artificial sun" China circulation device No. 2 M device development team that records the "China Youth May Fourth Medal Collective", National Defense Science and Technology Industry. 2022, (06)
- Zhang Xuan: Why is controlled nuclear fusion called the "ultimate energy", Xinhua Daily
- Why is controlled nuclear fusion called the "ultimate energy", Science Grand View Garden. 2022, (02)
- Song Zhiquan: China cooperates with the International Thermal Nuclear Fusion Experimental Reactor Organization to build the world's largest "artificial sun", and Southern Energy Construction. 2022,9(02)
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