Chapter 1355 True Nuclear Battery

After some empty promises, Chang Haonan finally made Han Chenfeng temporarily forget about the matter of the inhalation technique and instead focus his attention on the application level.

However, whether it is electromagnetic catapult or electromagnetic catapult, they are just temporary solutions used by Chang Haonan to divert the opponent's attention.

What he really thought of just now was an idea that he had conceived a long time ago but had never had the opportunity to implement.

In fact, not only has it not been implemented yet, it has not even been determined whether it is feasible at the theoretical level.

After returning to the office, Chang Haonan first dealt with some daily affairs that routinely required his approval. It was not until after 9 o'clock that he picked up the red phone on the table and dialed a number.

"Beep-beep-"

A long ringback tone sounded.

Just when Chang Haonan thought no one would answer the call, a voice finally came from the other end of the phone.

"This is the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Ho-Kyung University of Transportation. May I ask who you are?"

He was stunned for a moment, and the greeting he had prepared was forcibly held back.

Compared to the person he wanted to contact, the voice was obviously a little younger.

So, I had to report my identity to the other party:

"I'm Chang Haonan from the Aviation Power Group. I want to talk to Academician Qu Liangsheng about some project requirements. Just tell him my name. He should know it."

Four years ago, just after Chang Haonan was awarded the title of academician, the two had collaborated in the field of ultra-high-speed centrifuges and had maintained contact about once every three months to six months, so they were familiar with each other.

However, there was silence on the other end of the phone.

Chang Haonan thought there was something wrong with the call quality:

"Hey?"

After a tentative sound, I finally got a response:

"I'm sorry, Academician Chang, my teacher is currently seriously ill and is undergoing treatment. I am his student, An Shouzhi. If your needs do not involve confidentiality issues, perhaps I can try to help..."

Chang Haonan noticed that the other party said "try to help" instead of "convey on my behalf".

In other words, Qu Liangsheng's situation is probably not very optimistic.

Of course, considering that he was 72 years old and had been ill for a long time when he was elected academician, it was not very surprising.

It just made him feel a little lost.

In fact, not only Qu Liangsheng, but also people who Chang Haonan is more familiar with, such as Du Yishan and Ding Gaoheng, have been in deteriorating health in recent years.

All we can say is that the older generation is indeed gradually withdrawing from the stage of history.

After a moment of distraction, Chang Haonan calmed down and gave priority to the call at hand:

"Nothing to keep secret... I have come up with a new technology path for nuclear power generation, but there are some specifics that need to be confirmed by an expert in reactor design. Could you recommend one?"

Although Qu Liangsheng is an academician from the nuclear energy field, he is mainly responsible for the research and development of centrifugal equipment and is essentially a mechanical major.

The reason why Chang Haonan found him was just to find a more suitable entry point.

On the other side, An Shouzhi was obviously shocked by this sentence.

"New technical path for nuclear power generation", how can this be thought of casually?

If someone else said this, he would probably think it was a crazy person or a simple prank and hang up the phone.

But the name Chang Haonan is still somewhat convincing...

After a little hesitation, An Shouzhi still chose to believe the other party.

Dozens of names flashed through his mind:

"As for reactor design, perhaps Academician Peng Juexian would be more in line with your requirements."

After saying this, he thought that Chang Haonan might be unfamiliar with this name, so he introduced it again:

"Academician Peng started out as a nuclear weapons researcher, and since the mid-90s has focused on the development and utilization of nuclear energy. He should be familiar with and interested in the concepts you proposed..."

The latter couldn't help but smile bitterly when he heard this.

The other party must have taken the name literally and subconsciously thought that it was for military use when he heard my name.

It's a stereotype that has been formed over the years.

Fortunately, he just searched on the Internet and found that the recent research topic of Academician Peng Juexian is actually related to his ideas.

It was a lucky coincidence...

……

Chang Haonan's original plan was to find a day in the next two days that was not too busy to go to the hospital to visit Qu Liangsheng.

As a result, he received a response to the letter he sent to the Institute of Engineering Physics that morning in the evening of the same day.

The next morning, Peng Juexian himself went directly to Huairou Science City.

Chang Haonan was amazed by the reaction speed.

Now that things have come to this, we have no choice but to talk about business first.

"Academician Peng, I have conceived a new idea for nuclear power generation. It does not require water or liquid metal as a power generation medium, and it does not even require a steam turbine. It can directly convert and generate electricity... It is temporarily named nuclear battery."

Chang Haonan introduced the topic directly.

When Peng Juexian heard "no need for turbine", he was so excited that he almost stood up.

Since the Industrial Revolution, human technological level has advanced by leaps and bounds in just 200 years, but energy utilization has not deviated from the framework of boiling water.

The only difference is that coal-fired boilers and nuclear reactors heat water directly, while internal combustion engines and gas turbines heat the working fluid gas.

Whether it is the Rankine cycle, Brayton cycle, or Stirling cycle... the overall process is still about expansion and doing work.

On Earth, where there is plenty of oxygen and water, it doesn't matter.

Once we get outside the earth, we certainly can't continue to convert energy in this way.

If we can break through this shackles at the principle level, it will undoubtedly illuminate a new dawn for mankind to enter the next era.

However, after finishing the whole sentence, Peng Juexian's face showed a little regret -

In his professional field, due to a certain period of hype, "nuclear battery" generally refers to isotope battery.

It's not really a groundbreaking new technology.

Despite this, Peng Xianjue still patiently confirmed:

"Academician Chang, the concept of radioisotope batteries is already quite mature. It mainly includes two major categories and nearly ten subcategories. I wonder if you specifically mean thermoelectric, thermophotovoltaic, radiovoltaic, or thermionic emission..."

Chang Haonan was just wondering why the other party had such a strange expression after hearing it.

Now I finally understand that it is a problem of groove definition.

So he quickly interrupted the other party's announcement of the dishes:

“I’m not talking about isotope batteries… I’m talking about a true direct heat-to-electricity conversion process.”

As he spoke, he took out a concept map that he had prepared long ago.

"A helium/xenon mixed gas is used as the working fluid. While acting as a coolant, it uses nuclear reactions to ionize and form a conductive fluid. After being pressurized and accelerated, it passes through a vertical magnetic field, thereby directly generating an induced electromotive force."

"After the working fluid gas passes through the power generation channel, it still carries a large amount of heat energy. Part of this heat energy is dissipated into space through the radiator, and the other part is sent back to the heat exchanger with the working fluid through the multi-stage compressor. After completing the secondary exchange, it is sent back to the nuclear reactor, realizing the complete recycling of the power generation working fluid..."

"..."

In fact, this plan is similar to the previous idea of ​​using coal or gas boilers to generate plasma power generation in foreign countries. It just replaces the expensive fossil energy with the most original atomic energy in the universe, which greatly improves the ionization level of the working fluid.

Of course, it also greatly improves the index requirements for the entire system.

Apart from anything else, just changing the primary coolant from water to gas is enough to raise the temperature of the reactor wall to about 2000K.

Few materials can remain stable under such extreme conditions and protect the reactor core from functioning properly.

On the other hand, since it does not involve complex and inefficient multiple heat exchanges and mechanical energy conversion processes, true nuclear batteries using this design will definitely be far ahead in terms of energy density, and the entire system can be integrated in a very small space, which is very suitable for use in some special environments, such as outer space or alien planets.

Peng Juexian never expected that Chang Haonan was not just hyping up concepts this time, but was serious about it.

Looking at the bold and somewhat crazy plan in front of me, I didn't know how to react for a moment...