Chapter 1356 Before Ignite the Sun

After a long silence, Peng Juexian put the information in his hand back on the table and asked cautiously:

"Before I draw any conclusions, I first need to understand the magnetohydrodynamic generator in this plan... You know, my research direction is mainly nuclear devices, and I am not very professional in power generation equipment..."

Hearing this, Chang Haonan glanced at the monitor in front of him and curled his lips secretly——

An internal reference document written by the other party was open on the computer, titled "Overview and Outlook of Next Generation Nuclear Power Plants."

Although the quality of internal references varies greatly, ranging from the prophetic school to complete nonsense, considering that the current one was written directly to the decision-makers and copied to the Industrial and Construction Commission, it obviously still has some influence.

And now, the author says he doesn’t understand power generation equipment?

According to this standard, I, Chang, may not know much about aircraft engines.

Fortunately, Peng Juexian's question hit the nail on the head.

If it was other parts of the plan, Chang Haonan really wouldn't have much to say.

But the MHD generator...

"Academician Peng, don't worry."

He turned around and gestured out the office window:

"Magnetic fluid power generation was indeed a relatively unpopular concept in the past, but we happen to have a prototype on hand, just on the other side of the Science City... If you want to visit, please follow me..."

"what?"

Peng Juexian froze in his chair.

As Chang Haonan guessed, it is true that his main expertise is in nuclear device design, but since China completed its last nuclear test in 1996, the focus of research has shifted to nuclear power generation and isotope manufacturing.

This change was entirely due to external factors such as adjustments in nuclear policy and changes in the international situation. In fact, he was only 55 years old that year, still in his prime.

Now that almost eleven years have passed, it is obviously impossible to say that there has been no progress in the new direction.

So what I said just now was purely an excuse to serve as a buffer.

Faced with this completely unexpected situation, we must not jump to conclusions for the sake of safety.

So I picked the most unfamiliar module in the picture as a shield, and prepared to go back and think about it carefully.

But I was told that not only was this thing not just a concept, but even the prototype was produced without any notice?

For a moment, Peng Juexian even doubted whether he really didn't know much about power generation equipment...

After coming to his senses, he let out a long breath.

Then he uttered only one word:

"Walk."

Han Chenfeng was not in the laboratory at the moment, and the entire equipment was in a state of shutdown for maintenance and preparation for upgrading.

So Chang Haonan had to introduce Peng Juexian himself.

"This is the proof-of-principle device we are currently using for our research..."

Almost the same as yesterday's plot.

However, this time it was Chang Haonan who patted the flange at the end of the explosion section while pointing out the role of each part in front of him.

The entire power generation system sounds complicated, but on the surface it appears to be made up of just a winding pipe.

It was very different from the steampunk-like nuclear power devices that Peng Juexian usually faced.

He considered his words for a long time before giving an evaluation with extremely high emotional intelligence:

"It's really... refined."

Chang Haonan himself was quite open-minded and immediately changed his statement to a more straightforward one:

"It is indeed a bit crude at present. Mainly due to the consideration of the R&D cycle, the detonation section was directly scaled down based on the large wind tunnel. Otherwise, it would not need such an exaggerated length."

Peng Juexian really didn't understand anything about wind tunnels, so he could only follow what Chang Haonan said.

So he quickly skipped the middle part and came to the power generation channel that served as the load.

It can be seen that although Peng Juexian appeared to be controlling himself very well, with an expression like "I'm just taking a look", he was actually extremely interested in it.

So much so that he didn't care at all that he had made a statement like "I don't understand generators" just fifteen minutes ago.

After staring at him for a while, the first words he said were:

"If I'm not mistaken, this should be a segmented Faraday configuration generator?"

Chang Haonan complained in his heart that you didn't even want to act anymore, but he nodded and replied:

"Yes, it is also for the purpose of simplifying the structure... and the structure of the power generation channel based on the Faraday principle is relatively simple, and it is also easy to combine with the boundary layer suction technology."

In fact, these should be considered two separate things.

The power generation structure was designed by Han Chenfeng, while the suction electrode was an idea that Chang Haonan came up with later.

It's just a detail, so there's no need to introduce too much to Peng Juexian.

The latter's attention is completely focused on the device in front of him:

"Can you show me the design?"

In fact, logically speaking, this request is a bit sensitive.

After all, you all belong to different research institutions, and you are an expert in this field. If you borrow from others after reading their work, you will have no place to complain.

Therefore, after asking, Peng Juexian quickly added:

"No special details are needed, just a perfect overall structure will do..."

Chang Haonan said it didn't matter, and directly instructed the staff to open the design plan of the power generation channel, which even came with the entire calculation process.

It's not that he's not vigilant enough, but considering his current status in the world, if someone dares to do this kind of thing to steal the results, then he probably doesn't want to stay in the country anymore.

Peng Juexian asked someone for a glass of water and then sat down in front of the computer.

I spent most of the day just looking at it.

I didn't even have lunch.

When he raised his head again, he had already thrown the thought he had carefully considered out of his mind:

"Academician Chang, according to what you said before, you want to apply this technology in the field of space exploration?"

When Chang Haonan heard this, he knew that the other party was going to talk about the real stuff, and nodded immediately:

"Although the standard combination of solar panels and batteries is mature in technology, it has defects in power supply capacity and service life, and there is not always enough sunlight in the space environment... In the long run, fusion energy is of course the most fundamental solution, but before that, more feasible technologies are still needed to help us wait until the day when controlled nuclear fusion is realized."

"It is obviously unrealistic to boil water in space, and the power generation capacity of isotope power sources is too weak. It may be feasible to drive a robot, but it is impossible to power a space facility or base. So after confirming that the idea of ​​magnetohydrodynamic power generation is feasible, I immediately thought of combining it with nuclear energy and designing an energy source that can directly achieve thermoelectric conversion..."

Hearing that Chang Haonan also regarded controlled nuclear fusion as the real future, Peng Juexian immediately showed an expression of surprise as if he had found a confidant.

But I still resisted the urge to discuss further and didn’t go too far with the topic:

"If this is the case, then the high temperature caused by the helium/xenon mixture is not a big problem."

He took out the schematic diagram that Chang Haonan had given him again, pointed at the reactor part and explained:

"On the one hand, the temperature of the alien environment is low, which is relatively conducive to heat dissipation... Of course, if there is no atmosphere, the situation will be a little more complicated, but there are fewer problems to consider than on Earth; on the other hand, it is impossible to consider the issue of replacing nuclear fuel in space anyway, so it is better to simply make the reactor body and the core into an integrated design, so that a high-temperature resistant metal ceramic matrix can be used... Specifically, tungsten alloy modified with uranium dioxide and gadolinium trioxide is used as the coating material of the nuclear fuel. It is not a problem to maintain normal operation at around 2500-3000K."

"There are several major obstacles I can think of. First, the operating mechanism of your nuclear battery is different from all current reactors, so the physical and thermal calculations of the core need to start from scratch, which is equivalent to going through the development process of nuclear power all over again... I have some experience in this field, but it would be best if I could combine it with a specific project. Otherwise, it would be difficult to get enough resources. Of course, the most important thing is that it takes time..."

"Secondly, since we are going to develop space energy, the volume must be compact enough to ensure that it can be used as a modular spacecraft, or as part of the alien base you just mentioned, and can be quickly replaced after the estimated 8-10 year operation cycle. It may not be possible to fill a whole room like it is now..."

"The third one is..."

Although a series of problems have been pointed out, the situation is still much more optimistic than Chang Haonan's previous expectations.

After all, one of the two most important ones could be dealt with by Peng Jue first, and the other one could be dealt with by himself...

“There is definitely potential for further optimization of the volume.”

Chang Haonan answered very confidently:

"The reason why the verification equipment is like this is mainly because the hydrogen-oxygen detonation section itself cannot be made very small, and a sufficiently long power generation channel is required. Nuclear batteries use reactors instead of detonation sections to generate plasma, and as for the generator..."

He pointed to the magnetohydrodynamic generator, which was drawn as a disk in the diagram:

“Although this is a simplified diagram, I didn’t just draw it randomly.”

After saying that, he opened another project file from the computer.

There is a spinning top-shaped object on top:

"Specifically, in terms of application, we will replace the Faraday generator with a Hall-principle disk generator... Although the volume on paper may not change much, the size in a single direction is much smaller, making it easier to be integrated into a cylindrical or spherical space..."