Have you heard of the technology known as "controlled nuclear fusion"?
If you have, then you must be aware of its significance in today's world.
If not, it's worth doing some research in advance, as it is set to become a major development direction in the future energy sector.
In the near future, this technology will enter our lives.
Currently, most of the electricity we use daily comes from traditional coal-fired power plants, with clean energy sources including hydro, wind, solar, and nuclear power.
However, clean energy generation technologies face high barriers, large investments, and long cycles, resulting in their small share of global power generation.
Although nuclear power plants are highly efficient and relatively safe, their special nature means they still carry uncontrollable risks, especially from external factors.
In case of an accident, the impact on the surrounding environment would be enormous and long-lasting, as evidenced by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan.
Whether it's traditional coal-fired power generation or existing nuclear power generation, the technology has reached its peak with little room for further breakthroughs.
Coupled with the continuous consumption of traditional energy sources, the situation is becoming less optimistic.
Therefore, humanity urgently needs a new technology, one that can lead the fourth industrial revolution—a new energy technology: controlled nuclear fusion.
Controlled nuclear fusion technology mainly refers to the technology that controls the nuclear fusion process to achieve a safe and sustainable energy supply.
Nuclear fusion is the process in which several lighter atomic nuclei combine to form a heavier nucleus, converting mass into energy.
The most common nuclear fusion reaction is the deuterium-tritium reaction, which produces helium and neutrons, releasing energy in the process.
Achieving this process is not difficult; the challenge lies in making it controllable—controlling the equipment and the process.
As a potential technology for the fourth industrial revolution, controlled nuclear fusion has unprecedented and irreplaceable characteristics:
1. Abundant Resources: Its main fuel, deuterium, is found in seawater. It is estimated that the deuterium on Earth is enough for global use for billions of years, making it virtually inexhaustible.
2. High Energy Density: Burning 1000 grams of deuterium is equivalent to 4000 grams of uranium or 7000 tons of gasoline or 10000 tons of coal.
The efficiency of nuclear power generation is several times lower, not to mention the difficulty of extracting uranium.
3. Safe and Reliable: The nuclear fusion reaction is a self-limiting reaction that requires stringent conditions to occur, thus avoiding the risk of explosion or leakage accidents.
With unlimited resources, ultra-high energy density, and safety and reliability, even aliens would covet this technology.
While nuclear fusion itself is not difficult, achieving controlled nuclear fusion is a huge challenge.
Currently, the most promising technology for achieving controlled nuclear fusion is the Tokamak technology.
It uses powerful magnetic fields to confine light nuclei such as hydrogen in a container, heating them through electrical heating, microwaves, and other methods to reach sufficient temperatures and pressures, heating the deuterium-tritium mixture to over 100 million degrees Celsius, forming plasma, and thus achieving nuclear fusion reactions.
However, this technology faces several technical challenges:
1. Low Energy Conversion Rate: During the nuclear fusion process, additional external energy support may be required.
2. Durability of the Device: The durability of the device under ultra-high temperature plasma is a severe test, especially whether it can operate stably for a long time, which requires breakthroughs in material science.
3. Immature Technology: Plasma heating technology, magnetic field control technology, first wall design and implementation, and divertor design and implementation all need further research and breakthroughs.
4. Commercialization Difficulty: Currently, Tokamak technology is still in the experimental research stage and has a long way to go before commercial application.
But any new technology transitions from the laboratory to application.
In terms of controlled nuclear fusion technology, China is at the forefront internationally.
From the perspective of patent applications, from 2011 to September 2022, China's number of patent applications in the field of nuclear fusion technology surpassed that of the United States, ranking first globally.
In terms of actual research progress, China has also made numerous breakthroughs.
Take "China's HL-2M Tokamak" as an example. This new generation artificial sun achieved high-confinement mode operation under 1 million amperes of plasma current for the first time, once again breaking the operating record of China's magnetic confinement fusion devices.
This signifies that China has taken an important step towards high-performance fusion plasma operation in magnetic confinement fusion research.
As a key technology in the future energy field, the development and application of controlled nuclear fusion technology will have a profound impact on human society.
Despite the many challenges to achieving this goal, with continuous technological progress and breakthroughs, that day will eventually come.
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