The Circulation-3 nuclear fusion experimental device was not built in the Southwest Institute of Nuclear Physics, but in a forbidden area on the outskirts of Yangcheng. When Tong Xuchuan and his assistant came here by car, it was already half past five in the afternoon.

The control center of Circulation No. 3 was crowded with people at the moment, and after Tong Xuchuan came here, he chatted with a person in charge and asked about the situation.

"Dean, the third manual + AI troubleshooting of Gyre-3 has been completed ten minutes ago, and it has been confirmed that there is no fault, and it can be injected with nuclear fuel at any time for ignition. ”

"Good. ”

The clock ticked by, and it was six o'clock in the afternoon.

After the completion of the injection of nuclear fuel into the Circulation-3 experimental device, the first ignition began.

It is worth mentioning that the nuclear fusion currently experimented and studied by all countries in the world is in the first generation stage, deuterium-tritium fusion.

The disadvantage is obvious, that is, high-energy neutrons are generated, which carry away a large amount of nuclear fusion energy, and at the same time destroy the device material.

The second generation is the fusion of deuterium and helium three, this reaction itself does not produce neutrons, but since there is deuterium in it, then deuterium and deuterium will also produce neutrons after the reaction, but the advantage is that the neutron content is very small.

In the third generation, it is the fusion of helium-3 and helium-3, which does not produce neutrons at all, which can be called the ultimate fusion.

Of course, all of the above fusions are light nuclear fusions, and after that, there are also heavy nuclear fusions, which can be used for silicon-to-iron fusion at ultra-high temperatures and pressures.

To put it bluntly, as long as the conditions are sufficient, even stones can be burned.

However, nuclear fusion to the end of iron is the end, and then the reaction does not release energy, but absorbs energy.

The reaction is followed by neutron trapping, which forms elements heavier than iron, such as silver and gold, which generally occur in a high-pressure multineutron environment.

The most typical is a supernova explosion.

Therefore, the easiest way to judge the lifetime of a star is to look at the amount of iron and hydrogen in it, which can be easily known through the stellar spectrum.

This is also the method used by scientists to judge the lifespan of the sun.

After the deuterium-tritium fusion of Circulation-3 has a mass ratio of 2:3 in the raw material, and after the ignition begins, the annular magnetic confinement channel begins to heat up rapidly.

But at the same time, in order to ensure the characteristics of superconductors, they have to be cooled to more than minus 100 degrees Celsius, or even more than 200 degrees Celsius under extreme high temperature conditions.

Generally speaking, magnetic confinement fusion, in order to be carried out, must meet two basic conditions.

The first is the need for a super-strong magnetic field, which uses magnetic force to confine the high-temperature deuterium-tritium plasma, which is basically only satisfied by a few superconducting magnets.

At present, most superconductors can only exist in the liquid nitrogen temperature range, that is, under extreme conditions below minus 196 degrees, so the temperature is extremely low.

The second point is that the deuterium-tritium raw material needs to be heated, and only after heating, the deuterium-tritium element will become a plasma state, that is, the electrons will break away from the nucleus, forming negatively charged free electrons and positively charged ions.

Under the constraints of magnetism and the acceleration of the electric field, these deuterium-tritium ions with a temperature of tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of degrees begin to accelerate and move wildly in the ring runway.

Then, the deuterium-tritium ions of high-speed drag racing will rub and collide with each other because they can't stop the car.

If you can't avoid a collision, it's equivalent to a car accident.

With a bang, deuterium and tritium at high temperatures combine into helium-4 and 1 neutron, releasing energy, and nuclear fusion takes place.

Of course, it is also possible that deuterium and deuterium collide, produce helium-3 and a neutron, and release energy, but the temperature conditions of this reaction are harsh and very rare.

The above are the basic steps and principles of the first generation of nuclear fusion, of course, this knowledge can be found casually on the Internet, but the actual operation of nuclear fusion is thousands of times more difficult than this.

In the control room of Gyre-3, everyone waited nervously after the ignition.

Soon, Gyre-3 stopped operating and the data came out.

60 million degrees, 116 seconds of operation!

This is a breakthrough in terms of plasma temperature and confinement time compared to EAST.

But......

"It's 4 seconds less than 120 seconds, and sure enough, ......" Tong Xuchuan sighed.

The temperature requirement of Gyre-3 is 60 million degrees, or even higher, which is a standard that cannot be lowered, and in terms of time, after learning that the new device in the United States is 120 seconds, Tong Xuchuan set the goal at more than 120 seconds.

But I don't know the bottom of my heart.

Today's test is similar to what he expected, although the temperature is higher than others, but the constraint time is missing.

"However, it's okay, just now it was just the first time to test the ignition, and the next thing is the real ignition......"

Tong Xuchuan said to the person in charge: "Let people quickly check the situation of the lower deflector, if it is qualified, inject fuel, carry out a second ignition, this time, give control to AI!"

"Yes!" the person in charge replied, and quickly arranged the work.

In order to do a good job of guaranteeing, this arrangement and inspection is more than five hours.

At night, the control room of Gyre-3 was still brightly lit and overcrowded.

Suddenly, fluorescence flashed on the large screen in the control room, and the 'Gyre-3 Butler' AI developed by Blackbone Technology took over control of Gyro-3.

The next moment, in the ears of everyone in the room, an AI synthesis sound sounded, although it could be made into a normal human voice, but Tong Xuchuan did not ask for it at that time, saying that people still have to be a little different from machines.

"Requesting a link to the Supercomputing Center...... The request is complete and the link is successful......

Troubleshooting...... Troubleshooting complete, no troubles......

Fusion instructions are being automatically entered...... The input is completed, the fuel injection is successful, and Dean Tong Xuchuan is asked to give the ignition command. ”