Energy, a product of the growth of human civilization, every discovery of new energy, almost will bring milestone technological progress, whether it is the discovery of electric energy, or organic fuels, if the modern world lacks these two things, the existence of the entire civilization is completely gone.

Now, Cao Chuan has to solve the problem of power generation.

There are a variety of power generation methods on the earth, including early hydro energy, thermal energy, and wind and solar energy that have evolved with the times, but in a relatively monotonous world like the moon, there are only two power generation methods that can be used to generate electricity.

The first is solar energy, which has been used for a long time, but compared to the solar panels built by larger civil projects, they harvest much less electricity, and they have to face problems such as long-term exposure to the sun, instability, etc., which is not a way to be the main source of electricity. With the increasing electricity consumption of the lunar base, sooner or later it will reach the demand for 1 million kilowatts, 10 million kilowatts, or even 100 million kilowatts, and then solar energy will become inadequate.

The second is fusion energy, which is widely distributed on the moon and is a high-quality material that provides stable fusion energy, and many people are pursuing the terminator of the next generation of energy, although fusion energy looks the most promising, because fusion energy reactor technology has not yet made a breakthrough, and related developments have always remained on paper.

The reason why Cao Chuan did not directly launch fusion energy at the beginning was because fusion energy power station is a technology with high requirements for the overall industry, which requires not only completeness, but also sufficient scale, unlike solar energy, which is relatively simple.

"The basic requirement of a fusion energy reactor is 1 million kilowatts of power generation, so that the overall scale is not large, it will not occupy too much manpower, material resources, and there will be no accidents, as for pollution, because the helium-3 fusion process will not produce neutrons released, there will be no radiation."

"So far, although I have mastered the development and realization of three generations of fission energy power stations in the past half century through rule simulation, I am still at a loss as to what to do to stabilize fusion energy reactors, and it is difficult to get useful results."

"But there's one thing that can be done first, and it should be something that all employees are interested in doing – building a large helium-3 refinery."

"Helium-3 on the Moon is widely distributed, even in the soil under our feet, and according to estimates, the total amount of helium-3 on the Moon is more than 1 million tons, and according to 50 tons of helium-3 fusion, the energy produced by 50 tons of helium-3 fusion is enough to support the Earth's annual electricity consumption, and the helium-3 on the Moon is enough for humans to use for 20,000 years."

"Even if it is a helium-3-rich moon, it still has to extract hundreds of tons of moon dust to obtain dozens of grams of helium-3, which is also a key technical difficulty in the helium-3 refining plant.

"Rule Simulation Begins............... The rule simulation was completed and took 1.2 hours. ”

Sure enough, the helium-3 refinery is simpler than the fusion power station, and Cao Chuan quickly knew how to implement it, specifically, the mined helium-3-enriched moon dust is granulated, and through heating, the gaseous properties of helium-3 are used to strip away the useless mud rock layer that occupies 99% of the mass.

At the moment, the material they obtained also contained quite a lot of low-density isotope substances, all of which were in a gaseous state, so they had to separate the different densities from each other through a centrifuge to obtain a purer, high-purity helium3.

When he was going to tell the employees of the East Galaxy Company-

"What? Building a helium-3 refinery? Do we have fusion to use? The employee who is good at Lenovo shouted on the spot.

"That's pretty much what it means, the power consumption of the lunar base continues to rise, and if we don't find a way to solve the energy problem, our development will be restricted."

Immediately, an employee of the exploration department said: "Great, when we were exploring Jinghai a few days ago, we found an area with a high density of helium 3. ”

"Since the Exploration Department has already planned it, Mr. Renault, what do you think?"

"I believe in the results of the work of the Exploration Department. In addition, from the perspective of technical solutions, the solutions provided by Mr. Consultant are complete enough, and I have also seen them with colleagues in the research department, and there are no technical bottlenecks for us, and they can be implemented. However, the construction of the first sub-base has not yet been completed, and the second sub-site is being started at the same time, and the progress may be affected. ”

"What are you afraid of, let's start work first!" The employees of the exploration department are the laziest to think, mining helium-3 has been their dream for a long time, and now it has finally been proposed, and the opportunity to put it into practice has long been in their minds.

Employees of the trade department did not directly express their support, but they were discussing: "If there is helium-3, the trade department can export to the earth in reverse, even if it carries 100 kilograms each time, according to the current price of 10,000 per gram, it is equivalent to 1 billion." ”

"Actually, there are certainly not so many... Experimental helium-3 will be so expensive, and when helium-3 is actually used, the price will drop by at least 90%. Another employee interjected.

"But in any case, the future of helium-3 trade is unlimited, but I don't know if the plan for a helium-3 refinery will be approved later..."

Hearing that there were so many employees supporting the construction of the helium-3 refinery plant, even if Renault felt that there was a risk, he couldn't refuse on the spot and set his sights on Cao Chuan.

Cao Chuan pondered and said, "You can consider seconding some more people, whether it is the staff of the research department or the exploration department, they are all willing to help." ”

"If we can speed up the construction process, it will be true, Mr. Consultant." Renault replied respectfully, it can be said that his only concern is that he will add more people, but he will not master the corresponding production skills, which will not be able to manage effectively, but will reduce efficiency.

"This simple production skill is something that everyone will learn very quickly." Cao Chuan was not worried, "In this case, the matter of the large-scale helium-3 refining plant will be troublesome for a few people first." ”

Renault nodded: "No problem, I will immediately make a more detailed plan, and estimate that the construction of the entire plant will take at least 2 months to ensure the production of 500 kg/month of helium-3." "In addition, I will temporarily transfer 10 employees from other departments to assist in the construction, and when the time comes, I will be responsible for teaching them basic skills and arranging specific work."

"However, considering that we not only have to build a helium-3 refinery plant, but also a fusion energy power station, the follow-up project will probably be very large, even if we increase the investment of manpower and material resources, you still have to be mentally prepared."