November is the harvest season.

On November 6, the "Qingshan" base was officially completed, and the first experimental uranium reactor began trial operation.

The Qingshan base, which is the code name of another nuclear base built by Xinyuan, has been officially put into practice after a year of construction with the operation of the first experimental reactor as a symbol.

The plant's landmark, two huge "chimneys" (condensate evaporation towers), finally began to emit white smoke to cool down the operating reactors a few months after they were erected.

High-level personnel from Xinyuan, Huaguo Power Investment, China General Nuclear Power Corporation, 194 Institute and other relevant units witnessed the start-up ceremony of the "CU-15" test reactor.

CU-15, C stands for conventional configuration, U stands for reactor raw material is uranium-235, and number 15 represents 150,000 kW of power generation, that is, 150MW.

The CU-15 is not a sodium-cooled fast neutron reactor (abbreviated SFR) used by NAPE, but is only used for those power-hungry tests and supply bases, and is produced and sold in-house.

However, the CU-15 was completely independently designed by Cheng Nankai, using new technologies to partially reduce the size and reduce costs, and even used the relevant design concepts from NAPE, and started to build from the middle of the construction of the Qingshan base.

After repeated discussions, an expert from the Rongcheng 194 Institute (Nuclear Power Research Institute) was sent to inspect the reactor, and it was required that it must be accepted before it can be put into practical use.

CU-15 is not an SFR and does not require much secrecy, and the experts sent by 194 are also early Republican researchers who have left the front-line work, so they agreed to open it up.

Wang Lu, 78 years old, has participated in many major nuclear projects in the early days, and is certainly familiar with reactor design, and after signing a confidentiality agreement, he joined Cheng Nankai's working group to check for potential safety hazards of CU-15.

The results were shocking, and the design of the CU-15 was quite ahead of its time, and if I could say it, it could be described as beautiful.

The structure is simple, efficient, small, and there is no jerky design for the first time, and there is not a single novice mistake he made in the early design of the year, which shows everywhere that the designer definitely has a lot of experience and a lot of precedents to make the CU-15 so handy.

But Cheng Nankai's information is known in the industry, and it is never too much to describe it as mediocre, let alone others.

There is almost no actual work experience, and I did not engage in this work at all during the period of the country.

It's just ...... Incredible.

In the follow-up report, Wang Lu praised the design of the CU-15, believing that its reliability is higher than 99.5%, and it can be approved for operation.

And in today's first operation, the CU-15 was as stable as he imagined.

Cheng Nankai was standing beside him, and his face was also the kind of confident and unfazed.

How good would it be if such a talent served the country?

Wang Lu looked at the parameters in the control room and said with some emotion:

"CU-15 is already a very good third-generation reactor, but the power ceiling is relatively small, Xiaocheng, your design is too ingenious, and the core working temperature is so high."

For nuclear reactors, core temperature control is an extremely important issue.

Theoretically, a higher core operating temperature means less heat dissipation, a lighter system weight, and higher efficiency, but with that comes increased design difficulty and danger.

The famous accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was caused by the high temperature of the reactor core, and if it had not been for the rescue personnel to save the life of the reactor, the meltdown would have posed a greater threat.

The large size and weight of the nuclear engine previously developed by Aramco and the alliance were to reduce the core temperature for reliability, which made the heat dissipation system very large and complex.

If it is used in the first stage and works in the atmosphere most of the time, it is okay, there is air to assist in heat dissipation, and the weight is acceptable, but if it is difficult in a vacuum, the thermal energy of high-power reactors really makes people not know how to deal with it.

But for Cheng Nankai, on the contrary, NAPE can maintain the low quality of the entire system while taking the SFR route, relying on the ultra-high core temperature of more than 1700 degrees.

At present, the major research institutions in the world that have launched a charge for sodium-cooled fast neutron reactors have only only assumed a core operating temperature of 750 to 950 degrees, and 1700 degrees is already a prospect after maturity in the later stage.

The reactor heat of NAPE is also not dissipated like ground power generation, but is directed to the engine to partially heat the working fluid and ionize it, reducing the pressure on the heat dissipation system to a minimum.

It is this ionization process that has led to a skyrocketing increase in NAPE's efficiency and a significant reduction in size and weight, allowing the 3.6-ton system to include three modes of operation and a million-kilowatt SFR reactor.

To put it bluntly, the power output of six NAPE units at the same time is already equivalent to that of a large nuclear power plant, which is why the few officials who know about the NAPE project are not optimistic: it is terrifying!

Of course, NEPE calculates the total power not the power generation power, covering all aspects of the engine as a whole, and it cannot completely generate electricity, but it is still a cross-era existence.

Wang Lu naturally knows about the NAPE project and has done calculations himself, but he feels that if he leads someone to do NAPE, the weight will be at least 10 tons, which is still ignoring many problems.

The afterlife is terrible, the afterlife is terrible!

Cheng Nankai didn't know that he had been labeled as a genius scientist, and his mood at this time was more inclined to a relief.

Before the Qingshan base was completely put into use, he did the most theoretical work, but the theoretical design already had a systematic and detailed design, and there was really nothing worth studying and revising.

The NAPE itself is the pinnacle of that world line's SSTO power, and the original design has reached the point where any modifications are superfluous, and it just needs to be built step by step.

As for the other probes, nuclear batteries, spacecraft and nuclear reactors are small things, and the past few months have been idle.

"Elder Wang, in addition to ship nuclear power, has the 194 Institute studied space nuclear propulsion technology?"

Wang Lu shook his head:

"In our previous concept, the design and principle of the nuclear thermal engine were relatively simple, which was very different from the reactor used for power generation, and the cost-effectiveness ratio of space nuclear thermal propulsion was not high, so it ...... At least 194 did not.

However, NAPE is very advanced, and the application of liquid metal reactors on ships is also cutting-edge technology, but it is not as safe as traditional pressurized water reactors, but it is indeed very space-saving.

Xiao Cheng, you didn't come to China to work early, which is a huge loss for us. ”

Cheng Nankai: "......"

He silently looked away at Lin Ju, who was standing with a group of leaders in the distance, thinking that if he returned to China early, he would be teaching at the university, and the system would still be powerful!

……

"ES-6: Combined Ionization-Air Tip Propulsion Test, Eleventh Test Session!"

On the engine test bench of the B-class base, an engine with a flat nozzle is energized, and a faint blue light generated by the ultra-high pressure inside can be seen from the vent.

The valve of the tank where the liquid methane is stored is opened, and the liquid methane is first entered into a high-temperature and high-pressure environment before being introduced into the engine, where it is ionized at high temperatures.

After that, the charged methane molecules are extremely irritable due to the heat energy, and then accelerated by the electric field to one of 400 micro nozzles to eject at high speed, and converge along the wedge-shaped surface inside the flat vent, forming a dark blue tail flame and spewing backwards at high speed.

Clusters of charged particles erupted from hundreds of nozzles collided at extremely high speeds, and a sharp roar could be heard through the heavy protective glass.

In the control room next to them, Guo Shen and Seryov watched the surge of current due to the increasing power of the ES-6 testing machine, and silently counted in their hearts.

After about 7 or 8 seconds, when the output thrust reached 5.5 tons, the scream of the engine suddenly subsided, and the charming blue tail flame gradually subsided.

In the console, the energy supply system constantly alerts the current overload and the lack of power.

Guo Shen pinched his watch and saw that it was exactly 74 seconds, three seconds more than the last time.

The ES-6 ionization plug nozzle engine is a testing machine built as a NAPE propulsion part demonstrator, weighing more than 5 tons and having a maximum thrust of only about 6 tons.

Due to the lack of the reactor part, the nuclear thermal and high-temperature ionization parts that were originally responsible for it can only be solved by traditional means, resulting in a huge energy consumption of ES-6, and the performance is far from comparable to NAPE.

The power system of the test bench has not been specially modified, and it will not last long before the power will be cut off due to overheating, and the longest time of the eleven test runs is not more than 90 seconds, but fortunately, the data collection is almost the same, which proves that the road is right.

The mission of the ES-6 has been completed, the construction of the Aoyama base has been completed, and all the research and development work of NAPE will be transferred to the past, and there is no need to worry about electrical energy anymore, and the next trial production will be directly the NAPE prototype.

Seryov: "Okay, now we can finally vacate the test bench, and the air tip team will stay first, and take some time to finish the second half of the TP-25 'Lushan' engine, just one month, which should not affect NAPE." ”

Guo Shen hurriedly replied: "Don't worry, the TP-25 is not very difficult, and it is very fast." ”

TP-25, the "Lushan" engine, is a power system prepared for the low-cost reusable aerospace aircraft that has been determined, integrating three engines: ramjet, turbofan, and air tip, with an extreme weight reduction output of 25 tons of thrust.

The 10 TP-25s do not exist independently in the Tengyun project, but some of the pipelines are connected to each other to improve performance and reduce weight, and the total weight cannot exceed 15 tons.

The total thrust of 250 tons in the working state of the gas tip is enough to send Tengyun into low-earth orbit.

Because of the pre-materials of NAPE, the development process of the TP-25 was relatively easy, the original design has been completed, and the prototype of the production version can be completed by January.

The more troublesome is the design of the fuselage, the dead weight of the engine into orbit includes 15 tons, the empty weight of the fuselage is 35 tons, 10 tons of fuel, the total load mass to personnel and cargo cannot exceed 5 tons, and the design of 20 passengers is already the biggest compromise under the safety redundancy limit.

The take-off mass of 200 tons, while the weight of the fuselage cannot exceed 35 tons, this figure is very extreme, and the requirements for design and materials are unprecedented, requiring revolutionary innovation.

It is not difficult to meet this requirement by simply flying in the atmosphere, but if you add through the atmosphere, I am afraid that the new generation of heat insulation tile technology of H2 will not be enough, and it will be lighter, simpler and cheaper.

Seryov touched his hair and felt that there were signs of returning to the untimely baldness of the previous life.

Tomorrow the regular H2M space shuttle will leave the factory, and then the H1W "Spiral" program will also enter its first flight, so that Seryov is not only excited but also brings a busier work schedule.

Under his plan, the B-level base has been expanded by more than 400 people, and it has been divided among various project teams with almost no waves.

Of course, this is not because the redundancy of the base is too high, but because there are too many places to employ people, and the Qingshan base is also expected to have 1,000 talents to achieve the goal of initial full operation.

With the super carriage of Xinyuan in his hands, he feels that he has more power than he did during the alliance.

As for the real boss Lin Ju? I'm afraid I spend a lot more time in the capital than at my own base.

But now the boss is rarely at the base, and he is still with a few people from the space agency.

……

On November 8, at 11 a.m., there were still more than ten hours before the results of the Aramco election, and the results would be counted in the early morning of Beijing time.

The C-class base, in accordance with Serov's "Spiral" plan, was officially shipped by the H1W unmanned space shuttle resurrected by Xinyuan on the H1.

The H1W, like the former Alliance's MAKS program, is almost a perfect replica of the MAKS of the year in order to match the fusiform's nose that is high and upward, the nose is narrowed, and the take-off mass is about the same.

The only difference is that the MAKS uses two engines, while the H1W uses only one super-thrust H240 upgraded engine: the H300.

The H300's bell-shaped nozzle has been optimized to maintain high efficiency from the start of the aircraft at an altitude of more than 10,000 meters until the aircraft enters orbit.

The maximum weight of the fuel tank and H1W is only 322 tons, while the H300 can output a maximum of 112% thrust when starting, and can also adjust the thrust in a wide range, always keeping the thrust-to-weight ratio low to reduce overload and vibration, and is very tolerant of the sensitive parts of the transported satellite.

Since the H1W is an unmanned design for the load, the testing process is also relatively simple, and there are no multiple aerodynamic tests of the real machine except for computer simulations, which is completely different from the H2 aerodynamic verification prototype that has been flying on the prairie for several months.

Now the H1W installed in the factory adopts the second-generation insulation layer technology, and the overall look is gray, because the temperature requirements are relaxed in a wide range and the quality is reduced a lot.

But on its tail wing, a bright purple lightning bolt is unusually prominent.

"Lightning", this is the name that Seryov gave it, the same in honor of the "Lightning" design bureau, in any case H1W is really following the path of MAKS, even if the latter did not work out.

The Lightning will be transported directly to Xinyuan Airport, where the Il-76 will be transported to Qiongzhou, where the Lightning and fuel tanks will be combined with the An-1250 and launched on the high seas.

This is also the advantage of an airmobile launch, the possibility of freely choosing the landing zone and reducing the latitude as much as possible, saving up to 5% of fuel, and transferring to the mass of the load can be more than a hundred kilograms, which is already very good.

The "Spiral" plan is relatively secretive, because it is not a big project in Xinyuan now, and it is also a special launch plan prepared by Seryov for a deep space probe temporarily, and no one knows the specific content without deliberate publicity.

It wasn't until the strange-looking Inazuma was loaded onto the plane that a new study was carried out until Xinyuan.

At the same time, the B-class base is bustling.

Two of the first three H1M aircraft completed the final equipment installation ahead of schedule and were officially dragged out of the plant.

Because of the river crab beast, it is now John George, and it must not be code-named

(End of chapter)