As we all know, today's new energy vehicle market can be said to be in full swing, pure electric vehicles, and hybrid vehicles are more and more recognized and favored by the majority of consumers, and the car sales of major new energy vehicle companies are also high.
Among them, the most optimistic form of new energy is hydrogen energy vehicles, and countries around the world also generally believe that hydrogen energy vehicles are the ultimate solution for future human travel, what fuel vehicles and electric vehicles can only be popular for a while, and will eventually be replaced by hydrogen energy vehicles.
Why is everyone so optimistic about hydrogen energy vehicles? That's because hydrogen energy, as a green energy source, has three irreplaceable advantages: endurance, short hydrogenation time, and complete green pollution-free.
Therefore, many countries in the world have incorporated hydrogen energy into their national strategic plans. According to the statistics of the China Hydrogen Energy Alliance Research Institute, 9 of the more than 20 countries accounting for 44% of the global GDP have formulated a complete national hydrogen energy strategy, and 11 countries are formulating a national hydrogen energy strategy. In addition, 14 countries, accounting for 38% of global GDP, are already supporting hydrogen energy pilots and demonstration projects.
Let's look at China. Hydrogen energy and fuel cells were written into the government work report for the first time during the two sessions in 2019. Hydrogen energy will be officially written into the 14th Five-Year Plan in 2021. By the end of 2021, there will be more than 10 hydrogen energy industry plans at the provincial and municipal levels nationwide, and more than 30 hydrogen energy special plans at the prefecture-level city and district level.
However, everyone seems to be ignoring another form of energy, which has all the advantages of hydrogen energy, and it is also inexhaustible, the most important thing is that its energy is extremely strong, it is nuclear energy.
So what is nuclear energy?
Nuclear energy, also known as atomic energy, refers to the enormous amount of energy released by the nucleus during fission or fusion, and it conforms to Albert Einstein's equation E= mc, where E = energy, m = mass, and c = constant of the speed of light.
How do you get nuclear energy? Nuclear energy can be released in three ways:
1. Nuclear fission, opening the binding force of the atomic nucleus.
2. Nuclear fusion, atoms and particles fuse together.
3, nuclear decay, a natural much slower form of fission.
Before 1945, humans in the field of energy use were only involved in physical and chemical changes. By the time of World War II, the birth of the atomic bomb made mankind begin to use nuclear energy in the fields of military, energy, industry, and aerospace. The United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, Japan, Israel and other countries have successively carried out research on the prospects of nuclear energy applications.
Is it possible to achieve the goal of low-carbon environmental protection and green travel through the manufacture of nuclear energy vehicles through technical research, while completely solving the problem of human energy shortage?
The answer is self-evident. In fact, nuclear energy, as a very important energy source, has been tried by many car companies since the 19th century.
As early as 1957, Ford produced a concept car called the Nucleon, which was very avant-garde in shape and had a forward-looking nuclear power unit. It is able to release heat through the uranium's chain nuclear fission reaction, which heats liquid water into water vapor, and then pushes the turbine blades to provide driving force to the car. After the water vapor has cooled, it can be returned to the reactor to be heated, and then the turbine blades will be worked again, so that the car will have a steady stream of power. The nuclear power plant envisaged at the time could provide cars with 8,000 kilometers to travel.
In 2014, Cadillac also designed a concept sports car called the WTF, a thorium-fueled sports car, a radioactive metallic element that is nearly as abundant as lead on Earth. Thorium can be converted to uranium-233 when fissioned, releasing much more energy than uranium-235, so the thorium fuel required to drive the car is very small. So its engine may hardly need to add raw materials again within a hundred years. You say it's not strong?
In 2016, Audi released a nuclear energy supercar, the whole vehicle is full of futuristic feeling, it is said to be the combat nation of Russians, but this car is also a concept car, did not achieve mass production.
Of course, we can't be left behind in Great China! No, it is reported that in the latest China trademark network registration information, it was unexpectedly exposed that a trademark JETOUR applied for by Chery was related to nuclear fuel. A closer look revealed that the four processes of nuclear fission were written in the description column of these trade names: fuel and nuclear moderator treatment device, nuclear fuel and nuclear moderator treatment device, and nuclear fission treatment device. Polymerization reactor equipment, nuclear reactors. Isn't this the legendary nuclear-powered car?
So many car companies have tried or are preparing to try the field of nuclear vehicles, so why has there not been a nuclear car that can really achieve mass production so far? The reason is that the author believes that there are mainly the following aspects of the problem can not be solved:
1. Nuclear leakage problem
The fission reaction produced by nuclear fuel when burned can produce a large number of high-energy neutrons and extremely penetrating gamma rays. Gamma rays have a strong penetration, can enter the interior of the human body, and with the human cells to produce ionization, ionization of the ions will erode the human body proteins, nucleic acids, enzymes and other organic molecules, once the car collides, nuclear fuel will leak, that nuclear radiation will cause great harm to human health.
2. The problem of miniaturization of nuclear reactors
As we all know, nuclear reactions need to be carried out in an absolutely sealed environment, the current sealing method is generally to use thickened cement walls to separate, in order to prevent the driver from being affected by radioactivity, the protective layer alone may need tens of tons, such a heavy car, the road will be pressed out of a large pit, then how to drive the car? Therefore, in order to apply nuclear energy to cars, it is necessary to miniaturize nuclear reactors, but it is really strange to build a nuclear reaction in such a small part of the engine compartment of a car. For the current technology, it can be said that it is almost a fantasy.
From the current point of view, nuclear vehicles are still stuck in the concept car stage, looking very beautiful. The ideal is very full, the reality is very bone.
However, I believe that with the continuous breakthrough of technology, we can finally find a solution to the problem, and finally make nuclear energy vehicles a new hope for new energy vehicles.