"The 'heavy nuclear fusion' described in the science fiction movie "The Wandering Earth 2" is to achieve the energy supply of the planetary engine by 'burning stones'." Recently, Duan Xuru, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and chief expert in the field of nuclear fusion of CNNC, said in an exclusive interview with the Global Times that from the current engineering point of view, "heavy nuclear fusion" is not a key research direction for the time being, but the real world human use of light nuclear fusion to achieve fusion energy utilization is just around the corner.
How far humanity is from the "planetary engine"
On January 30, CNNC also displayed the "planetary engine" in "The Wandering Earth 2" and the posters of China's new generation "Artificial Sun" device (HL-2M) and the China Circulator No. 2A (HL-2A) device led by CNNC's Southwest Institute of Physics, which sparked heated discussions. Is the planetary engine in the movie really well documented? How far is the current level of human science and technology from the realization of planetary engines? In this regard, Duan Xuru introduced that the heavy nuclear fusion described in "The Wandering Earth 2" is to achieve the energy supply of the planetary engine by "burning stones". Nuclear fusion occurs all the time in the universe, the principle is to use the combination of two lighter nuclei to lose mass to release a lot of energy, the most typical example is the sun, light nuclear fusion reaction occurs all the time, and the raw material of the "burning stone" in the movie, its relative atomic mass is much larger, so it is named heavy nuclear fusion.
CNNC displayed posters of the "planetary engine" from The Wandering Earth 2 and China's next-generation "Artificial Sun" device (HL-2M) and the China Circulator No. 2A (HL-2A) device led by CNNC's Southwest Institute of Physics
"However, from the current engineering point of view, 'heavy nuclear fusion' is not yet a key research direction, because the conditions for achieving heavy nuclear fusion are much higher than light nuclear fusion, and it takes a high temperature of more than 100 million degrees Celsius to produce considerable light nuclear fusion temperature, while the temperature required for heavy nuclear fusion is far more than 100 million degrees Celsius, which is currently difficult to achieve," Duan Xuru said, if you want to use a planetary engine to push the earth to escape the solar system, overall this is a beautiful imagination based on scientific foundation. With the current technical conditions and technical routes, it is temporarily impossible to do so. However, in the real world, human beings can use light nuclear fusion to realize the use of fusion energy, and it is believed that through the efforts of China's "fusion people", clean and efficient fusion energy will be able to be delivered to thousands of households in the future.
The R&D goal of "Artificial Sun" is to become a demonstration fusion power station
In November 2022, the "firewall", the core component of the world's largest "artificial sun", made significant progress in China, and the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) planned to increase the heat load of the first wall and completed the first manufacturing, marking China's realization of the global leader in this core technology and effectively enhancing the mainland's voice in this field.
In an interview with the Global Times, Duan Xuru said that ITER is the world's largest "artificial sun", which simulates the nuclear fusion reaction inside the sun to produce energy, to meet the conditions of controllable nuclear fusion, the temperature of its fuel particles needs to exceed 100 million degrees Celsius, and also produce a large number of extremely high-energy particles, the key component "first wall" is its "firewall", directly facing the burning hundreds of millions of degrees Celsius plasma and extremely high-energy particles. "The first wall of ITER enhanced heat load completed the first piece manufacturing, the core indicators are better than the design requirements, and it has the conditions for mass manufacturing, marking China's comprehensive breakthrough in the key technology of the first wall of ITER enhanced heat load, and realizing the continuous leadership of this core technology." Duan Xuru said.
According to Duan Xuru, China's participation in the ITER project, on the one hand, is to contribute Chinese wisdom and Chinese strength to the ITER program, on the other hand, it will also greatly improve the level of mainland nuclear fusion research, CNNC Southwest Institute of Nuclear Industry, as an important technical support unit for the mainland to participate in the ITER program, undertakes the development of most of the nuclear components of China's ITER key components. Through the integration of superior resources at home and abroad, it has broken through a number of engineering and technical problems, established technical specifications and test platforms for the design, manufacture and inspection of ITER-related key components, and greatly improved the level of mainland nuclear fusion technology.
At present, international fusion research is in the stage of deuterium-tritium combustion experiment and fusion reactor key nuclear engineering technology research and development, Duan Xuru said that the next step of the "artificial sun" plan is to gradually transition from the deuterium-tritium combustion experimental stage to the fusion reactor engineering and physics experimental stage, and finally enter the demonstration fusion power station stage and commercial fusion power station stage to achieve the peaceful use of fusion energy. "Of course, there is still a way to go, and a number of engineering and technological breakthroughs are needed, such as the control and operation of self-sustaining combustion plasma, highly irradiated fusion reactor materials, tritium self-sustaining, etc., 'artificial sun' will be committed to solving the engineering and physical problems related to fusion reactors, laying a solid foundation for the construction of fusion demonstration reactors in the future."
Some of China's fusion technology is internationally leading
When mankind will achieve the commercial application of controlled nuclear fusion has always been the focus of public attention. Duan Xuru said that the research and development of controlled nuclear fusion has gradually entered the stage of reactor engineering experiments from principle exploration and large-scale experiments, and now our understanding of controllable nuclear fusion technology is becoming clearer, especially the construction of the ITER project, which is about to make the first power station-scale fusion reactor a reality.
At the same time, many technologies in nuclear engineering have made great progress, making researchers more aware of what technologies will be used and needed to be overcome in future nuclear fusion power plants. "If we rely on the foundation of the existing nuclear science and technology industrial system, condense relevant advantageous research units and enterprises with professional experience and technical foundation in the field of nuclear engineering, gradually build a fusion energy technology development system and industrial system, and concentrate on nuclear fusion engineering and technical research, about 30 years, that is, by the middle of this century, I believe that human beings can use controllable nuclear fusion energy." Duan Xuru said.
China's controlled fusion research began as early as the 50s of the 20th century, almost in sync with internationally controlled fusion research. In 2006, China, the European Union, the United States, Russia, Japan, South Korea and India signed an agreement on the launch of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor Program, which is currently one of the world's largest and most far-reaching international science projects. At the same time, it is also the largest international scientific and technological cooperation project in which China participates as an equal. Duan Xuru said that in the more than ten years of participating in ITER, China's fusion research has developed rapidly, and magnetic confinement nuclear fusion research has entered the parallel stage from the past to the parallel running stage, and some technologies have reached the international leading level.
Duan Xuru said that the construction and capacity improvement of mainland device platforms, such as the Chinese circulator series of devices and the Eastern Hyperring, have made the research of continental magnetic confinement fusion develop by leaps and bounds, and physical experiments have continuously made breakthroughs, and promoted the development of theory and large-scale numerical simulation. In 2020, CNNC's Southwest Institute of Physics of Nuclear Industry built a new generation of "artificial sun" devices on the mainland, which has the ability to carry out advanced physics research under core-level conditions, and achieved plasma current exceeding 1 million amperes (1 trillion amperes) in 2022, creating a new record for the operation of the mainland's controllable nuclear fusion experimental device, and the technical level has been further improved.
Source: Global Times