Lead
Nuclear energy technology has always been a field of great interest to mankind, and the technical research in this area is also very profound, and the mainland also has strong strength in this regard.
The energy problem is a major challenge faced by mankind, and how to better improve the efficiency of energy utilization is undoubtedly the core issue of scientific and technological development.
Energy is the bottom of human society, is the inexhaustible power to promote the society, so nuclear energy technology also plays a very important role in the development of human science and technology, only the breakthrough in energy can human society have a better development.
Both China and the United States have made some breakthroughs in nuclear energy technology, exploring in the fields of nuclear fusion and nuclear fission, respectively.
China's breakthrough was to achieve the first self-sustaining combustion of an "artificial sun" in human history, while the United States made a breakthrough in the national ignition device and realized the self-sustaining combustion of the ignition device.
What is the difference between the Chinese artificial sun and the national ignition device of the United States?
1. Nuclear fusion and nuclear fission.
Nuclear energy technology is a new type of technology that can use nuclear energy to generate electricity, and nuclear energy is a more efficient energy source than fossil energy.
Nuclear energy includes nuclear fission and nuclear fusion, nuclear fission is the fission of heavier nuclei into lighter nuclei, and energy will be released in the whole process, which is also the principle of the release of energy by nuclear weapons.
Nuclear fusion, on the other hand, is the fusion of lighter nuclei into heavier nuclei, and the energy of nuclear fusion is higher than that of nuclear fission, which is a very efficient energy source.
Nuclear fission and nuclear fusion are two very different technical paths, not only in principle, but also in use, nuclear fission is the current nuclear energy technology used to generate electricity, and nuclear fusion is the future energy direction.
Nuclear fission technology is currently the most widely used nuclear energy technology, and nuclear fission technology uses the characteristics of heavy nuclear fission to release energy.
The energy released from heavy nuclear fission is very easy to control, so it can generate a lot of heat, which can be used well for power generation, and the nuclear power plants currently used in the mainland also use nuclear fission technology to generate electricity.
However, this technology also has its limitations, the raw material it uses is heavy nuclides such as uranium or plutonium, which are not very numerous, and the collection of uranium and plutonium also has a very large impact on the environment, so this raw material is not environmentally friendly.
At the same time, the nuclear waste produced by heavy nuclear fission poses a great threat to the environment, its half-life is very long, and it will cause very serious radiation pollution to the environment, so its use is very limited.
Nuclear fusion technology is currently being studied, and the raw materials used are deuterium and tritium nuclides, which are very abundant on the earth, so the use of deuterium nuclear energy will not have a great impact on the environment.
At the same time, the nuclear waste produced by nuclear fusion is also very small, and the impact on the environment is also very small, so nuclear fusion has a very big advantage in the entire raw material utilization, waste treatment, and radiation control, and is the future energy direction.
Second, the Chinese make the sun.
China has also made great achievements in nuclear fusion technology, and the mainland has carried out a series of research in this area, and the largest nuclear fusion experimental device currently being carried out on the mainland is the "artificial sun".
The official full name of the mainland's artificial sun is the "China Fusion Engineering Research Supercomputer System", which is the support of the computing power of a "supercomputer in the East", and is also an important research achievement of the mainland in nuclear fusion.
The purpose of the artificial sun is to solve the important problem of fusion plasma research, and its construction will help the continent's nuclear fusion research field to improve the computer level to the forefront of the world, and it can also help the construction of the continent's artificial sun.
The mainland artificial sun began to be developed in 2016, and after 5 years of development, the first ignition experiment was finally carried out on January 1, 2021, and the burning time of the ignition experiment reached 1,500 seconds, which was also called "the first self-sustaining combustion in human history" by mainland experts.
The construction of the continental artificial sun is mainly to achieve the controllability of nuclear fusion, and its practical application is mainly used in the design and research of reactors to solve the application of nuclear fusion in the energy industry.
The artificial sun adopts the tokamak-type fusion mode, which is currently the most widely used fusion mode, which is very stable and can carry out nuclear fusion reactions well.
At the same time, this mode also has the advantage that it can better control the operation of the fusion reactor, and it can resist the influence of heat and magnetism very well during the whole process of the fusion reaction, so that the fusion reaction can be carried out stably.
Therefore, the application of this fusion mode in the continental artificial sun is also very suitable, and the continental artificial sun has also achieved great results in research, with a combustion time of 1500 seconds, which is also the first time in human history.
3. U.S. National Ignition Device.
The breakthrough of the continental artificial sun has shocked the whole world, and the breakthrough of the continental artificial sun is undoubtedly a major breakthrough in the world's fusion research, and the national ignition device of the United States has actually achieved some results.
The U.S. National Ignition Facility is an important experimental device in the field of nuclear fusion research in the United States, which is a nuclear fusion device that uses laser rays as a heating source.
Research on the national ignition device has been going on for more than 40 years, this research first began in 1975, and after more than 40 years of research, some results have finally been achieved.
Recently, the United States has also made some breakthroughs in this device, that is, it has achieved self-sustaining combustion on the national ignition device, which is also something that the Chinese have not done with the artificial sun.
Self-sustaining combustion is carried out on the state ignition device, which uses laser rays as a heating source, which happens to be able to heat nuclides such as deuterium to very high temperatures, allowing them to fuse and thus produce nuclear energy.
In the research, the United States conducted research on multiple lasers on the national ignition device, and finally successfully crossed the multiple lasers in 2018, and heated the deuterium and other nuclides to a sufficient temperature, which led to the fusion reaction of deuterium-tritium and other nuclides to produce nuclear energy.
This fusion reaction lasted for one ten-thousandth of a second, although this duration was very short, but it was also the first time that human beings achieved self-sustaining combustion of nuclear fusion on the earth, so it was a very big breakthrough for both the mainland and the United States.
The Chinese artificial sun uses a tokamak-type fusion model, which is mainly to solve the application of nuclear fusion in energy, while the US national ignition device uses laser fusion, mainly to solve the application of nuclear fusion in weapons.
Both are research directions different, so it is meaningless to compare the two, both are advances in human science, although the self-sustaining combustion of the American national ignition device lasted for a short time, but its breakthrough also played an important role in the breakthrough of human beings in the field of energy.
epilogue
The breakthrough of nuclear fusion technology undoubtedly provides more opportunities for mankind to solve the energy crisis, and the energy utilization efficiency of nuclear fusion is higher, so the breakthrough of the continent in nuclear fusion technology is a very big step for mankind.
At the same time, it is also a global praise for the mainland, and we also hope that the continent can go further in nuclear fusion technology and make greater contributions to the scientific and technological development of human society.
Therefore, we are also very excited about the breakthrough of nuclear fusion technology in the mainland, and we hope to see the application of nuclear fusion in the production capacity of the mainland as soon as possible.