Research starts with PhD students

Chapter 330 Major Accident! Low-temperature Nuclear Fusion Actually Got into Trouble!
On the west coast of the Atlantic Ocean, there is a large nuclear reactor research base in the northern suburbs of Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The research base is managed by MIT and directly under the jurisdiction of the Department of Energy.

The Department of Energy is also a major funder and has been researching tokamak nuclear reactors for many years.

After the news of the new nuclear energy came out, the Tokamak nuclear reactor project was significantly affected.

With the support of the Ministry of Energy, the project team switched to researching low-temperature nuclear fusion.

This year, the project team determined the experimental direction, which is to add other elements inside the fusion material and heat the material under strong magnetic control in order to measure the data.

The experimental goal is to measure a sustained low-temperature fusion reaction below 100 million degrees Celsius.

The person in charge of the research base is Dennis White, who is quite capable. After determining the research direction, he began to conduct experiments continuously.

So far, there has been great progress.

The project team found that adding mercury to fusion materials can allow the fusion reaction to be sustained for more than ten seconds at 3800 million degrees Celsius without further heating.

After many experiments, they found that the longest maintenance time was only ten seconds, and the temperature would continue to decrease, which also meant that the reaction rate continued to decrease.

Dennis White and his team believe that one of the important reasons why mercury can play a role is that high-temperature ionic metal elements move faster than deuterium and tritium ions in a magnetic field.

This conclusion is recognized because they have determined that other metal elements can also keep the fusion reaction going at a certain temperature, but the duration is less than ten seconds, and some are even only one or two seconds.

Today is another new experiment.

Dennis White stood in front of the large screen in the control room. He stared at the data on the screen and said to Taylor Wilson with a relaxed expression, "Let's try mixing elements this time."

"The mixture of mercury and sulfur is likely to lead to new discoveries. We have done so many calculations, and the combination of these two elements may have new effects."

"From the perspective of the characteristics of ionic elements, there is a certain…"

"From the perspective of electron distribution..."

Dennis White talked about everything from ion physics to microscopic physics, and explained why mercury and sulfur mixed elements were used. Just standing by and listening, I felt like a lot of physics was hitting me on the head, and subconsciously I felt that the content made a lot of sense.

He was clearly confident.

Taylor Wilson felt a little dizzy after listening to this. He also participated in the analysis of the experiment, but he did not think that the team's analysis was meaningful.

Ion physics?

Microscopic physics?

In these physical directions, their analysis is very scientific, but the problem is that the experiments belong to the category of new physics.

The only thing they lacked was theoretical support for the new physics direction.

To put it bluntly, they didn't understand why the element mercury could enable nuclear fusion to continue at low temperatures (less than 100 million degrees Celsius).

The so-called 'promotion of metal element movement' sounds very reasonable, but in fact, it has nothing to do with the continuation of nuclear fusion.

They just inferred the cause based on the experimental conclusions, but are the inferred causes correct?
Taylor Wilson thought about it and shook his head, "I still think we should be more cautious."

"We are on the right track, but after making new discoveries, we should do more demonstrations and basic experiments. At least we need to understand some principles before we can proceed to the next step of the experiment."

He continued as he thought, "Sulfur ions are still too active. When combined with mercury... I don't know what the effect will be."

Dennis White put away his smile, pursed his lips and said, "Taylor, you are right. That's right, experimental research should be done this way."

"But we can't do this," he said and looked at Wilson.

"Why?" Wilson asked subconsciously.

"Have you heard about what happened last month?"

Dennis White didn't wait for Taylor to answer, and continued, "The Department of Energy has funded two more project teams and a laboratory, both of which are doing research on low-temperature nuclear fusion."

"I heard that the military has also started experiments. They are doing the same research as us."

"That means we will have competitors in the future. Of course, that's fine. We are not afraid of competition. But the problem is that they are starting their research based on our progress."

"Their progress can directly catch up with us..."

He also sounded helpless.

It was impossible for other project teams to directly use their progress to conduct research in the past, unless they were authorized.

It is different now, because the project is completely funded by the Department of Energy. They receive high funding and high salaries, so the results naturally do not belong to the team.

White sighed and patted Taylor on the shoulder. "Don't worry, there's nothing wrong. The worst that can happen is that they didn't find it."

"Low-temperature nuclear fusion won't pose any risk. We have enough funding anyway..."

Wilson thought about it and it made sense.

It turns out that the biggest reason for not conducting experiments before doing sufficient research and analysis is insufficient funding.

Now that funding is abundant, we can naturally let go and continue conducting experiments.

"The experiment has begun."

"Seriously!"

Dennis White reminded and immediately looked at the data on the screen.

They were in the control room.

The Tokamak nuclear reactor is a huge device, about one hundred meters away from the control room. During the experiment, there were only a few experimenters, and the rest were controlled by computers.

The personnel in the control room need to observe the data in the experiment, perform certain operations through real-time measurement and analysis, and guide the progress of the experiment.

The current experiment mainly uses the process of continuous radiation heating and suspension to see whether the nuclear fusion reaction inside the device can continue at a certain temperature.

People in the control room need to keep an eye on the data.

The experiment lasted for a long time, switching back and forth between constant heating and pausing, until the temperature rose to above 3800 million degrees Celsius. All the people involved in the experiment became serious.

3800 million degrees Celsius is an important node. Adding mercury to the fusion material will allow the reaction to last for more than ten seconds at 3800 million degrees Celsius.

This time, the experiment added the element sulfur, and 3800 million degrees Celsius was still the focus of observation.

"Stop heating!"

Dennis White issued an instruction, "Take a close look at the data."

When heating is paused, the temperature will normally drop rapidly because the reaction rate will continue to decrease.

After adding mercury, the reaction rate will continue for more than ten seconds.

Just as everyone imagined, the temperature did not drop rapidly after the heating was paused, but continued to remain at 3800 million degrees Celsius, and even showed a certain upward trend.

Someone immediately noticed this and exclaimed in surprise, "Look, 3900 million!"

“It’s not falling!”

"How long?"

"Seventeen seconds, eighteen, nineteen..."

"The temperature isn't dropping? It's still rising? God, this is amazing, we did it!"

"Hula~~~"

When they realized that the experiment had made a new discovery, everyone in the control room exclaimed in excitement.

Some people even couldn't help but open champagne to celebrate, "I've been prepared for a long time, I knew there would be a new breakthrough this time."

"Almost a minute, right?"

"how's it going?"

Someone immediately responded, "I've been watching, huge results! Now it's 4200 million!"

Dennis White was also very excited. He turned around and asked for a glass of champagne, drank it in one gulp, and then said to Taylor Wilson, "I feel like we are very close to mastering low-temperature nuclear fusion."

Taylor Wilson continued to stare at the data, and suddenly shouted, "Stop celebrating! Stop! Stop the experiment!"

"Dennis, stop the experiment!"

"Right now, right away!"

"What's wrong?" Dennis White didn't react for a moment. He immediately looked at the data and was so shocked that cold sweat broke out all over his body.

At some point, the temperature has risen to 7000 million degrees Celsius and is still rising.

He also realized something was wrong and immediately shouted, "Stop! Forced pause!"

The operators in the laboratory had already noticed something was wrong, and they immediately initiated the emergency stop process. Turn off the magnetic field!

Turn off the device!

Put neutron-absorbing materials inside the device!
Several methods are carried out simultaneously, and the last one is very effective. When neutrons are absorbed in large quantities, the fusion chain reaction is broken and the reaction rate drops rapidly.

Dennis White let out a sigh of relief, then looked up and found that the data was still rising.

"It's over 100 million degrees Celsius..."

This happened within a few seconds, and most people didn't even have time to react.

The next moment, the computer connection was suddenly disconnected.

Before they could react, they heard a loud noise in the distance—

"boom!!!"

Then there were explosions one after another, "Bang! Bang——"

The glass in the corridor outside the control room was shattered, and the building became chaotic.

Dennis White was so scared that he lay under the table, and then he was pulled up by Taylor Wilson, "Go, get out!"

"It's not safe here!"

Taylor Wilson reacted quickly and pulled Dennis White outside.

Others also ran outside.

The control room was on the first floor, and after they entered the corridor, they soon reached the door.

Dennis White's expression was still blank, as if he had no idea what was going on. He stared blankly towards the laboratory.

He only saw smoke and flames, and also felt waves of heat.

"Don't be in a daze, go!"

Taylor Wilson anxiously turned around and ran forward. They followed the crowd out of the base and only stopped slowly when they reached the road outside.

There were already a lot of people outside, and the sound of fire trucks could be heard in the distance.

People were in a panic.

There were some figures inside the base, also running outside. Some of them looked very disheveled, and one of them was covering his forehead with his hands, with blood all over his face.

Dennis White stared blankly, then he looked towards the direction of the laboratory.

The place was filled with smoke, and flames could be seen in the smoke.

The flames grew bigger and bigger, and the smoke spread wider and wider, already affecting the control room.

People were still screaming and shouting from inside.

Dennis White stared at it for a long time. He finally reacted. His legs seemed to become weak and he fell to his knees.

He buried his head in the ground and scratched his scalp with both hands.

Taylor Wilson lowered his head and looked over, and heard a roaring cry, with names being called out in the cry.

"Bent, George, Kinnear..."

“They didn’t come out!”

“Not coming out!”

"Ah~~~"

Wilson stood up straight, looked towards the experimental room, and his eyes turned red.

……

《Major accident occurred in the northern suburbs of Cambridge》

Nuclear fusion research causes violent explosion, resulting in heavy casualties

"The Nuclear Fusion Research Group under the Ministry of Energy has...

Major accident, major news!
Within an hour of the accident, international news was flooded with reports and sparked a lot of discussion.

This accident is really serious.

Dennis White's experimental base is located in the northern suburbs of Cambridge.

Cambridge is a very famous city in Massachusetts, where both MIT and Harvard University are located.

In the northern suburbs, the population density is also relatively high.

In such an environment, such a serious accident occurred, and the impact is naturally very great.

The pictures in the media reports all showed experimental bases filled with fire and smoke, and the scenes captured by drones were even more shocking, as if the entire base was filled with smoke.

In such an accident, firefighting was completely useless. Several firefighting planes flew back and forth overhead but were unable to put out the fire quickly.

After more than two hours, everything was finally over.

The scene also turned into a ruin.

……

The accident made a big splash in the international news, and the people at the Hadron Collider experimental base naturally discussed the accident.

"Have you watched the news? There was a major accident in nuclear fusion research!"

"The nuclear reaction team in Cambridge seems to belong to MIT?"

"They should be doing low-temperature nuclear fusion research, right?"

"I remember that a friend told me last time that the team received funding from the Department of Energy..."

"Dennis White, I know him, he's famous."

"Can accidents happen in low-temperature nuclear fusion research? Academician Zhang Shuo is right. Research in new physics directions can be risky."

Zhang Shuo has said this more than once, but most people don't care.

It's different now.

Many people in the base were repeating this sentence, because an accident really occurred in the low-temperature nuclear fusion research, and it seemed to be more serious than the accident at Fermilab.

Everyone else just talked about it, after all, the accident had nothing to do with them.

Tisgo Johnson felt differently. When he walked on the street, he felt that other people looked at him strangely.

Is that a mockery?

It shouldn’t be...

Johnson was well aware that it was a psychological effect, as he only said a few words at the meeting.

He said 'even heroes make mistakes'.

and then?
Now there really is an accident, low-temperature nuclear fusion...

Joe Denil Gilberto knew what Johnson had said, so when he saw Johnson, he immediately laughed and said, "You're right."

"Just a few days ago, you said that low-temperature fusion couldn't be risky... and now it is."

Johnson's face turned dark. "This kind of thing can't be used as a joke!"

"But it's interesting, isn't it? You just said it, and then it happened, as if it was against you."

Joe Denier laughed and said, "From that perspective, you may be the culprit."

"I also want to have this ability." Johnson complained depressedly, and finally let out a long sigh.

He was completely convinced.

It was previously believed that low-temperature nuclear fusion would not pose any risks, but now an accident has actually occurred, proving that what Zhang Shuo said was correct.

The only point that can be refuted is that reality proves that he is wrong.

What can I say?

(End of this chapter)