Building a Sci-Fi Empire: Starting with Cold Nuclear Fusion

Ok?

You two have made progress in nuclear battery research so quickly?

Most importantly, judging from Zhang Shulin's tone, he and Chen Yuan seemed to have already discussed how to effectively develop a nuclear battery that meets the requirements of Liyao.

Zhao Peng and Wang Kai couldn't help but exchange glances.

Qin and Zhu Yun looked at each other in bewilderment.

The remaining Ding Yang, Xiao Yun, and the other members of the project team all looked on with surprise and uncertainty.

Just over an hour ago, they had met with representatives from Liyao and learned about the requirements of this mission.

Then, Zhang Shulin took out books containing nuclear battery design drawings and detailed explanations, and everyone finally understood the basic information and manufacturing process of nuclear batteries.

It's fair to say that, so far, they have no other preparations besides knowing these things.

What happened?

Have Chen Yuan and Zhang Shulin already come up with a plan?

This means that if the plan proves feasible, the work of their entire project team will have been done by Chen Yuan and Zhang Shulin alone.

From another perspective, aren't they dispensable?

Of course, although everyone felt a little powerless because they hadn't put in their best effort, they were still happy if the project went smoothly.

After all, they don't really know much about nuclear batteries.

To put it bluntly, if Chen Yuan and Zhang Shulin cannot come up with a concrete plan for a nuclear battery now, it would be almost impossible for them to design one within three months.

Therefore, whether it was senior leaders like Zhao Peng and Wang Kai, or project team members like Lao Qin and Zhu Yun, they were all hoping for a real design solution, which outweighed their slight sense of powerlessness.

Not everyone thinks this way; there is one person who does not.

Indeed, this person was Zhen Yuhan, and he was extremely apprehensive at the moment.

Just now, he thought Chen Yuan was taking advantage of Zhang Shulin, so he secretly went to tattle, hoping that Zhao Peng and Wang Kai would come and take a look and teach him a lesson. Now it seems that's not the case, and he's definitely not going to get away with it.

There are two situations where things don't end well.

The first scenario is that Chen Yuan didn't contribute much to the project, so department leaders like Zhao Peng and Wang Kai would barely tolerate it out of respect for his uncle Zhen Yuhan. Even if they were unhappy, they wouldn't show it, or they might just give him a few words of reprimand.

This is a relatively good situation for Zhen Yuhan.

The second scenario would be very bad.

If Chen Yuan and Zhang Shulin were indeed discussing nuclear battery solutions and had already achieved results, then...

In order to keep Chen Yuan, a meritorious official, Zhao Peng, Wang Kai and other department leaders will definitely target Zhen Yuhan.

After all, it's impossible to keep a secret about tattling. Leaders like Zhao Peng and Wang Kai naturally knew who to appease first, and how to appease Chen Yuan, this great contributor. That meant dealing with the person who spread the rumors.

Zhen Yuhan isn't stupid; how could she not understand these things?

Therefore, he now has only one hope: that the results Chen Yuan and Zhang Shulin have produced are not enough to make leaders such as Zhao Peng and Wang Kai disregard his uncle's reputation.

Just when everyone had different thoughts.

Zhao Peng asked curiously, "Professor Zhang, Xiao Chen, what plan have you two come up with?"

Zhang Shulin glanced at Chen Yuan and said with a smile, "We discussed it, and Xiao Chen gave a constructive suggestion, which is to use nickel-63 isotope as the main material for the nuclear battery of this project."

Did Chen Yuan offer any constructive suggestions?

Upon hearing this, Zhen Yuhan's heart skipped a beat.

Old Qin, being rather straightforward, asked with some puzzlement, "Didn't you say before that plutonium-238 was a better choice as the main material? Why did you suddenly switch to nickel-63?"

Zhu Yun, Xiao Yun, Ding Yang, and the others had heard about it before, and they nodded in confusion.

Zhao Peng and Wang Kai, along with other department leaders, were unaware of this. They were only responsible for overseeing the overall situation, and technical matters like this were usually discussed by the R&D personnel.

Zhang Shulin really didn't know how to answer this, because his previous suggestion was indeed to use plutonium-238 as the main material, but now Chen Yuan had only drawn up a small part of the design drawings for the nickel-63 nuclear battery, and he didn't know much about the information, so he naturally couldn't explain it.

The nickel-63 nuclear battery was Chen Yuan's original creation. Even if Zhang Shulin is a nuclear energy expert, he couldn't possibly know what Chen Yuan was thinking.

Fortunately, Chen Yuan quickly interjected, "Professor Zhang's initial idea of ​​using plutonium-238 as the main material was not wrong. However, there was a major problem that was difficult to solve: plutonium-238 has extremely high radioactivity and potential biological hazards. We need to overcome this problem before we can use nuclear batteries made of plutonium-238 in medical devices. In fact, this problem is far more difficult than developing nuclear batteries made of other materials. Therefore, Professor Zhang and I discussed it and decided that it would be better to use non-toxic, non-allergenic materials with easily manageable radiation to make nuclear batteries. That's why we came up with the idea of ​​using nickel-63."

Professor Zhang quickly realized what was going on and added, "Ni-63 has relatively weak beta-ray penetrating power; it can even block a sheet of paper. Using this material is relatively safe and suitable for medical devices such as pacemakers."

Hearing this, Zhen Yuhan felt increasingly uneasy.

Because Chen Yuan seems to have more information and knowledge than Zhang Shulin.

This means that if the plan is indeed feasible, Chen Yuan will likely deserve more credit.

This is very unfavorable for Zhen Yuhan's current situation.

If even he could see it, how could department leaders like Zhao Peng and Wang Kai not see it?

They had already vaguely guessed that this so-called nuclear battery plan was most likely led by Chen Yuan, with nuclear energy expert Zhang Shulin as an assistant, which led to the plan.

As a result, Zhao Peng's gaze towards Zhen Yuhan involuntarily turned somewhat cold.

He glanced at Zhen Yuhan only once before turning his gaze to Chen Yuan, a warm smile on his face. "Xiao Chen, could you tell us more about the detailed technology of using nickel-63 isotopes to build nuclear batteries?"

Lao Qin, Zhu Yun, Ding Yang, and the rest of the project team all looked over.

Chen Yuan thought for a moment and then explained in detail: "The core technology of this nuclear battery is the use of nickel-63 isotope decay. By utilizing the beta particles emitted by nickel-63, the battery can convert the energy generated during the semiconductor transition into current. This requires the use of some semiconductor materials to convert high-energy electrons into current. My personal idea is to use diamond semiconductor, a fourth-generation semiconductor material, which has a high charge carrier mobility. Theoretically, once the product is made, the electron collection coefficient can reach 98%."

Zhao Peng, with his technical background, immediately gleaned some information from Chen Yuan's words and asked, "You mean it has a higher energy conversion efficiency than traditional silicon-based semiconductors?"

Chen Yuan hummed in agreement, "It can improve by more than 30%."

"what?"

"Can it increase by 30%?"

"Little Chen is really something!"

Qin, Zhu Yun, and the others began to whisper among themselves.

At first, they genuinely believed that Chen Yuan and Zhang Shulin had come up with a nuclear battery design plan. But now, seeing the situation, they vaguely realized that Chen Yuan had likely completed the design on his own, just like with the 1175Ah battery cell. Otherwise, why couldn't Zhang Shulin, a nuclear energy expert, explain the nuclear battery information in the plan?

This made Lao Qin, Zhu Yun, Xiao Yun, and the others secretly sigh, "Chen Yuan is indeed capable."

Zhao Peng pressed on, "If this product is manufactured, will it meet the requirements of Liyao? For example, in terms of power output?"

This is a very important question, and he must find out the answer.

It's not just department leaders like Zhao Peng and Wang Kai who are concerned.

People from the project team, including Lao Qin and Zhu Yun, are also very concerned.

No matter how ingenious the design or how advanced the technology of a nuclear battery, if it does not meet the customer's requirements, it is still a substandard product.

Chen Yuan smiled and said, "The nuclear battery I designed has an innovative technology: it places a two-millimeter-thick nickel-63 sheet between two diamond semiconductor converters to form an independent power generation unit... You might not understand it now, but you'll understand when you see the design drawings. In any case, this series-parallel combination can meet different power requirements, not just the 100 microwatts requested by the customer, but adjustable. I envision it being adjustable from 100 microwatts to 1 watt. In the future, this nuclear battery can not only be used as a power supply device for pacemakers, but also for cochlear implants, spacecraft, and other applications."

At this point, he became interested and revealed, "Guess how much the production cost of this nuclear battery can be reduced compared to traditional nuclear batteries, based on my design... the design that Professor Zhang and I discussed, which combines modularity with domestically produced materials?"

Wang Kai couldn't help but ask, "How much lower?"

Chen Yuan smiled slightly, "Reduce it by ninety percent!"

What...what?!

Production costs can be reduced by 90%?

Wow, this is unbelievable.

This means that expensive nuclear batteries will become affordable for ordinary people in the future.

Those orders will no longer be limited to high-end fields such as medical equipment and aerospace.

Anyone can understand how much profit this technology will bring to Galaxy Corporation!

Although they haven't seen the specific design drawings yet, and don't know if the plan is feasible, Zhao Peng, Wang Kai, and other department leaders are already feeling their hearts pounding.

They knew that once the nuclear battery technology was perfected, the company's business orders would increase significantly, and as the leaders of the R&D department, they would deserve a great deal of credit.

Will getting a promotion and a raise still be a problem then?

Upon realizing this, Zhao Peng and other department leaders, including Wang Kai, became somewhat uneasy.

Just as unsettled as Zhen Yuhan was, his face had turned considerably paler.

Because he already understood that if this nuclear battery technology could be developed, Chen Yuan would definitely be credited with the greatest contribution, and Zhao Peng and Wang Kai would definitely use him as an example to appease the meritorious person!

Hopefully the design drawings won't be out so soon!

In this way, Zhen Yuhan might be able to rely on the passage of time to alleviate some of the anger vented by leaders such as Zhao Peng and Wang Kai.

Zhao Peng promptly asked the question that Zhen Yuhan was concerned about, "Xiao Chen, since this nuclear battery is as excellent as you say, when will the design drawings be completed?"

Zhang Shulin chimed in, pointing to the computer screen, "Look, isn't Xiao Chen drawing something? If you hadn't come and disturbed him, he might have already finished it."

What?

The design drawings are already finished?

Upon hearing this, Zhen Yuhan turned pale and swayed as if she were about to collapse to the ground.

He knew perfectly well that this wasn't just a simple case of causing trouble; he had shot himself in the foot, and he might really be finished!