108: Chapter 108 Thirty Days to Achieve Level 1 Controlled Nuclear Fusion!

Some old academicians who prided themselves on their seniority and had some scientific achievements felt a wave of inexplicable anger.

Putting aside the many academicians in the field of nuclear physics present, just the presence of Elder Yu and Elder Cheng, the "pillars" of the nuclear physics community, demanded basic respect, didn't it?

Even if you, Lin Mo, are a genius, no matter how brilliant you are, if you intend to turn Project Houyi into your own "dictatorship," you should at least keep up appearances!

However, these academicians' anger flared up quickly and vanished just as fast. They even felt a sense of guilt because of it.

In less than half a year, Lin Mo had already created too many scientific miracles. Never mind being arrogant about his talent, even if he really did something out of line, no one would blame him.

After all, in the scientific community of Huaxia and even the entire Blue Planet, scientific strength is the recognized truth!

Moreover, everyone held a faint expectation, hoping that Lin Mo could continue to create miracles in this project, allowing them all to bask in some of the glory!

In the front row, Elder Yu and Elder Cheng were indifferent and had no objections to this.

Their purpose in coming here was never to attend some useless, abstract seminar.

To put it bluntly but accurately, if discussing with the people present were useful, Controlled Nuclear Fusion would have already been achieved!

Why would so many people be sitting here today otherwise?

Since that's the case, what is there to discuss? It's purely a waste of time!

Their only thought now was to see Lin Mo's specific plan for achieving Controlled Nuclear Fusion!

Especially how he intended to solve those technical bottlenecks that could be called the problems of the century!

At the head of the table, Lin Mo's expression was calm. He could roughly guess what everyone was thinking, and this was the result he had intentionally cultivated!

Doing Science is a very heroic endeavor.

Conducting such a large-scale national scientific project is definitely not like hosting a dinner party; there is no need to be overly polite. Establishing authority from the very beginning is key!

Scanning the crowd, Lin Mo said with a calm expression, "I know that everyone must have many questions in their hearts about why we are not having a seminar today but are directly assigning tasks instead."

"Because the reason is very simple!"

"As long as everyone follows my design plan, we can achieve basic Level 1 Controlled Nuclear Fusion in at most thirty days!"

Thirty days?

Achieve Controlled Nuclear Fusion?

Everyone's mouths hung open, their faces filled with disbelief, all suspecting they had misheard.

Even the originally calm Elder Yu and Elder Cheng could no longer sit still at this moment.

Elder Yu spoke up and asked, "Chief Designer Lin, thirty days, are you sure you didn't make a mistake?"

Beside him, Elder Cheng also added, "Not to mention the issue of whether the technology is mature, just the sheer scale of the nuclear fusion reactor project alone cannot be completed in thirty days!"

For these two old academicians who had dedicated their lives to Huaxia and had twenty or thirty pages of meritorious service records, Lin Mo always maintained the utmost respect.

Without these lovely people, Huaxia would not have reached where it is today.

Lin Mo smiled and said, "The two Elders, please rest assured!"

"Before explaining the specific reasons, I would like to ask you a small question first."

"You surely know what the biggest bottleneck for Controlled Nuclear Fusion is currently, right?"

Upon hearing this, the two Elders chuckled.

This kid is actually testing us!

"Chief Designer Lin, although we have been retired for a long time, such a simple question cannot stump us!"

Elder Yu thought for a moment and replied with a chuckle, "The biggest bottleneck for Controlled Nuclear Fusion at present is naturally the word 'materials'!"

As Elder Yu finished speaking, everyone present nodded one after another.

Currently, the theoretical research on thermonuclear fusion in various countries on the Blue Planet is actually already very mature.

The main reason why it has been stagnant is that material technology is not up to standard!

Lin Mo smiled and said, "Elder Yu is absolutely right; it is indeed materials!"

"The principle of Controlled Nuclear Fusion is very simple, but due to the lack of suitable superconducting materials and heat-resistant materials, it has been impossible to achieve a key breakthrough."

"As long as we make a revolutionary breakthrough in these two material technologies, Controlled Nuclear Fusion can be achieved in no time!"

"The logic is just that simple, right?"

Everyone nodded, expressing their agreement.

Why are superconducting materials and heat-resistant materials the key to Controlled Nuclear Fusion? We must start from the basic principles of thermonuclear fusion.

Currently, the most common method of thermonuclear fusion on the Blue Planet is to cause two isotopes of hydrogen, deuterium (pronounced "dao") and tritium (pronounced "chuan"), to undergo nuclear fusion, combining into a heavier nucleus—helium, ultimately releasing immense energy.

So the question arises, how do we make two light nuclei, deuterium and tritium, fuse?

The principle is that under specific environments and conditions, the extra-nuclear electrons of the deuterium and tritium atoms are made to break free from the binding of the nuclei, allowing the two nuclei to attract each other and collide!

Then another question arises: how can we make deuterium and tritium nuclei collide efficiently, stably, and controllably, which is the controlled realization of nuclear fusion?

According to the theoretical research of scientists on the Blue Planet, to make nuclei collide efficiently, we must simulate the sun!

First, we must reach an extremely high temperature!

A temperature of hundreds of millions of degrees!

As long as the temperature is high enough, the thermal motion speed of the plasma will be fast!

But speed alone is not enough, because if the fuel ions bump around like headless flies, the efficiency will still be very low, and it will be impossible to achieve efficient, stable fusion!

Therefore, we must also create a container to confine the fuel ions, thereby effectively increasing the probability of fusion reactions!

Thus, it can be seen that the core key to Controlled Nuclear Fusion is heating and confinement!

Correspondingly, one is a new type of high-temperature resistant and heat-shock resistant material!

The other is room-temperature superconducting material!

"Chief Designer Lin, although I have been retired for several decades, I still read every issue of authoritative journals related to material physics in the scientific community of the Blue Planet!"

Elder Cheng took over the conversation, recalling as he spoke: "In recent years, because of these two materials, there have been a lot of shenanigans internationally."

"Previously, a research team from South Korea claimed to have developed a room-temperature superconducting material and even published several papers in a row. Several major authoritative journals published them all, which got me excited for several days."

"In the end, damn it, it turned out to be experimental fraud!"

"It made me so angry that I couldn't eat for two days!"

After hearing Elder Cheng's words, everyone at the meeting burst into laughter.

The international joke that South Korea made before was still hilarious even after more than a year.