Chapter 1507: Chapter 1505: Bottled Sun: Controllable Nuclear Fusion
Bright Castle, Main Building No.1, fifteen floors underground, Melting Furnace Maintenance Room.
Richard, along with supervisors Lorentz and Xue Dinglei, stepped inside, immediately greeted by several supervisors in the maintenance room.
The golden-haired supervisor Siemens straightforwardly said, "Lord Richard, all indicators of the melting furnace are normal, as long as there are no accidents, it can run for a long time. You don’t need to worry."
Richard nodded slightly upon hearing this, walking towards the deepest part of the maintenance room. Through a glass wall, he could clearly see the operational state of the melting furnace.
The so-called melting furnace appeared as a huge, flattened water tank-like apparatus, quite massive at twelve meters high and twenty meters in diameter.
At the moment, the furnace resembled a kettle full of boiling water, with a constant "gurgling" sound emanating from within, causing the whole furnace to gently tremble, along with some vibrations throughout the maintenance room. During this process, a vast amount of energy was pouring out of the furnace, transmitted through densely laid circuits beneath the floor into the main energy line of Bright Castle to play its role.
Richard studied the furnace for a long time, unable to contain his amazement: It’s not easy.
Really not easy.
This furnace is the entity of the so-called "Bottled Sun", involving the elusive principle of controllable nuclear fusion.
Yes, controllable nuclear fusion.
Nuclear fusion is relatively simple, opposite to nuclear fission — nuclear fission breaks a heavier nucleus into two or more lighter nuclei, with the lost mass in the process converted into energy, demonstrating terrifying power; nuclear fusion combines lighter nuclei under certain conditions into a heavier nucleus, with excess mass converted into energy, also demonstrating terrifying power.
Nuclear fission and nuclear fusion serve as the guiding principles for atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs respectively. In terms of difficulty, the latter is greater than the former.
This is because, for the atomic bomb, nuclear fission only requires accumulating enough nuclear material to automatically trigger an explosion. Nuclear fusion, however, is different. Since it involves light nuclei, generally isotopes of hydrogen — deuterium and tritium, they won’t work even if accumulated. They require extremely harsh conditions, such as super high temperatures, at least 40,000,000°C, or forty million degrees Celsius.
This isn’t easily achieved; it could even be said that it’s very difficult. One of the few ways to achieve it is by utilizing an atomic bomb explosion.
Inside a hydrogen bomb, a small atomic bomb is often included—first to detonate the atomic bomb and use the resulting high temperatures to cause nuclear fusion in the hydrogen bomb material, thereby releasing power.
Due to this technical logic, any nuclear-armed country on Earth must develop atomic bombs before hydrogen bombs, not the other way around.
Moreover, the reason nuclear-armed countries attempt to develop hydrogen bombs after acquiring atomic bombs is that hydrogen bombs hold much more significance than atomic bombs.
One must understand that although atomic bombs have terrifying power, they are not unlimited due to the existence of critical mass — if enough atomic bomb material is accumulated beyond critical mass, a nuclear explosion will occur automatically.
While special designs can mitigate this effect, it nevertheless acts as a tight iron band, severely limiting the power of atomic bombs.
Thus, the most powerful atomic bomb tested on Earth was the Evergreen Vine King at 500,000 tons equivalent.
In comparison, hydrogen bombs are much freer, and their power can increase infinitely as long as there is enough hydrogen bomb material.
For instance, the famous "Big Ivan" hydrogen bomb reached a power of 50 million tons equivalent, and that was the reduced version, originally designed at 100 million tons equivalent.
From this perspective, nuclear fusion has more "promise" than nuclear fission.
Therefore, after Richard independently created an atomic bomb, he did not stop his research in this field. After establishing the Black Sun Castle, he even guided its personnel to develop numerous high-yield hydrogen bombs, known as new Black Sun Weapons.
However, more than the destructive force of nuclear fusion, Richard valued another aspect it brought—the rational use of energy released by nuclear fusion.
The energy released by nuclear fusion is undoubtedly terrifying, truly at a world-destroying level. Compared with nuclear fission, this energy is clean and non-polluting. If this energy could be harnessed, it could fundamentally change this Wizard World lacking oil resources.
However, utilizing it is not easy.
The nuclear fusion produced by detonating a hydrogen bomb is uncontrollable and one-time, releasing all energy in an extremely short time.
To truly use it, nuclear fusion must be made controllable and continuously operational.
This is a significant challenge.
On Earth, scientists have conducted much research for endless clean energy, adopting various methods like magnetic confinement, inertial confinement, and even developing anomalies like cold fusion, to achieve nuclear fusion under controllable conditions.
What has been the result?
Not entirely unsuccessful — rather the opposite; it can be said that controllable nuclear fusion has already been achieved. However, the problem that exists is that the energy input to achieve controllable nuclear fusion is greater than the output energy.
What does that mean?
To explain, reaching and maintaining conditions for controllable nuclear fusion requires consuming some energy through special devices. Due to technological limitations, the amount of energy consumed is enormous, so much so that the energy gained from successful controllable nuclear fusion cannot compensate for it.
To illustrate, imagine spending vast resources and manpower to build equipment, consuming ten units of energy, and ultimately producing...five units of energy.
Another example, it’s like investing 100,000 yuan to painstakingly create... counterfeit money worth 50,000 yuan.
Even without considering various consumables and risks, it is a loss.
This naturally holds no value.
Only when the energy output of controllable nuclear fusion is greater than the input energy does it have true practical value and motivation for promotion.
Scientists on Earth have continuously studied this, hoping to achieve it, constantly declaring it could be realized in fifty years... The result ten years ago was like this, and ten years later it’s still the same—the slogan of fifty years has never changed.
Turning back, the reason stars like the Sun emit light and heat is because they obtain endless energy through nuclear fusion and transfer this energy to planets, providing the life force for all things.
To master controllable nuclear fusion is, in a sense, to gain a grasp of the power of stars, which naturally is extremely difficult.
But even so, Richard never planned to spend fifty years tackling this like on Earth; from the beginning, his plan was to achieve results in a few years.
This is not because he arrogantly believes he can surpass all the scientists on Earth, but because the extraordinary power of this current world gives him confidence.
The continuous fifty-year statement on Earth is due to many causes, with the most crucial being the slow development and progress of various scientific fields, although there are many feasible ideas for accomplishing controllable nuclear fusion, very few can actually be tested.
To illustrate: if a scientist on Earth suddenly one day announced having created a new model for controllable nuclear fusion, low-cost and low-risk, only needing to be manufactured to eliminate the energy crisis forever. But there is a minor issue: the core part of the model requires a material capable of withstanding ultra-high temperatures and pressures, a material non-existent on Earth.
As a result, even the best model becomes mere fantasy.
In comparison, the current world is slightly different. Although no material can withstand ultra-high temperatures and pressures, through a series of spells, a certain material can be amplified to such a state.
In a sense, extraordinary power acts like a cheat code, helping Richard solve challenges in controllable nuclear fusion through methods impossible for Earth’s conventional disciplines.
In this process, ancient magical knowledge retrieved from Balta of the Ancient Wizard Civilization played a significant role, even surpassing expectations.
Firstly, Richard, in collaboration with many supervisors at Bright Castle, created the "furnace"—disassembling the furnace reveals layer upon layer of complex structures, with each layer of construction utilizing magic runes to achieve specific required effects on the design blueprint.
Subsequent multi-trial operations of the "furnace" allowed Richard and the people of Bright Castle to collect substantial data, and in these high-energy processes, they reversely studied some properties of ancient incomplete spells, extraordinary factors, Void Spirit, etc., further understanding the underlying principles of the extraordinary power in this world.
Finally, the "furnace" successfully operated, achieving positive energy output, meaning the output was greater than input energy, and while proving many extraordinary power research hypotheses, successfully realized valuable controllable nuclear fusion.
This was not simple.
Though said simply, it took Richard and those of Bright Castle more than three years to accomplish, the resources invested were countless.
However, regardless, it was finally achieved.
Although it is not immediately evident how much it will change the world, the seed has already been planted.
Later, with its germination, this world will be given a big surprise.
Squinting at the operating furnace, Richard began pondering the next steps... Since controllable nuclear fusion has succeeded, the next move is to try scaling down and scaling up the device... Miniaturizing the device is for portability and broader application, enlarging it is for more crucial places.
During this process, numerous problems needing resolution will likely arise; achieving his expected results won’t be quick. If the Truth Society continues causing trouble from Heaven, it might take even longer, but regardless, the final outcome won’t change.
Once this phase is completed, it will be time to execute some already prepared follow-up plans...
When the follow-up plans are almost implemented, it will be time to truly deal with matters above...
It won’t be too long... The seed has been sown, and the day it bears fruit will surely come.
"It won’t be too long..." Richard softly said while gazing at the furnace.
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