BEIJING: The Chinese government has approved the construction of the world's largest pulsed-power plant with plans to generate nuclear fusion power by 2028, according to the project's top nuclear weapons scientist.
"In today's world, fusion ignition is the jewel in the crown of science and technology," said Professor Peng Jianjue of the Chinese Academy of Engineering Physics at a September 9 online meeting organized by Techxcope, a Beijing-based think tank.
"Becoming the first person in the world to achieve energy-scale fusion energy release will be the most important milestone on the path to fusion energy for humans."
According to publicly available information, 81-year-old Peng developed some of China's most advanced small nuclear weapons and served as top adviser to the country's nuclear weapons program.
The Z-pinch machine, which simulates the fusion reactions of a thermonuclear bomb using magnetic pressure generated by an extremely powerful electric pulse, is expected to be completed around 2025 in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan province.
According to Peng, the machine will generate 50 million amperes of electricity, which is almost twice as much as the record-holding Jade Pulsed Power Facility at Sandia National Laboratory in the United States.
Over the past few decades, nuclear powers such as the United States, Russia, and China have built a number of Z-pinch machines to simulate the extreme conditions required to develop nuclear weapons, some of which are not publicly disclosed. has been done.
These facilities are capable of storing enormous amounts of electricity and releasing it in a matter of nanoseconds. The electric pulse can generate enough pressure and radiation for the two lighter atoms to "fuse" and release some mass in the form of energy.
However, creating a machine that can produce a higher fusion power output than the input is extremely difficult, and no country has succeeded so far.
According to Peng's presentation, Chinese researchers will attempt to create a nuclear fusion reaction by igniting a small number of hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium with a strong electric charge.
They hope to limit the released pulse energy to a few hundred million joules by carefully controlling this process, which is roughly the same as a 20 kg (44 lbs) bag of TNT.
In a departure from previous designs, the Chinese facility's fusion energy will be used to drive a flood of superfast particles into uranium, the fuel that will power the facility's fission component.
Peng said in his conference presentation that the inclusion of fusion and fission reactors is the reason for the designation of the Chinese design as Z-FFR.
The plan is to fill the walls of the fusion ignition chamber with uranium, which will absorb the flying neurons produced by the explosion, splitting them into two lighter elements – a process similar to that used in existing nuclear power plants.
According to Peng's team, the uranium fission will increase the facility's total heat output by 10 to 20 times, significantly accelerating the application of fusion energy and preparing it for commercial power generation by 2035.
If China's machine is to be successful, it will need a large number of high-performance capacitors to store electricity and laser-powered switches that can operate immediately without any drawbacks.
Other obstacles include special wires capable of transmitting Earth's strongest electric currents and a peanut-shaped target device capable of efficiently converting electricity into an ignition charge.
According to Peng, many of these issues have been resolved as a result of new scientific discoveries and technological breakthroughs made by Chinese nuclear scientists in recent years. And some of their methods are fundamentally different from those tried in the West.
The Sandia laboratory attempted to launch the ignition from the center of the target instrument in its fusion experiments. However, Chinese researchers claim that they have found that ignition can be more easily achieved by creating a thin line of fusion reactions running through the center of the target.
According to Peng, this linear approach reduces the complex, three-dimensional problem of squeezing the entire target — at the same pressure from multiple directions at the same time — to the one-dimensional issue.
According to him, the Chinese approach significantly simplifies the physical model for computer analysis while reducing the demand for energy input. "This is a significant progress."
The future power plant, according to the researchers, could use natural uranium ore, nuclear waste produced by today's reactors, or thorium, which could meet energy demand for thousands - or even tens of thousands - of years while producing little radioactive waste.
Furthermore, because the fusion explosion will occur only once every 10 seconds, it will be incapable of generating enough energy to start a chain reaction and cause a meltdown, making the design safe and suitable for most places on Earth, according to the researchers.
The Z machine is just one of several methods being tried and tested by China and other countries in the race to achieve fusion ignition, including powerful lasers and hot plasma caged in a magnetic field.
A number of massive facilities are under construction around the world, with the majority aiming for commercial power production by the middle of the century.
According to a Beijing-based nuclear physicist who asked not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the issue, while the Z machine has some unique advantages, it also presents some difficult problems that may limit its widespread application.
According to the physicist, the electric power source, for example, will need to generate and release charges at a high frequency every few seconds, putting enormous strain on the capacitors and other components.
Furthermore, the target device must be replaced after each explosion, and the reactor chamber must withstand thousands of explosive shocks per day.
But, regardless of whether ignition is possible, the physicist says the facility will be a "mega lab" for cutting-edge research on everything from Big Bang physics to new weapons.
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