Li Qingsong carefully placed it into the spacecraft and transported it to a place hundreds of thousands of kilometers away from Luoshen Star before stopping. Although there are no shock waves in space and the power of nuclear bombs is limited, once a nuclear bomb is detonated, it will emit an extremely strong electromagnetic pulse. If it is not handled properly, half of the factories and bases on Luoshen will be paralyzed. Li Qingsong has to be more cautious. At a distance of hundreds of thousands of kilometers, Li Qingsong deployed a large number of detection equipment. While preparing for high temperature, radiation and electromagnetic pulses, he made every effort to observe the direction of the nuclear bomb. Everything was ready, and Li Qingsong decisively gave the detonation order. The next moment, an extremely bright spot of light burst out in the vast, dark and deep space, which could be seen with the naked eye even on Luoshen Star. The clones that were closer looked more like a sun appeared out of nowhere. The energy hidden deep within matter was released in this uncontrolled nuclear reaction, and almost endless heat and energy suddenly exploded in all directions. But the explosion came and went quickly. In just a few seconds, the place became pitch black again and nothing could be seen. In just a few seconds, Li Qingsong collected several TB of data.
After transmitting it back, Li Qingsong was filled with emotion when looking at the data. "After so many years, this is the first time I've used other types of energy..." One detonation is not enough. Based on these data, Li Qingsong once again adjusted the structure of the subsequent atomic bomb and summarized a lot of knowledge about nuclear physics that existed in the human world before but he did not master. As the atomic bomb exploded again and again, its size became smaller and smaller, its mass became lower and lower, but the power of the explosion increased again and again. In the process of triggering a chain reaction, how to ensure that more uranium 235 participates in fission rather than being blown up before it participates is also a science, a science that requires a deep understanding of nuclear physics to master. The first atomic bomb detonated by Li Qingsong, if converted into TNT equivalent, was only about 8,000 tons of TNT. But at this moment, the equivalent of the tenth atomic bomb detonated by Li Qingsong quickly rose to 100,000 tons of TNT. At this point, Li Qingsong stopped researching how to increase the equivalent of the atomic bomb and instead began to study how to make it miniaturized. If we can make a nuclear bomb with a mass of only a few hundred kilograms or even 100 kilograms, even if its equivalent is reduced to only one thousand tons of TNT, it can be installed in the warhead of an interstellar missile and have practical significance. But there is no rush for this matter, we can study it slowly. The really important thing is another matter. After dozens of nuclear tests and ten nuclear explosions, Li Qingsong has mastered considerable knowledge of nuclear physics. So... the nuclear fission power plant can be put into operation. There was no knowledge about nuclear power plants on the Deep Space spacecraft. After all, human civilization did not expect Li Qingsong to build a nuclear power plant on Luoshen. But it doesn’t matter. Li Qingsong, who has mastered all scientific knowledge and sufficient nuclear physics knowledge, can design a set by himself. "The basic principle of a nuclear power plant is still to boil water and use steam to drive the generator, which is actually no different from a thermal power plant. The only difference is that the material used to boil water changes from methane and oxygen to uranium 235. " Li Qingsong thought secretly: "In this case, the key point lies in the control of the fission rate of the fission material. The key to the fission rate is the neutrons. As long as the speed of the neutrons can be slowed down, the fission rate will be reduced. Hmm, I have some impression of it. It seems to be called a moderator. " Combining his existing knowledge with his thinking, Li Qingsong immediately thought of a material that was more suitable at this stage.
The neutron moderator used to control the rate of nuclear fission sounds very impressive, but... the suitable material Li Qingsong found is actually just water. The most common water, made up of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom, is the kind of water that the clones drink every day. It can be used as a moderator. The performance is not very high, but it is enough for the current stage. When the technology is improved in the future, we can find a more suitable moderator. With the moderator, the rest are just technical obstacles that can be solved after a period of research. As a result, the construction drawings of a nuclear power plant were quickly completed and quickly entered the construction phase. As a result, the uranium produced by subsequent uranium enrichment plants was no longer weapons-grade at over 95%, but was controlled at around 3%, and was made into rods. These fuel rods were inserted into the core and soaked in water. Therefore, if the uranium fission rate was too low to generate enough heat, Li Qingsong would increase their reaction rate by releasing additional neutrons. Once the reaction rate is too fast, the release of neutrons will stop, and the neutrons produced by the fission reaction will also be slowed down by the water, causing the reaction rate to decrease. After the reaction rate is controlled to an appropriate level, the heat generated by nuclear fission will be transferred to the water, boiling the water and driving the generator. Thus a controllable nuclear fission reactor was built. The installed capacity of this nuclear power plant is not high, only 50,000 kilowatts, and can only generate million kilowatt-hours of electricity a day. Compared with Li Qingsong's current industrial scale, it is not even as good as a mosquito leg. And there was another thing that made Li Qingsong quite embarrassed. That is... this nuclear power plant is actually losing money. Taking the extremely barren uranium mine on Luoshen as an example, from the initial mining, through a series of processes such as crushing, extraction, and centrifugal purification, uranium elements are refined to enable the nuclear power plant to operate for one day and generate million kilowatt-hours of electricity. The electricity consumed by the power plant itself is about million kilowatt-hours. That is to say, for every day this nuclear power plant operates, Li Qingsong will lose 600,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity. This does not include the construction cost of the nuclear power plant itself. But even so, Li Qingsong was still extremely excited when the electricity generated by the nuclear power plant was connected to the power grid for the first time. Apart from the equipment I brought from Earth, this is the first time in my history that I have obtained energy from sources other than chemical fuels! Why should I be afraid of losing a little? I can afford it! As long as we can improve technology and find better energy than chemical fuels and more suitable spacecraft and rocket propellants, it doesn't matter even if we lose 600 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per day, let alone 600,000 kilowatt-hours. This nuclear power plant is not enough, we must build more nuclear power plants! Build tens or hundreds of them! Then slowly study how to improve performance and safety, how to reduce losses, and most importantly, how to miniaturize the reactor and put it inside a spacecraft!
