I really just want to be a scholar

Chapter 987: Nuclear reactor miniaturization application technology enters a new era!

In the United States, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, National Nuclear Power Miniaturization Application Research Laboratory, the person in charge and chief scientist representative, Professor Sainz Ketley, hung up the phone impatiently, then called his assistant John in, and started to lecture. :

"John, let me say it again, I have no interest in going to Xia Kingdom to participate in the formulation of the 'Planet Shield' project. I am very busy with my research work, and I don't want to leave my family and go to a distant country for more than half a year! In the future, unless Qin You have to make the call yourself, otherwise no more calls regarding invitations will be forwarded!"

Professor Sainz Ketley is indeed a little irritable. In the past few days, there have been calls from school leaders, colleagues from the American Physical Society, and friends from the National Academy of Sciences. The contents are similar, and they persuade him to leave for Xia Guo to participate in the Qin Dynasty. Academician Ke presided over the formulation of the "Planet Shield" technical plan, and was responsible for research and development in the direction of miniaturization of nuclear reactors.

So many people came to request him, naturally because his research level in this area can be regarded as the leader in the United States.

Even though Professor Sainz Ketley is only less than 60 years old this year, he already has multiple auras such as an academician of the National Academy of Sciences, an academician of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a foreign academician of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a foreign academician of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He is still an American. A fellow of the Physical Society and winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics years ago, he is definitely at the top level in the United States, especially for his research on the miniaturization and application of nuclear fission pressurized water reactors.

The so-called pressurized water reactor is the most technologically mature nuclear reactor at present. It is also the reactor type with the largest number of applications and the largest capacity in nuclear power plants in the world today. It is a type of reactor that uses pressurized, non-boiling light water as a moderator. Reactors with coolants are often only used in large and medium-sized nuclear power plants because of their mature technology, highest safety and lowest cost. How to miniaturize them is the research direction of countless scientists, but only a handful of scientists have achieved outstanding results. Countably, Professor Sainz Ketley is one of the best.

目前他的实验室已成功试制出直径仅10米、高度仅14米的核裂变压水堆反应堆和配套的电动力装置，输出功率达到230兆瓦（1兆瓦=1000千瓦）！

What is this concept? Currently, the smallest commercial nuclear power plant in the world uses a modular small pressurized water reactor. Its core reactor has a diameter of more than 13 meters, a height of more than 15 meters, and a single electric power of only 125 megawatts! It can be said that Professor Sainz Ketley’s research results are more than ten years ahead of the current era.

One more thing to mention here, don’t think that 230 megawatts does not seem too powerful, but you must know that a gas-fired power plant that wants to achieve the same output needs to occupy an area of ​​at least 2 square kilometers, not to mention the transportation cost of fuel.

Such small nuclear reactors can not only be used in areas where geology, meteorology, economic capabilities and power grid capacity are limited, but can especially be built close to industrial areas and densely populated areas to provide abundant electricity and heat. They can also be used in On ships and aircraft carriers, it can be called a "super power bank".

It is precisely because of his series of dazzling achievements that Professor Sainz Ketley, a Nobel Prize winner, has a very high status in the American scientific community. Even the president of the American Physical Society has to be polite and respectful when meeting him. .

In particular, he had seen Qin Ke's design draft and knew that the nuclear fission reactor's miniaturized power generation technology was one of the 97 key technologies to be broken through. In this regard, looking around the world, there will never be more than five people who can match him.

This decision made Professor Sainz Ketley depressed again, because he could not fully understand this paper. It contained a lot of string theory and space-time dimension theory, but the key was that there was also a lot of profound information. Difficult math calculations!

So when he heard that Qin Ke's team was studying the direction of "harmless radioactive elements", he scoffed and privately threatened at a gathering of good friends: "With the current level of science and technology, we want to realize the completely harmless application of radioactive elements." , it won’t be possible within a hundred years!”

Only in this way can he show his special status. In the future, when he comes to Xia Kingdom, he will be able to have a greater say and gain greater benefits for his own reputation and his country!

Although the email can be regarded as a form of invitation, the lack of a phone call in person obviously meant that the level of attention was not as high as it should be. This made Professor Sainz Ketley feel slighted and insulted.

At the same time, he was a little unconvinced, so he decided to carefully study the paper "Precise Control of Random Events of Radioactive Element Decay Based on the New "WQTNQ Theoretical System"" written by Qin Ke's team to see if it really solved this problem. A century-level problem.

Another reason why he rejected the request was that he heard that Edward Witten and Qin Ke personally called many scientists and invited these scientists to go to Xia Kingdom to participate in the formulation of the "planetary shield" design plan, but there was no call from beginning to end. I contacted him, but only sent an invitation email and a draft design of the "planetary shield".

Could it be that my status and status were not worthy of Qin Ke personally calling and inviting me to go to Xia Kingdom?

This made Professor Sainz Ketley very unhappy. He had made up his mind that unless Qin Ke called him personally, he would not even be invited by the President of the Physical Society or even by the President himself. promise!

He just wants to get this breath back!

It seems that Professor Sainz Ketley and Qin Ke had an "old grudge".

This time the United States selected scientist representatives to participate in the "Planet Shield" project, and Professor Sainz Ketley was naturally selected.

Considering that Edward Witten has not been able to perfect M theory for so many years, Qinke's role in this team is even more prominent.

Fortunately, Professor Sainz Ketley only said that in private with good friends, and the good friends did not spread it. Even so, he still felt very embarrassed, at least in his circle of close friends. Bare face.

He is now sitting firmly on the Diaoyutai, waiting for Qin Ke to come and beg him. It is best to be like the "Three Visits to the Grass Reed" mentioned in the Three Kingdoms story of Xia Kingdom. Even if he cannot come to invite him in person, he still has to make several phone calls. .

As you can imagine, Qin Ke's team officially achieved "harmless radioactive elements" in September last year, and he was severely slapped in the face.

More than 20 years ago, Professor Sainz Ketley also studied the safe utilization of radioactive elements. However, after studying in this direction for almost seven or eight years, he found that there was no chance of success, so he decisively gave up this direction. Instead, we studied the technical direction of pressurized water reactor miniaturization in a similar field, and achieved world-leading results in this new direction.

Professor Sainz Ketley's inner dissatisfaction with Qin Ke has disappeared, replaced by a more complicated mood. What I have been studying for my whole life but never achieved was actually easily achieved by a young man - it is said that it only took about a year to establish this team!

Amazing, amazing, even incredible!

However, he was convinced. Professor Sainz Ketley felt very uncomfortable when he found out that Qin Ke only sent him an email invitation this time and did not call him personally.

However, Professor Sainz Ketley himself did not intend to accept this commission. On the one hand, because his own research is at the most critical juncture, whether the core reactor of the pressurized water reactor can be compressed to 9 meters in diameter and 13 meters in height. Within the scope, it depends on the research and development in the next two to three months.

Heck, is this a physics paper or a math paper?

The key part of the mathematical derivation and demonstration process could not be understood, and Professor Sainz Ketley was too embarrassed to ask the mathematics professor at the school for advice. He could only look at the experimental steps and theoretical details at the end, but in the end he did not find any fault.

In the end, he had to be convinced - although he was not convinced - Qin Ke's team, well, I guess the core characters are still Qin Ke and Edward Witten. It is indeed amazing that they can think of perfecting the M theory and then based on the new theory To realize the space-time dimension jump change of radioactive probability events, and then to realize the harmlessness of radioactive elements, this idea is simply a stroke of genius!

Professor Sainz Ketley lit a cigarette and was puffing away happily while imagining what kind of posture he should take when Qin Ke called to invite him sincerely. When the time came, the phone number in his office It rang again.

"Fake oil, John, if you randomly transfer calls again, your salary will be cut in half this month!" Professor Sainz Ketley clicked his tongue in displeasure, put out the cigarette butt, and returned to his seat to sit down. , picked up the phone.

"Professor Ketterley...that..." This time the caller was actually John.

This lazy guy doesn't come up from downstairs to report something, but calls on the phone? If you continue to be so lazy, half of your salary will be deducted!

Professor Sainz Ketley cursed in his mind and said displeasedly: "What's the matter? If you have anything to say, please tell me!"

John swallowed and spoke with some difficulty: "I suggest you take the time to check your emails. The latest email was sent by Academician Xia Guoqin Ke..."

"Another invitation email?" Professor Sainz Ketley felt relieved. He thought arrogantly, had Qin Ke finally sent an invitation email for the second time? Not to mention the second time, even if it doesn't work two hundred times, who knows whether these emails were sent by the assistant? At least Qin Ke had to call in person to show the sincerity of the invitation!

"It's not an invitation email...you'd better read it yourself...Professor, I still have work to do, so I'll go and do it first." John said and hung up the phone in a panic.

Professor Sainz Ketley frowned, this daredevil!

While he was thinking about whether to replace this assistant, he opened the mailbox himself and saw that the top email had been opened. Apparently, John called him to check it after checking the content.

The title of the email is "Second revision of the "Planet Shield" design draft."

Second revision? So fast? If I remember correctly, the first version was sent just yesterday, right?

Professor Sainz Ketley was a little strange. He clicked on the email and saw that it was the same as the one above. It was sent in bulk to the more than 12000 recommended scientists across the country. He, Sainz Ketley, was just one of them.

"Humph!"

Professor Sainz Ketley snorted dissatisfiedly and took a closer look at the content. Well, the second version of the design draft was indeed much improved compared to the second version. A more detailed design could be optimized in just two or three days. When the draft came out, Qin Ke was indeed amazing, but as he continued to read, his eyes suddenly widened and he exclaimed: "How is this possible!?"

Because in the design draft, there are clearly many applications for miniaturization of nuclear reactors! It also states that the use of fast breeder reactor technology has achieved a technological breakthrough in ultra-miniaturization and can be directly applied. The technical research requirements related to "nuclear reactor miniaturization application" in the first edition have been cancelled, and there are 97 key technologies to be solved. Reduced to 76...

Professor Sainz Ketley was completely in no mood to read the content that followed.

He finally understood why John didn't dare to come up and tell him face to face. This email was equivalent to saying that Professor Sainz Ketley, who specializes in the direction of miniaturization of pressurized water reactors, no longer needs to participate in the design of this "planetary shield" A team of tens of thousands of experts researched the plan, because more advanced and difficult fast breeder reactor miniaturization technology can be applied to this plan...

The fast breeder reactor has a small core and high power density. It is the main reactor type of the world's fourth-generation advanced nuclear energy system. It only needs to use a core composed of nuclear fuel with a diameter of about 1 meter. It can make almost % utilization of uranium resources. It is said to be the mainstream direction in the future.

But it also has shortcomings, that is, the technology is immature and the structure is extremely complex. An experimental fast reactor requires nearly 200 systems and more than 7000 sets of various instruments and equipment. Currently, dozens of fast reactors in the world only exist in laboratories and are still far away from commercial use.

Precisely because fast breeder reactors have low commercial value, require a lot of research funds, and are far more difficult to miniaturize than pressurized water reactors, Professor Sainz Ketley initially chose pressurized reactors, which are easier to produce results. The direction of miniaturization of water reactors.

In fact, it proved that his choice was correct. He has achieved extremely dazzling results in the miniaturization of pressurized water reactors and even won a Nobel Prize. However, some outstanding scientists who studied fast breeder reactors at the same time as him still No big breakthrough has been made, and time, time and energy have been wasted.

But I never expected that Qin Ke suddenly said that he had realized the small-scale application of fast neutron breeder reactors, and it should be a very stable, technologically mature, and highly economical application. Otherwise, it would be impossible to adopt the "planetary" In such a major project as "Protective Shield" - how can this not make Professor Sainz Ketley's eyes darken?

This means that the research he has worked hard on for many years suddenly loses its meaning!

It also announced that nuclear reactor miniaturization application technology has entered a new era!

Professor Sainz Ketley was stunned for a long time before he picked up the phone and dialed Assistant John's number.

"Book me the fastest flight ticket. I'm going to Xia Country."

"Xia Kingdom?" John was obviously stunned and asked tentatively: "Professor, are you going to the capital of Xia Kingdom? Are you going to attend a conference of ten thousand scientists?"

"Why are you talking so much nonsense! I just want to go to Xia Country to attend the Ten Thousand Scientists Conference! Book your tickets quickly, I want the fastest flight!"

"Yes!" John quickly agreed and went to do the work.

Professor Sainz Ketley put down the phone. No matter what, he would go to Xia Country. He would never believe it until he saw the fast breeder reactor miniaturization technology with his own eyes! How could Qin Ke overcome this technical difficulty in just two days! ?

Although it is not difficult for Qin Ke to solve this problem with his current strength, to be precise, this technical difficulty was not overcome by Qin Ke, but by his father-in-law and mother-in-law who spent nearly ten years leading the team to overcome it. How could the courage and resilience of Xia's top scientists in overcoming scientific research difficulties be lost to the top scientists in the United States?

(End of this chapter)