Chapter 431 - 403: Super Critical Fission Reactor

A week before.

In Cyberspace, Lille was excavating his own memories—

In his original world, in the year 2035, nuclear energy technology had achieved a significant breakthrough through a series of efforts.

This breakthrough was not in controlled nuclear fusion, but in a new type of nuclear fission technology created by Lille and his research team after the environmental accord became obsolete, and countries tacitly agreed not to report or limit illegal emissions.

The revolutionary multi-element nuclear fission technology produced a fission reactor known as a Super Critical Fission Reactor, or SCFR for short.

As the name suggests, the SCFR used a mix of heavy element fuels such as uranium-235, plutonium-239, uranium-233, and thorium-232 as the core, boasting an energy conversion efficiency 50% to 66% higher than traditional fission reactors and an energy density more than three times that of traditional reactors.

Even more impressively, the research team found a neutron flux control algorithm for managing the violent and complex multi-stage chain reactions, which greatly improved fuel efficiency. The probability of un-fissioned nuclides transforming into radioactive waste was significantly reduced when producing the same total energy.

This waste could then be reintroduced into the reaction cycle through the waste transmutation module equipped on the SCFR.

Higher energy output, less nuclear waste, stronger power—the SCFR should have become the most powerful electricity generation technology before the breakthrough in controlled nuclear fusion, but alas...

[Little Octopus: Big brother, if this technology is so powerful, why didn’t we deploy it from the start? It seems like all the problems have been solved.]

Little Octopus wasn’t a scientific research AI, but understanding the theoretical data listed by Lille was not difficult.

In simple terms, this technology was incredibly impressive in theory, making that ever-so-close but never-quite-there controlled nuclear fusion seem less appealing—

Even if controlled nuclear fusion were to break through, whether its energy efficiency could ever surpass this technology remained an unknown.

Lille remembered every foundational implementation of this technology, but after all, he wasn’t a computer.

The SCFR was a super reactor; the theories, algorithms, and techniques used were not something the human brain could fully record.

All he could do was recall the technology as best he could and, with conviction, lead his new research team to turn the technology into reality once again.

With the help of Little Octopus, data classification was completed swiftly—

In response to its question, Lille stopped thinking, just sighed, and ran his hand over the smooth data surface of Little Octopus.

There were some things he could only discuss with Little Octopus in Cyberspace: Only this accidentally created AI knew his most core secret.

[Lille: I used to think that way too... Many people did: If a certain technology made a breakthrough, wouldn’t all problems be solved?]

[Lille: But the truth is, the history of humanity has always been about breaking through one technology after another, the shape of society constantly changing...]

[Lille: In the end, no matter how much technology advances and the world changes, there is always something that remains eternal.]

[Little Octopus: (o_O)?]

[Little Octopus: What is it?]

Lille copied a large amount of data that came from the internet. When they were compiled and displayed in front of the Cyber Modulator, what Lille saw was a city that was bizarrely shaped and chaotic, filled with dazzling sights.

This city was bewildering, satisfying people’s curiosity while provoking their desire to explore.

Soon, using computing power, Lille constructed several targeted programs based on some of the content from this data to purposely clear corresponding data.

These programs scoured the city for data they believed should be eliminated and then absorbed the defeated data for their own use—

Soon, these programs became powerful enough to consume each other, ultimately leaving only two of the largest programs, which triggered a massive confrontation...

The entire process was like a chain reaction; once it reached a certain stage, the reaction accelerated uncontrollably.

All memory used for data storage was commandeered by the programs, driving them to charge at their final enemy.

The last two programs entangled with each other until they halted, losing their basic logical structures, resembling a massive, distorted mushroom cloud...

All data had lost its intelligibility, with no meaningful information remaining in that memory sector.

Lille picked up a fragment of the data and fed it to Little Octopus, who chewed it twice and then spat out the data spores exactly as they were—

[Little Octopus:

Lille smiled and scratched its head, looking at the completely collapsed sector he replied to Little Octopus’s question:

[Lille: Nuclear energy and radiation developed functions in my world that were beyond imagination, but in the end, they still couldn’t resolve one thing, war.]

[Lille: War never changes.]

...

The excellent data from the SCFR amazed all the researchers!

A medium-sized SCFR power station occupies 10 to 20 hectares and can generate up to 500 megawatts of power, which is entirely sufficient to supply some medium-sized cities and industrial zones!

Lille looked at the screen with a touch of emotion, waiting for the researchers to digest its contents.

Among them, Dr. Otto, who was a giant in the field of atomic physics, recognized at a glance that this design was feasible.

But feasible didn’t mean easily achievable, otherwise, someone would have done it already.

The challenge with the SCFR was that the neutron transmission control algorithm required a vast number of nuclear tests to summarize and infer. This "vast number" roughly estimated, would likely need the whole world to plunge into a period of nuclear energy proliferation and engage in nuclear arms racing to amass such results.

The neutron transmission algorithm required a complete set of advanced neutron modulation systems to be achieved, where the reflective material for neutrons needed to be nano-thick, layered within the reactor, and controlled based on the algorithm to regulate neutron transmission.

Due to the complex and variable reactions within the reactor, the central control had to have supercomputer-level operation speed, and it had to employ a basic intelligence self-learning AI.

Clearly, this challenge could be entirely resolved: Bloom Company was an expert in both software and hardware in the field of computing.

The next issue to address was the thermal management system: the SCFR’s power generation module could use steam turbines like traditional technology, but that would prevent the SCFR from fully unleashing its capabilities.

Traditional nuclear power stations needed to use thermal engines, where thermal energy evaporated water, and the gas drove the turbine to generate electricity — converting nuclear energy to thermal energy, then to mechanical energy, and finally into electrical energy.

In the final technological concept of the SCFR, magnetic hydrodynamics (MHD) power generation technology was to be used, turning the working fluid directly into high-temperature plasma, with charged particles moving within magnetic fields to directly generate electric current, omitting the conversion to mechanical energy, thus easily surpassing the energy conversion efficiency limits of traditional thermal power stations.

There were many challenges in turning this technology into reality, but conveniently, Dr. Otto was an authority in this area.

Before Lille could give the order, Otto volunteered, saying:

[Otto: I’ll take care of the magnetic hydrodynamics power generation technology. You might not believe it, but when I first designed the Octopus Arm, I hoped that this kind of arm could help me handle something like... super-hot plasma.]

Dr. Otto was also an authority on controlled nuclear fusion, which created a plasma within the core similar to that of the sun, making this his area of expertise long ago.

Even if this problem wasn’t completely conquered, traditional thermal machines could still be used to generate electricity, and this was exactly the field in which Dr. Tumus held several patents.

The last difficulty wasn’t a technical issue but a practical one.

[Lille: Very well.]

[Lille: Now let’s discuss the final issue.]

[Lille: All companies that could supply the nuclear material have rejected our procurement applications, so we have to mine it ourselves—]

[Lille: Conveniently, Uranium Ten Company plans to sell the mining rights to the Mkuju River uranium deposit, which is near Tanzania, we will buy it.]

Everyone nodded, it was a very reasonable suggestion.

But why did Lille need to discuss something as simple as a purchase with them?

Lille looked at them and slowly added:

[Lille: Rocksen Energy is also interested in acquiring this mining area.]

The scientists were lacking sensitivity in such matters.

When a giant corporation went shopping, the competition wasn’t about financial power.

But about military power.