Chapter 161 - 160: Controllable Nuclear Fusion

One billion!

Li Qingsong never could have imagined that after integrating the biotechnology of the Blutuk People, his own would improve to such an extent.

He had originally thought that an increase to two hundred million would be impressive enough, but he never expected it to increase tenfold!

At any given moment, one billion Clones would be under his consciousness link. Each Clone was equivalent to a top scientist who had mastered knowledge across all disciplines. Among these one billion Clones, there would be no internal friction and zero communication costs. They could dedicate themselves entirely to technological advancement...

’What immense scientific research capabilities will I now command?’

Even though the total population of the Human World had once reached about 40 billion, forty times his number, they would have been lucky to possess even one percent of his research capabilities.

It wasn’t just in research; he could also leave Human Civilization far behind in terms of industrial power.

In fact, not even Human Civilization, but the Blutuk Civilization at its zenith, with a population of one hundred billion, could not begin to compare to him in terms of research and industry.

"Good. Very good."

The threat of the Intelligent Mechanical Calamity hung over Li Qingsong’s head like the Sword of Damocles, ready to fall at any moment.

But now that his maximum number of consciousness links had risen to one billion, he possessed enough research and industrial power to rapidly assimilate the Blutuk Civilization’s technology, construct an interstellar fleet, and escape the Solar System as quickly as possible.

Li Qingsong held no delusions about staying in the Solar System to break through to a Strong Core Civilization, face the Intelligent Mechanical Calamity head-on, and emerge victorious.

The further technology develops, the more difficult progress becomes.

Especially a fundamental physical theory like unifying the Strong Core Force, a breakthrough that delineates two major tiers of civilization. The difficulty of such an undertaking was bound to be beyond his imagination.

Without that breakthrough, he would be a sitting duck in the face of the Intelligent Mechanical Calamity.

He had already struggled immensely against the Warships of the Blutuk People. And that was when his enemy was hampered by numerous disadvantages—insufficient logistics, the strain of a long-distance campaign, and plummeting morale. He, on the other hand, had benefited from centuries of preparation, abundant logistics, extreme efficiency, immense industrial power, and a vast unmanned combat force, yet he had only managed to fight them to a standstill.

Later, his opponent had even exploited a vulnerability and occupied Venus. If he hadn’t rushed to replenish Venus’s water supply, he might have been the one to ultimately lose.

’In that case, how could I possibly defeat the Intelligent Mechanical Calamity?’

Only by escaping could he find a slim chance of survival and preserve hope for the future.

Now that his maximum number of consciousness links had surged to one billion, the top priority was, of course, to build more bases—food, living, and industrial—to sustain all these Clones.

He also needed to build more Clone production facilities to create enough Clones to meet his needs as quickly as possible.

With a maximum of one billion consciousness links, the number of active Clones needed to reach 1.5 billion, plus another 500 million for standby, bringing the total to two billion.

On top of that, an additional portion of hibernating Clones would be required as a final reserve, bringing the total number of Clones needed to three billion.

At present, he only had a total of 1.2 billion Clones, meaning he still needed to produce another 1.8 billion.

This, too, was a massive undertaking.

However, these tasks were already second nature to Li Qingsong; he just had to proceed with them methodically.

After assigning a portion of his Clones to the task, Li Qingsong didn’t devote any more of his attention to it, shifting his primary focus to another matter.

Researching controlled nuclear fusion technology!

Both his own prior deductions and the practical evidence he had now obtained from the Blutuk Civilization’s spacecraft proved one thing to Li Qingsong: controlled nuclear fusion was the foundation of interstellar travel.

The reason was simple. The maximum mass-to-energy conversion efficiency of nuclear fission was only about 0.089%. According to the mass-energy equivalence principle, one kilogram of uranium-235 could, at the absolute most, produce approximately 8 x 10^13 joules of energy.

Nuclear fusion, however, possessed a much higher mass-to-energy conversion efficiency.

There are several different types of nuclear fusion, including deuterium-tritium fusion, deuterium-deuterium fusion, deuterium-helium-3 fusion, the proton-proton chain reaction, and the CNO cycle.

These are the more common types. Beyond these, in certain massive stellar bodies and during violent physical processes like neutron star collisions or Supernova explosions, fusion involving even heavier elements can occur. But those are unconventional processes that could be disregarded for now.

Among these common types, take deuterium-tritium fusion—the easiest to achieve and the one with the least demanding environmental requirements—as an example. Its energy conversion efficiency is approximately 0.375%, a full 4.2 times greater than that of nuclear fission!

One kilogram of deuterium and tritium could produce 3.36 x 10^14 joules of energy!

The proton-proton chain reaction and the CNO cycle, which have more demanding environmental requirements and greater technical complexity, can achieve energy conversion efficiencies of around 0.7%—approximately 7.9 times that of nuclear fission!

Li Qingsong had also conceived of a fusion model with even higher efficiency: combining the first two steps of the proton-proton chain reaction with deuterium-helium-3 fusion. Under ideal conditions, the energy conversion efficiency had the potential to exceed 1%, making it a staggering 11.8 times more efficient than nuclear fission.

Of course, that was a matter for the distant future. Not even the Blutuk Civilization had managed it. He estimated it would only be possible after unifying the Strong Core Force and becoming a Strong Core Civilization. For now, he wouldn’t dwell on it. He would focus on the simplest and most achievable method—deuterium-tritium fusion—and just open the door to nuclear fusion first.

Compared to nuclear fission, nuclear fusion not only had a higher energy output, but its fuel was also far easier to acquire.

In the Cosmos, elements with higher atomic numbers typically have lower average abundances.

Elements used for nuclear fission—such as uranium-235, uranium-233, thorium-232, neptunium-237, and americium-231—are all extremely rare in nature.

Plutonium-239 is even rarer, with only trace amounts forming from the bombardment of high-energy cosmic rays.

Mining fuel for nuclear fission is an extremely arduous process, and yields are severely limited.

But nuclear fusion was a different story.

Take deuterium-tritium fusion for example. Although the concentration of deuterium is low—only a few parts per hundred thousand in Jupiter’s atmosphere—this still meant that for every ton of Jovian atmosphere processed, over ten grams of deuterium gas could be collected. In absolute terms, that was a considerable amount.

On a planet as massive as Jupiter, the supply of deuterium could be considered virtually inexhaustible.

As for tritium, that was unimportant. In deuterium-tritium fusion, tritium is self-replenishing, requiring no external supply.

Once he mastered controlled nuclear fusion, a far more advanced energy supply system than nuclear fission, his numerous uranium and thorium mines would no longer need to operate. The vast uranium enrichment plants could also be shut down. Whenever he needed energy, he would only have to draw it from Jupiter’s atmosphere.

In terms of energy, he would be virtually without limits.

Envisioning this bright future, Li Qingsong, buoyed by the surge in his maximum number of consciousness links, immediately assigned at least one hundred million Clones to research controlled nuclear fusion.