Just as everyone remained silent in contemplation, one scientist experienced a sudden flash of inspiration. As if he had just unraveled a cosmic mystery, he hurriedly exclaimed:
"The Viridian Empire drone! That drone’s technology completely surpassed our own, but it still didn’t have a miniaturized, controllable nuclear fusion reactor inside! It was powered by an advanced fission engine!"
"They are a true Interstellar Civilization, yet they couldn’t engineer a stable fusion reactor to fit inside a small spacecraft with a two-meter diameter."
"Two meters across... that’s not exactly tiny, but it apparently wasn’t large enough to house a functional fusion device."
"This might explain... the sheer impossibility of creating a small-scale, controllable nuclear fusion reactor!"
"The smaller the reactor, the harder it is to stabilize!"
"Yes, that must be it!" Another scientist excitedly chimed in. "The Viridian Empire couldn’t exist as an interstellar power without mastering fusion technology, but they clearly failed to miniaturize it for small scout drones!"
"Just as the Great Sage of the Nix Civilization recorded, small devices like tokamak reactors... are extraordinarily difficult to engineer, and focusing on them could very well be a technological dead end!"
In reality, a modern "tokamak" device was not small at all. They were often as tall as a several-story building, costing tens or even hundreds of billions of credits to construct. Yet, in the eyes of these physicists, a standard tokamak was practically a child’s toy.
For the true, sustained power of nuclear fusion, it was just a toy. At most, a modern tokamak could briefly ignite plasma, but generating a continuous, stable output of net-positive power was undeniably a pipe dream. Smaller machines were too intricate and delicate, making them significantly harder for humanity to operate.
For something this inherently violent and difficult to contain, building a massive, large-scale version would actually be simpler from an engineering standpoint than a small-scale one. Of course, the material costs would be astronomical.
"Funding doesn’t really matter. The Federation is going to tackle this with the combined strength of the entire human race. What does ’money’ even matter anymore?" one of the electromagnetism experts joked.
The only real question was... whether it could actually succeed, and what their realistic chances of success were. Material funding and resource allocation were no longer an obstacle for humanity.
"The first electronic computer in human history occupied 170 square meters and weighed 30 tons; it was an absolute behemoth. If you had forced the scientists of that era to condense all of that bulky equipment into a modern, sleek laptop on their first try, they certainly would have failed..."
"Even if it takes a century or two, it’s impossible to jump straight to miniaturization in one step. Therefore, the larger the containment device, the better. Isn’t demanding a small fusion reactor right out of the gate basically asking for the impossible?" Professor Hao Yu complained.
An awkward atmosphere filled the meeting room. People felt that the old professor’s analogy was a bit strange, yet it somehow made perfect logical sense.
Setting budget issues aside, as long as the theoretical model could succeed, even if it turned out to be a bottomless pit of resources, the Federation would gladly fill it!
Based on the preserved data left behind by the Nix Civilization, this group of prominent scientists began fiercely debating how to solve this massive engineering problem and maximize their chances of success...
The more one analyzed the Great Filter, the more terrifying it seemed. This applied not only to its sociological suppression but also to its sheer technological difficulty.
The theoretical basis of nuclear fusion was deceptively simple, which had led to far too many preconceived engineering notions.
The Nix Civilization had also fallen headfirst into the trap of "magnetic confinement," subconsciously believing that they could control the cosmic behemoth of nuclear fusion with their current material technology.
But in reality, it was impossible... or rather, it was practically impossible using conventional methods!
During his intense discussions with the experts, Jason finally understood two major, glaring problems that were virtually unsolvable with current human technology.
The first major problem was that the "magnetic field strength" currently capable of being generated by human machinery was woefully insufficient.
According to classical equations, the magnetic field strength of an electromagnet could technically reach infinite magnetic induction intensity, as long as the current flowing through it was infinite or the coil density was infinite.
However, in practical, real-world applications, magnetic fields are generated when the internal molecular currents of the magnetic medium align in the same direction. This inevitably leads to the problem of magnetic saturation. Therefore, when the applied electrical current and physical coil density reached a certain threshold, the magnetic field would simply stop increasing, regardless of how much more power was pumped into it.
Hundreds of Teslas represented the absolute current limit in human laboratories; this magnetic field strength was still far from sufficient. Without a massively powerful magnetic field, it was impossible to securely contain the violently swirling plasma during fusion, which would easily breach containment and melt the equipment.
This was the first major problem, and it was practically unsolvable. It fundamentally involved the physical movement of electrons within atoms. Thus far, humanity had only been able to barely circumvent the "magnetic saturation problem" by blindly stacking multiple massive magnetic rings, but this crude method further increased the difficulty of precise plasma control.
The second major problem was neutron radiation.
Every single deuterium-tritium fusion reaction produced a high-energy neutron carrying 14 MeV. These high-energy neutrons easily smashed through the metallic bonds of the reactor’s first-wall material, creating numerous microscopic structural defects. This caused massive problems such as irradiation swelling, rapid embrittlement, and thermal creep, quickly rendering the containment material completely useless.
The Nix Civilization had ultimately failed to find a suitable, cost-effective alloy that could withstand this intense neutron bombardment for a prolonged period. They could only solve the problem by constantly ripping out and replacing the degraded shielding materials, resulting in catastrophic economic losses. Most of their global GDP was literally burned away in this manner.
These two core problems involved the fundamental nature of atoms themselves. Both were agonizingly difficult and seemingly unsolvable.
Of course, there were also countless other minor, miscellaneous engineering headaches...
"Aren’t our new superalloy materials good enough?"
Having grasped these two key bottlenecks, Jason couldn’t help but ask, "These alloys are reverse-engineered variants of alien materials! Can’t they even block neutron radiation?!"
"No way!" one of the materials scientists shook his head decisively. "No matter how amazing a superalloy is, it’s still fundamentally a conventional material, composed of ordinary elements from the periodic table. Conventional materials have hard physical limitations. Even true alien materials wouldn’t work!"
"They simply cannot withstand sustained neutron radiation. Even if our new alloys last a little longer, it would only buy us a few extra hours or days..."
"...To actually generate commercially viable electricity, the reactor’s uptime has to be calculated in years! We can’t just shut down the entire planetary power grid for wall maintenance every few days, can we?"
Jason nodded helplessly.
He had to admit, these were indeed incredibly troublesome issues. Unless there was a major theoretical breakthrough...
But where would that breakthrough even come from? Humanity was still coasting on the century-old foundational theories of quantum mechanics and relativity!
"What about something that isn’t an ordinary material? Like the hull of the Noah? Or the interior floor plating? Could that strange purple metallic substance withstand the neutron radiation?"
"Uh..." The professor’s eyes widened; he genuinely hadn’t considered that.
After a long pause, he finally replied, "Perhaps. I haven’t run those specific experiments... Are you suggesting we rip up some floorboards to build a radiation shield?"
The interior flooring of the Noah wasn’t nearly as indestructible as the starship’s outer hull; it could still be damaged. For example, the supernova explosion had blasted quite a few holes through the internal decks.
However, even if the alien metal could successfully block the neutron radiation, it only solved one half of the equation; the magnetic saturation problem remained completely unsolved.
There were now two distinct paths to choose from. The first was to follow the exact same path as the Nix Civilization—stubbornly continuing research into magnetic confinement while simultaneously hoping for miraculous breakthroughs in fundamental physics and materials science. It was entirely unknown how many centuries this path would take.
The second path...
"Captain, we are prepared to completely abandon the concept of magnetic confinement, and frankly, we’re ready to abandon the idea of precise controllability altogether!"
Professor Hao Yu took the lead, sliding a thick report across Jason’s desk. As he spoke, his weathered face flushed bright red, exuding a frenzied, eager energy.
Jason felt a sudden chill run down his spine, recalling a strangely familiar memory. The old professor had worn this exact same manic expression back on the Moon, right before he presented the insane "Billion-Ton Helium-3 Nuclear Bomb Propulsion Plan"...
Sure enough, Professor Hao Yu shouted at the top of his lungs in the next moment: "Controllable and uncontrollable are just useless semantics! What exactly is controllable? What is uncontrollable? There’s no strict scientific definition!"
"Is a thermonuclear warhead controllable? A hydrogen bomb is perfectly controllable when it’s precisely dropped on a battlefield!"
"Why should we blindly obsess over delicate, fragile machines like a tokamak? Even if we could somehow force one to generate electricity, who knows how many centuries that would take, or how pathetic the actual power output would be? Being stubbornly fixated on ’controlled’ nuclear fusion is a trap! We could just use... partially controlled nuclear fusion as our primary power source!"
"We might as well just detonate hydrogen bombs to generate electricity!"
When Hao Yu shouted those words, the other scientists behind him immediately started nodding and loudly voicing their agreement.
"Using hydrogen bomb detonations to generate electricity? How exactly would that work?" Jason was genuinely startled, asking the question entirely out of instinct.
Professor Hao Yu continued loudly, his eyes shining with madness. "We just need to engineer a massive, ridiculously sturdy container to completely absorb the kinetic and thermal force of the blast..."
"A nuclear warhead detonates inside a reinforced metal shell. As long as the container is large enough and strong enough, we can directly capture and absorb the explosive energy... Of course, this concept isn’t limited strictly to hydrogen bombs; we can use other types of nuclear yields as well!"
These words struck Jason’s mind like a resounding iron bell. His head was spinning so violently that he couldn’t even hear what Professor Hao Yu was yelling about afterward.
He looked at the crowd of senior scientists standing behind the old man. There wasn’t a single voice of objection among them.
They had clearly discussed this insane proposal beforehand. Unbelievably, even the most conservative, cautious scholars in the room firmly believed that detonating nuclear weapons inside a metal box was a more prudent and realistic plan than actually trying to build a functional tokamak.