Experimental installation of inertial thermonuclear fusion KR-2024 (China).

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The article describes some experiments conducted at the KR-2024 inertial fusion facility.  This installation has a plasma compression ratio of more than 1000 MPa. The thermonuclear fuel is specially upgraded cooled water, which is injected into the reactor core.

  

In October 2024, an experimental inertial fusion facility KR-2024 (hereinafter KR-2024) was built in the city of Wenzhou (China). This installation was developed based on a series of scientific experiments conducted from December 2023 to August 2024.  During the operation of KR-2024, its modernization was carried out, the time range of fuel injection was revealed, and the time range of operation of thermonuclear fuel in the core was clarified. The pulses initially had a chaotic order, and then the pulses were ordered after 1 second. That is, fuel injection was carried out every two seconds, an impulse one second after injection. At the same time, the core emitted a characteristic dull sound.

The core of KR-2024 had a stable temperature during operation and did not melt. The detection of neutrons emitted by the nucleus was carried out using neutron activation analysis, namely, several micrograms of America241 were attached to the Geiger counter.

Also, at a distance of 2.5 meters from KR-2024, two stainless steel tanks were installed, where in tank No. 1 there was ordinary water with a volume of 11 liters, in tank No. 2 there was water with boric acid (160 grams) with a volume of 11 liters. The experiments were carried out in the evening after sunset to avoid heating the containers from the sun, as the experiments were carried out outdoors.  The drop in ambient temperature was about 1 degree per hour after sunset.

7 experiments were carried out, among which it is worth highlighting the experiment that was conducted on November 7, 2024.  KR-2024 worked for 40 minutes in the last experiment. Before the start of work, the Geiger counter showed a value of 4 microsieverts per hour, after the operation of KR-2024, the value increased to 7 microsieverts per hour (after 16 hours, the value decreased to 6 microsieverts per hour and still shows this value.) 

In tank No. 1, the initial temperature was 23 degrees Celsius, after 40 minutes of operation, the temperature dropped by 1 degree to 22 degrees Celsius.  In tank No. 2, the initial temperature was 23 degrees Celsius, and after 40 minutes of operation, the temperature increased by 10 degrees to 33 degrees Celsius.

 During the 40 minutes of operation of KR-2024, radiation peaks of up to 10.1 microsieverts per hour were repeatedly observed. During the peak of 10.1 microsieverts per hour, the temperature in tank No. 2 rose by exactly 1 degree within 3 minutes, which is a record.

 

We assume that the following reactions occur at this facility:

 

1)p + p → D + e+ + ν

2)D + D → T + p (50%)

2)D + D → He3 + n (50%)

3)D + T → He3 + n

4)T + T → He4 + 2n

 The assumption is based on the structure of the core of KR-2024, which allows for an implosive explosion in a certain volume where the gas pressure increases significantly and the substance is compressed by a converging concentric blast wave. In the future, the temperature increases significantly, sufficient for nuclear fusion. All processes occur within a few femtoseconds.