Having completed the construction of the first magnetic monopole detector, Li Qingsong faced another difficult problem.
Because theoretical calculations indicated that magnetic monopoles were extremely rare, the detectors not only had to be built large enough, but their quantity also needed to be as high as possible to increase the probability of detecting magnetic monopoles.
However, the construction of magnetic monopole detectors required Helium-3.
Over the years, Li Qingsong had accumulated only a few million tons of Helium-3. Now, all of it had been invested in the construction of this one magnetic monopole detector. Just one detector had exhausted almost all of his reserves.
And… Helium-3 was too scarce in nature.
Helium-3 is an isotope of the element helium. Ordinary helium has two neutrons and two protons in its nucleus, commonly known as Helium-4. Helium-3, on the other hand, has only one neutron in its nucleus.
Such as Earth's satellite, the Moon.
Under the bombardment of solar winds, the lunar surface material is continuously affected by high-energy particles, constantly forming and concentrating Helium-3.
But the so-called "large amount" here is relative.
Compared to other planets, it does have more Helium-3 reserves. However, in absolute terms, even the entire Moon has only a few million tons of Helium-3 in total, which is just enough for Li Qingsong to build one magnetic monopole detector.
Moreover, even these few million tons of Helium-3 reserves took the Moon more than 4 billion years to accumulate under the influence of solar radiation.
Pegasus V432, on the other hand, was too young, only a fraction of the Sun's age.
Its planets simply hadn't had enough time to accumulate so much Helium-3.
Another possible place with more Helium-3 reserves was the star itself.
But there was no need to even consider that route. For a massive star like Pegasus V432, getting within 6 million kilometers was already Li Qingsong's limit, and it was impossible to mine on the star's surface.
Another potentially promising place was gas giants.
The elemental composition of gas giants is usually similar to that of stars. It made no sense for stars to be rich in Helium-3 while gas giants weren't.
However, after some investigation, Li Qingsong had to abandon this idea as well.
Gas giants did concentrate Helium-3, and their content was indeed higher than that of other planets.
But this was also relative. In terms of absolute content, its concentration was much lower than that of deuterium, which Li Qingsong regarded as his primary fusion fuel, only a few millionths of the deuterium content. Li Qingsong could exhaust himself and still not collect enough.
Faced with this situation, Li Qingsong was in a dilemma.
"If there's really no other way, I'll just have to make it myself."
Li Qingsong gritted his teeth and made up his mind.
That's right, besides obtaining Helium-3 from nature, Li Qingsong had another way: make it himself!
To manufacture materials involving the most basic atomic level, ordinary chemical reactions were clearly impossible.
Just like how alchemy could never truly create gold.
But nuclear reactions could create gold. Similarly, nuclear reactions could also create Helium-3.
Coincidentally, Li Qingsong knew of a fusion mode whose byproduct was Helium-3.
Deuterium-Deuterium fusion.
Deuterium-Deuterium fusion has two reaction paths, each accounting for 50%. And the final product of one of these reaction paths happens to be Helium-3.
According to calculations, one kilogram of deuterium gas, after complete fusion, can produce approximately kilograms of Helium-3!
Currently, Li Qingsong's annual consumption of deuterium gas is about 100 million tons. Based on this data, on average, Li Qingsong can generate million tons of Helium-3 in the nuclear fusion reactor every year, enough to supply the construction of nearly ten magnetic monopole detectors!
However, this model, seemingly simple, also has significant difficulties behind it.
Currently, Li Qingsong's energy supply is mainly based on Deuterium-Tritium fusion. The reason is simple: Deuterium-Tritium fusion is more efficient, converting approximately of the mass into energy, which is more than four times that of nuclear fission, and it is also easier to achieve.
It's both economical and affordable, and also highly efficient.
Compared to Deuterium-Tritium fusion, the energy conversion efficiency of Deuterium-Deuterium fusion is only , which is only slightly higher than nuclear fission, and it requires a more demanding fusion environment.
It's neither economical nor affordable, and the efficiency is low.
If Li Qingsong wanted to switch the energy supply mode from Deuterium-Tritium fusion to Deuterium-Deuterium fusion, he would need to increase the number of nuclear fusion power plants he currently owned, totaling approximately 326,000, to four times their current number in order to maintain the same scale of power supply capacity.
Moreover, because Deuterium-Deuterium fusion requires higher temperatures and pressures, the construction difficulty of each nuclear fusion power plant would also increase to more than twice the original, greatly increasing costs.
What a massive construction task this was!
But… there was no other way. Since he had decided to achieve technological breakthroughs in the Pegasus V432 system, then no matter how large the construction task, he had to rise to the challenge.
Then build!
Li Qingsong made arrangements and deployments.
While ensuring that his own industrial system maintained normal operation, and that research on proton decay detectors and many subdivided fields and application levels proceeded normally, Li Qingsong transferred a full 500 million clones to the large-scale upgrade, transformation, and new construction tasks of nuclear fusion power plants.
The industrial system began full-power production again, with massive amounts of parts, components, and machinery being produced and transported to planets by numerous heavy-duty spacecraft.
Divine Craftsman AI once again unleashed its power, relying on the surging computing power of quantum supercomputers. Countless humanoid general-purpose robots and intelligent machines worked around the clock, 24 hours a day, non-stop. In the control center, numerous clones and blueprint engineers rotated day and night, not daring to delay for a moment.
Soon, the first Deuterium-Deuterium fusion power plant was completed.
It had the same scale as a standardized Deuterium-Tritium fusion power plant, but while a Deuterium-Tritium fusion power plant could generate approximately 3 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per hour, this Deuterium-Deuterium fusion power plant could only generate about 700 million kilowatt-hours per hour.
Correspondingly, it needed to consume about two tons of deuterium gas per day and generate about 750 kg of Helium-3.
The new Deuterium-Deuterium fusion power plant was put into operation, so the power of the previous Deuterium-Tritium fusion power plant was reduced somewhat.
When four Deuterium-Deuterium fusion power plants were put into operation, the Deuterium-Tritium fusion power plant was finally completely shut down.
Correspondingly, these four Deuterium-Deuterium fusion power plants could produce approximately 3 tons of Helium-3 per day.
