Chapter 194 - 191 | Ark Reactor, Initial Design.
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"Before that, can you put on your clothes first?"
Seeing Howard's eager appearance, Luke glanced at his open robe, wide open and almost unobstructed.
'Malèna needs to wash my eyes again tonight.'
He thought to himself.
"It's not important! Einstein could teach at MIT even though he was wearing pajamas. The light of wisdom is far more important than the cloth that covers the flesh."
Howard was very excited. Not sure if it was because he had just finished his morning workout or because he couldn't wait to show Luke his latest results.
"I finally know why the French literati like to visit brothels. You just slept with a woman, and even your words become poetic. If you sleep a few times more, wouldn't you become Shakespeare? "
Luke grinned, but he didn't refuse Howard's invitation.
At the west of Long Island, this vacation estate had a basic underground laboratory because he often came here.
Howard didn't lack money anyway. When this guy was inspired or eager to do some research, it would always come in handy.
Moreover, according to him, sometimes his mind went blank, and he would just bring women here.
Looking at those complicated formulas while doing some intense workouts, it was easier to stimulate thinking and generate sparks.
Luke expressed his disbelief in such a nasty statement, not even a punctuation mark.
"Haven't you ever thought of tidying up?"
He asked as he walked into the underground lab.
Compared to his son's futuristic high-tech private lab, Iron Man's father's workplace was much more modest.
A long metal oval table was in a mess, with all kinds of research papers and all sorts of tools.
Four leftover pizza boxes, five or six cups of soda water, and lots of coffee,
From the smell of the garbage, you can tell that Howard probably wasn't lying. These days, he was staying in the lab.
"Only in this messy state could I find the tools I needed to use. If I cleaned up and put them away, I might not be able to work properly."
Howard waved his hand. This is a personal habit; the butler Jarvis, who occasionally came to look after him, had long been used to it.
Behind him, there were two simple stretchable whiteboards, which were densely packed with a large number of formulas written on them, and the knowledge in them was enough to make people dizzy.
Luke scanned it and asked curiously, "You plan to use Palladium as the energy core?"
"You got it? Well, that's not surprising. Anything unthinkable that happens to Superman seems so normal."
Howard spoke with a dramatic expression, then continued, "I was involved in the Manhattan Project before. Oppenheimer was studying nuclear fission, using chain reactions to release terrifying amounts of energy."
"Although I am an arms dealer, I am not interested in uncontrollable weapons of mass destruction. And, there are enough talented people in that field that there's no need to squeeze one more in."
"So, you set your eyes on nuclear fusion?"
Luke picked up the conversation and casually picked up a piece of design sketch.
In terms of the idea, the prototype of the Tokamak thermonuclear fusion reactor was already in place.
In appearance, it was a bit like the big guy that was later placed in Stark's industries weapons research and development department.
Tony Stark, the Iron Man, was inspired by it to develop a smaller version of the Ark reactor.
"That's right! The fuel used for fusion energy is deuterium and tritium, which are found in abundance in seawater. There's one deuterium atom in every 6500 hydrogen atoms, and the total deuterium in seawater is about 45 trillion tons."
Howard snapped his fingers. It was the best thing in the world to have someone who could understand what he said.
"The deuterium contained in each liter of seawater is completely fused, and the fusion energy released is equivalent to the energy of 300 liters of gasoline. According to the energy consumed by the world, the fusion energy of deuterium in seawater can be used for tens of billions of years. Therefore, as long as I solve the problem of nuclear fusion, I will solve the world's energy problem!"
Luke, who was keeping pace, nodded and chuckled, "Even the Atlanteans, who are an ocean civilization, hadn't overcome the technical difficulties yet. Where did your confidence come from?"
The technology and technical requirements for nuclear fusion technology were very high, and control over nuclear fusion was even more troublesome.
Of course, this was only for the real world that Luke used to live in.
There was no scientific barrier in the Marvel Universe at all. As long as a genius was inspired, he would soon develop a finished product close to revolutionary.
One of the representatives was Mr. Reed Richards.
"Because I'm a genius of the Stark family."
Howard touched his mustache and said proudly.
"Speak seriously."
Luke gave the other a blank stare. Narcissism and genius were the Stark family's legacy.
"Well, after I returned to New York from the Atlantic Ocean after flying the Nautilus, I began to experiment with various energy-releasing cores."
Howard coughed twice and solemnly said, "Perhaps finding Palladium was a revelation from the heavens. It's the 46th chemical element, monometallic, with excellent catalytic properties."
"I used palladium to electrolyze heavy water and observed unusually high energy production, and measured neutron and tritium production."
"What does this mean? If I use palladium as the energy core, make a large annular vacuum chamber, wind a coil around it, push it with electric current, generate a huge spiral magnetic field inside it, and then heat the plasma in it to a high temperature; the effect of nuclear fusion could be achieved."
Howard was so excited that he danced around. It was an amazing discovery for him and exciting breakthrough research for the world.
"Details need to be considered. For example, stability, energy loss, and how to apply … These are problems that can't be ignored."
Luke pondered for a moment and gave a reply.
Howard was indeed a real genius. He easily overcame a major hurdle across the ages.
"You're right; I just made a general framework. There is still a lot of information to fill in."
Howard, who was excited, finally recovered his calm thoughts.
"Didn't the United States military have 'Operation Paperclip'? S.H.I.E.L.D. has recruited so many German scientists. Look for a few people related to nuclear physics to form a team, what do you think?"
"This is fine. However, the Soviet Union vigorously developed its nuclear industry and took away a group of people before. You may not find value in the remaining … elites."
Luke shrugged his shoulders. He knew Howard was very demanding of his researchers.
"Wait, I have a good candidate! I met a scientist from … the Soviet Union, the last time we had a reception at the Atomic Energy Commission."
Howard frowned and tried to recall, "His name is … Anton Vanko! I heard that he defected from the Soviet Union and had presided over important projects."
"We talked about the research on nuclear fission and fusion, and he's barely a junior member of the genius club, so that he might be a good helper."
Luke blinked. Was this the beginning of the family feud between Stark and Anton?
"Okay, I'll go to the Atomic Energy Commission and ask for them."
He nodded and agreed, paused, and asked meaningfully, "Howard, have you ever thought of shrinking the reactor to serve as the core energy source for some kind of weapon?"
"Like what?"
"Like … powerful armor."