Fusion Confinement Paths of the Kun-Tai Civilization

"Yes," the Chief Scientist of the Kun-Tai Civilization slowly explained to Pierce before the central fleet reached its deceleration position:

"In the research on the path to achieving Controlled Nuclear Fusion, our Kun-Tai Civilization believed there were three feasible paths. The first one, which must exist in physics and was the first one we understood, and perhaps the first method known to all civilizations, is Gravity Confinement."

"As we all know, Gravity Confinement is the universe's selfless display to every Sentient Life. Whenever we look up at the sky, we will see the miracle created by the universe with its most basic laws. Our parent star and even the millions of stars in the universe are all like this."

The universe uses its powerful Gravity to gather dust and matter together. Through strong internal pressure and immense Gravity, it tightly binds nuclear fuel together, causing nuclear Nuclear Fusion to occur under extremely high temperature and pressure.

However, our Kun-Tai Civilization lacks the capability to create objects of such massive mass. Furthermore, we haven't even grasped the essence of Gravity, making the creation of Gravity machine out of the question. Therefore, while Gravity Confinement fusion is a selfless demonstration of the laws of the universe, it remains the exclusive domain of nature.

The Chief Scientist of the Kun-Tai Civilization seemed to be marveling at the grandeur of nature. After a pause, she continued with a sigh, "Not only our Kun-Tai Civilization, but other civilizations must be the same. We can understand the ways in which all civilizations present the universe, but none of them can actually do it."

Therefore, we had to find another way. In the long process of research, we discovered two other feasible routes: Inertial Confinement and Magnetic Confinement.

Inertial Confinement is a method that uses the inertia of particles to confine the particles themselves, thereby achieving Nuclear Fusion reactions.

The basic idea is to use the energy provided by the actuator to make the Nuclear Fusion fuel in the target pellet form plasma. Then, in a short period of time before these plasmas have time to disperse due to their own inertia, they are compressed to a high temperature and high density state through centripetal bursting, thereby causing Nuclear Fusion reaction.

The method typically involves using multiple ultra-high-power lasers, aimed at small spheres of nuclear fuel, and simultaneously stimulating the lasers. This causes the surface of the spheres to vaporize instantly, generating a reaction force that violently compresses the nuclear fuel. Because the time is extremely short, the nuclear fuel does not have enough time to carry the fuel away before it is pushed together and undergoes a Nuclear Fusion reaction.

The Chief Scientist the Kun-Tai Civilization not only had high academic achievements, but also had a thorough understanding of the scientific development history of the Kun-Tai Civilization itself. She continued to tell Pierce through the Ultrasound communication channel, "More than 5,000 years ago, the scientists of our great Kun-Tai Civilization discovered these two feasible paths in almost the same era."

However, throughout the long course of history, our Kun-Tai Civilization seems to possess an unparalleled talent for Inertial Confinement technology. In just a century, our research on Inertial Confinement far surpassed that of Magnetic Confinement. As you know, in those days, the Gravity of inexhaustible energy was immense. Due to the rapid progress in Inertial Confinement, people placed most of their investment and expectations on this technology.

The scientists of the Kun-Tai Civilization lived up to expectations, achieving Controlled Nuclear Fusion using Inertial Confinement in less than a century. Furthermore, their research and technology in this area advanced rapidly. Thus, our Kun-Tai Civilization finally embarked on its long-awaited Sea of Stars.

"After we achieved success with Inertial Confinement fusion, that Magnetic Confinement fusion system barely managed to achieve a breakthrough where the input energy was greater than the output energy. You should know what that means, Lord Pierce."

Pierce followed up with the Chief Scientist's reply, "Yes, that means all investments will be directed to Inertial Confinement. Since we already have an inexhaustible supply of energy, there's no need to waste energy researching another route."

"Yes!" the Chief Scientist exclaimed. "Back then, after our Kun-Tai Civilization achieved Controlled Nuclear Fusion using Inertial Confinement, we did indeed relegate Magnetic Confinement to the dustbin of history, and then devoted ourselves to exploring various derivative technologies of the Inertial Confinement route."

Ultimately, we lived up to expectations. After a long period of research, we used the derivative technology of Inertial Confinement path combined with condensed matter physics to finally overcome the last hurdle of Cold Nuclear Fusion.

However, since then, our progress in Nuclear Fusion technology has slowed down, especially for the theoretically achievable Heavy Nuclear Fusion, which we are completely helpless against.

"In that situation, scientists racked their brains and tried every possible method, but made very little progress, until a scientific team retrieved the Magnetic Confinement that had been thrown into the dustbin of history and published some quite accomplished papers based on it."

It was then that our scientists realized that our failure to achieve a breakthrough in Heavy Nuclear Fusion might be due to the lack of those derivative technological pieces in the Magnetic Confinement route.

Thus, from that time on, our Kun-Tai Civilization returned to the path of re-studying Magnetic Confinement. However, this period of prosperity was short-lived. Just as we were getting on the right track with Magnetic Confinement and various derivative theories were emerging, we encountered the Quell Civilization.

Upon hearing this, Pierce understood, and she said, "You mean, the way Human Civilization achieves Controlled Nuclear Fusion is through so-called Magnetic Confinement?"

"Yes, Your Lord Pierce, only Magnetic Confinement can explain why they possess Positron Cannon. Only an extremely powerful and complex magnetic field can confine positrons in space, preventing them from encountering any matter. And such a powerful and complex magnetic field environment can only be achieved through technologies derived from Magnetic Confinement fusion." The Chief Scientist of the Kun-Tai Civilization sighed somewhat, perhaps fearing that Pierce might not know what Magnetic Confinement was, she continued to explain, "Oh, Your Lord Pierce may not be very familiar with Magnetic Confinement. Simply put, Magnetic Confinement is using an extremely strong magnetic field to bind charged plasma, causing it to undergo Nuclear Fusion reactions under continuously increasing temperatures and rapid motion."

Pierce nodded subtly. She certainly knew about the charged plasma the Chief Scientist had mentioned. After nuclear fuels, such as Protium Deuterium Tritium, and tritium, were heated into plasma, their protons were no longer surrounded by electrons, but were moving at high speeds in a 'naked' manner.

The Chief Scientist of Kun-Tai Civilization, unaware of her thoughts, continued, "It was precisely because of the research on Magnetic Confinement during that period that we saw the potential of some Magnetic Confinement fusion derivative technologies, one of which is the idea of confining positrons and then releasing them after they reach a certain concentration."

Unfortunately, we encountered the Quell Civilization, and then we lost our home planet, so much so that we still haven't mastered this technology."

One of the Kuntai People asked in the channel, unwilling to give up, "Can't we use our Inertial Confinement device instead?"

The Chief Scientist replied directly, "No, the Magnetic Confinement route will give rise to many detailed technologies related to magnetic fields, such as the Magnetic Confinement Linear Configuration and Toroidal Configuration that we discovered during our research. These will in turn give rise to many technical details that we are still in the theoretical stage. These are extremely complex magnetic field technologies. Without completing the entire Magnetic Confinement route from beginning to end, we cannot have such precise magnetic field control technology."

Upon hearing what the Chief Scientist said, all the Kuntai People on the bridge of the Kun-Tai Civilization Flagship fell silent. They had not expected that the difference in technological approaches would result in such a significant gap in the naval guns.