Having completed the construction of the first magnetic monopole detector, Li Qingsong found himself facing another dilemma.
Theoretical calculations predicted that magnetic monopoles were exceedingly rare. Therefore, not only did the detectors need to be sufficiently large, but there also had to be as many of them as possible to increase the probability of a successful detection.
The problem was that building magnetic monopole detectors required helium-3.
Over many years, Li Qingsong had only managed to accumulate a few million tons of helium-3. He had poured all of it into building this single detector, which had now exhausted nearly his entire reserve.
And the problem was... natural reserves of helium-3 were far too scarce.
Helium-3 is an isotope of helium. A normal helium atom, typically called helium-4, has a nucleus with two neutrons and two protons. The nucleus of a helium-3 atom, however, contains only one neutron.
Reserves of helium-4 were enormous; tens or even hundreds of millions of tons could be easily mined from the various planets in the Pegasus V432 Star System. But helium-3 was a different story.
Based on predictive models for helium-3 evolution, Li Qingsong knew that relatively large quantities of it could be found on dwarf planets or large moons that lacked an atmosphere and orbited close to their star.
A prime example was Earth's moon.
Bombarded by the solar wind, the lunar surface was constantly exposed to high-energy particles, which caused helium-3 to form and accumulate over time.
However, this "large quantity" was a relative term.
Compared to other celestial bodies, its helium-3 reserves were indeed greater. But in terms of absolute numbers, the entire Moon only held a few million tons—just about enough for Li Qingsong to build a single magnetic monopole detector.
Moreover, even this paltry reserve of a few million tons had taken the Moon over four billion years to accumulate under the Sun's radiation.
The Pegasus V432 Star, however, was far too young—only a fraction of the Sun's age.
Its planets simply hadn't had enough time to accumulate that much helium-3.
Another potential source of abundant helium-3 was the star itself.
But that path was a non-starter. For a massive star like Pegasus V432, Li Qingsong's absolute limit was approaching within six million kilometers; mining directly from the star was completely out of the question.
One last place of potential hope was the system's gas giants.
The elemental composition of gas giants is often similar to that of stars. It stood to reason that if the star was rich in helium-3, the gas giants should be as well.
But after a thorough investigation, Li Qingsong was forced to abandon this idea too.
The gas giants were indeed enriched with helium-3, their concentrations higher than on other planets.
But again, this was only relative. In terms of absolute content, the concentration was far lower than that of deuterium, Li Qingsong's primary fusion fuel—only a few millionths of it. He could work himself to death and still never collect a sufficient amount.
Faced with this situation, Li Qingsong was in a bind.
'If there's really no other way, then I'll just have to make it myself.'
Li Qingsong gritted his teeth, his resolve hardening.
That's right. Besides acquiring helium-3 from nature, Li Qingsong had another option: manufacture it himself!
Manufacturing matter at such a fundamental, atomic level was clearly impossible through ordinary chemical reactions.
It was like how Alchemy could never truly create gold.
Nuclear reactions, however, *can* create gold. And by the same token, nuclear reactions could also create helium-3.
As it happened, Li Qingsong knew of a fusion process whose byproduct was precisely helium-3.
Deuterium-deuterium fusion.
Deuterium-deuterium fusion has two reaction pathways, each with a 50% probability. The final product of one of these pathways is, conveniently, helium-3.
Calculations showed that the complete fusion of one kilogram of deuterium gas would yield approximately 0.375 kilograms of helium-3.
Currently, Li Qingsong was consuming about one hundred million tons of deuterium gas annually. Based on this figure, he could generate an average of 37.5 million tons of helium-3 in his Nuclear Fusion Reactors each year—enough to supply the construction of nearly ten magnetic monopole detectors!
However, this approach, while seemingly straightforward, presented its own immense challenges.
At present, Li Qingsong's energy supply relied primarily on deuterium-tritium fusion. The reason was simple: deuterium-tritium fusion was highly efficient, converting approximately 0.375% of its mass into energy—over four times the yield of nuclear fission—and was relatively easy to achieve.
It was economical, practical, and highly efficient.
In contrast, the energy conversion efficiency of deuterium-deuterium fusion was a mere 0.092%, only slightly better than nuclear fission, and it demanded a much more rigorous fusion environment.
It was uneconomical, impractical, and inefficient.
If he were to switch his energy supply from deuterium-tritium to deuterium-deuterium fusion, Li Qingsong would need to quadruple his current number of roughly 326,000 nuclear fusion power plants just to maintain the same level of power output.
Furthermore, because deuterium-deuterium fusion demanded higher temperatures and pressures, the difficulty of constructing each new plant would more than double, causing costs to skyrocket.
It was a construction task of staggering proportions!
But... there was no other way. He had resolved to achieve a technological breakthrough within the Pegasus V432 Star System. No matter how massive the construction task, he had to face the challenge head-on.
So, he would build.
Li Qingsong drew up the plans and made the arrangements.
While ensuring his industrial complex, research on the proton decay detector, and numerous other projects in specialized fields and applications continued to run smoothly, Li Qingsong diverted a staggering 500 million Clones to the massive task of upgrading and constructing new nuclear fusion power plants.
The industrial systems roared back to full capacity, churning out immense quantities of parts, components, and machinery, which were then transported to planets across the system by fleets of heavy freighters.
The Divine Craft AI, leveraging the immense processing power of the Quantum Supercomputer, once again worked wonders. Countless humanoid general-purpose robots and intelligent machines toiled 24/7 without a break. In the control center, legions of Clones and blueprint engineers worked in shifts around the clock, not daring to waste a single moment.
Soon, the first deuterium-deuterium fusion power plant was complete.
It was the same size as a standard deuterium-tritium power plant, but where a deuterium-tritium plant could generate approximately 3 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per hour, this new deuterium-deuterium plant could only manage around 700 million.
Correspondingly, it consumed about two tons of deuterium gas per day, generating approximately 750 kilograms of helium-3.
As the new deuterium-deuterium plant came online, the power output of a corresponding deuterium-tritium plant was throttled down.
By the time four deuterium-deuterium plants were operational, one of the old deuterium-tritium plants was finally shut down completely.
Together, these four deuterium-deuterium power plants could produce about three tons of helium-3 per day.