China is constructing a top-secret ‘Z machine’ to compete with the United States in nuclear research.
The country’s military is building a machine capable of simulating thermonuclear explosions on an unprecedented scale at a secret base in the southwestern Sichuan province, the South China Morning Post reported.
The device has been described as a Chinese version of the United States’ ‘Z machine’ – which determines how particles react under extreme radiation and magnetic pressure, allowing researchers to test new nuclear armaments.
Pictured: The Z Machine, which determines how particles react under extreme radiation and magnetic pressure
China is constructing their own version of the machine in the southwestern Sichuan province
America’s groundbreaking Z machine, capable of producing 2.7million joules of electricity, is located at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, but Chinese researchers are trying to build a version capable of generating 60million joules.
The US’ device has generated temperatures of 3.7 billion Kelvins, the highest ever created by humankind, and routinely generates electrical power equivalent to 80 times Earth’s total power output.
The Z Machine is not just used to test nuclear weaponry – it is also capable of recreating the conditions on the surface of a star.
In a 2012 ‘white dwarf’ experiment, researchers simulated the ‘spectrum’ of a white dwarf’s surface by firing 26 million amps of electricity through tungsten wires.
Sandia’s website describes the machine as ‘safe, secure, reliable’, adding: ‘Z is crucial to Sandia’s mission to assure the reliability and safety of our nuclear stockpile as it ages – it allows scientists to study materials under conditions similar to those produced by the detonation of a nuclear weapon, and it produces key data used to validate physics models in computer simulations.
‘The detonation of nuclear weapons may affect equipment even at great distances from the explosion, which means electronic weapons systems and related equipment could malfunction when exposed to radiation from an opponent’s weapons.
‘Since a wide variety of materials are used to build weapons and military equipment, researchers must study the effects of nuclear radiation on a variety of materials and under varying conditions in order to understand the vulnerability of U.S. weapons.’
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