CHAPTER 291: CHAPTER 289 ISOTOPE GENERATOR

A few hours after Chen Xin arrived at the city police station shelter, people from the research institute finally received the news and rushed to him.

Before meeting Chen Xin, these researchers were wondering how Chen Xin managed to traverse the blizzard to reach the city. But upon seeing the Power Armor parked with the SWAT team, all their questions vanished into thin air, replaced by an intense enthusiasm as they surrounded the Power Armor, eager to disassemble it immediately for a closer look.

Fortunately, Chen Xin stopped them.

"Just take a look. There will be blueprints and prototypes for you later. This one is my personal item, so I won’t give it to you for research."

When Chen Xin was working on the precursor to the Power Armor, the Exoskeleton Protective Suit, he envisioned handing these over to the state for mass production, so naturally, he wouldn’t reject the researchers’ desire to study the Power Armor.

However, he still needed this set of Power Armor to return to his own shelter and intended to keep it for personal use, so he didn’t want to hand it over to the researchers for disassembly.

Despite being disappointed, the researchers understood Chen Xin’s decision, and moving past the Power Armor, they were also concerned about why Chen Xin would risk traversing the blizzard to reach the city under such harsh weather conditions.

"Given the dire situation in the city right now, I wanted to see if there was anything I could do to help." Chen Xin explained to the researchers, while also elaborating on what he was doing: "I plan to upgrade the ground-source heat pump and coal-fired boiler of the city police station shelter’s heating system. I have some ideas about the problems caused by this blizzard that I need to discuss with you."

Upon hearing this, the researchers put away their curiosity about the Power Armor, adopting a serious and attentive demeanor.

Due to the loss of weather forecasting capability, this sudden blizzard caught everyone off guard, and no one was prepared for it.

Though the city government had plans for sudden disasters or emergencies, given the current conditions, their contingency plans did not account for a blizzard lasting more than a week with temperatures plummeting to minus seventy degrees.

This has made heating the most severe test for all shelters and survivors. If they get through it, everyone rejoices, but if not, sealing the shelter’s doors will turn it into a tomb.

In fact, this blizzard affected not only this city. According to contacts the researchers made through internal channels with higher authorities, the blizzard swept down from Siberia, affecting most of the eastern and central regions of Flame Country.

If there were satellite images available, one would see that over half of Flame Country is now engulfed by the raging blizzard.

This means the blizzard threatens not just this city, but has pushed half of Flame Country to a dangerous brink of life and death.

Under such circumstances, any method that can improve the current situation is a good one. If effective, it could save more than half of Flame Country’s population.

"So, Mr. Chen Xin, what do you plan to do? Under the current circumstances, the heating issue is really hard to solve!" The researchers, lacking a good solution, were eager to know what Chen Xin had in mind.

Currently, most shelters rely on coal or oil-fired boilers, as well as electric heating for warmth.

Oil and gas boilers are mainly pre-existing boilers from before the disaster, but considering the current tight supply of oil and natural gas, using these boilers is very problematic.

While coal-fired boilers are not as efficient or environmentally friendly as oil and gas boilers, coal supply is simpler and cheaper, making it the most prevalent heating method now.

As for electric heating, it mainly exists in small or private shelters. For these small-scale shelters, even the smallest boilers are a huge waste and unnecessary under normal circumstances.

After all, small and private shelters can’t effectively utilize all the heat output by the boilers, leading to significant waste.

Even under current conditions, boilers remain wasteful for small shelters and cannot heat effectively.

As for large shelters, it’s no use mentioning them, as their boilers are almost overloaded and still can’t raise the temperature above zero degrees.

Some might cite polar research stations, but the issue is that while they also use these methods for heating, their cold and heat insulation measures are unlike anything these shelters have.

The much larger space compared to a few rooms in a polar research station, combined with unavoidable heat loss due to the need for air circulation, prevents the temperature from rising.

To solve this problem, apart from preventing heat loss, the simplest method is to provide more heat. But this circles back to the starting point: improving the boiler or finding a new heating method.

The researchers had been working toward this goal but couldn’t come up with a better solution.

Retrofitting boilers or electric heating is actually not hard to achieve, but conventional methods require turning off the boiler for retrofitting. Beyond retrofitting costs, the downtime alone is enough to freeze everyone in the shelter to death, irrevocably.

Therefore, when Chen Xin claimed he had an idea, the researchers were ecstatic. They had high expectations for Chen Xin, a miracle worker in their eyes.

"The main issue with heating is insufficient heat. I can enhance burning efficiency and thermal efficiency without shutting down the boiler, but the improvement is limited, so a new heating method is still needed." Chen Xin organized his thoughts and said: "Electric heating is a good supplement. The main issue is some shelters lack electric heating equipment, and producing electricity is another problem. Now, power plants also need coal, and converting electricity into heat is less efficient than directly burning coal for heating.

So I plan to modify the previously made Isotope Thermoelectric Battery, and try to see if I can develop an Isotope Generator. Once installed in the shelter and connected to the shelter’s circuit, with ample electricity, electric heating could supplement the insufficient heating."

Upon hearing this, the researchers were stunned, unsure of how to react.

An Isotope Generator, something straight out of science fiction, was beyond their imagination.