China's ambitions in the field of basic science have reached new, dizzying heights. On December 22, the world witnessed the completion of the most powerful centrifuge ever created by man - CHIEF1900. This colossal facility, the work of Shanghai Electric Nuclear Power Group, is now located in the bowels of Zhejiang University to rewrite the laws of experimental physics.
The impressive device has the ability to subject multi-ton models to an unheard-of load of 1900 g. Just try to imagine it - a ton of mass accelerated to a force that makes it 1900 times heavier! If we have to make a funny comparison, while one of the most powerful household washing machines barely reaches 2 g during centrifugation, CHIEF1900 would not just wring out the laundry, but probably disintegrate matter down to the last thread.
Engineers have taken drastic safety measures, installing this technological monster 15 meters below the earth's surface. This location was not chosen by chance - it provides perfect isolation from external noise interference and ensures that in the event of an unforeseen accident, the enormous kinetic energy will be reliably absorbed by the earth's layers.
With this move, Beijing finally dethrones the previous record holder - the 1200 g-t facility operated by the US Army Corps of Engineers. But what does this actually mean for science? Using CHIEF1900, researchers will be able to literally “manipulate” time and space. An experiment that in nature would take thousands of years (for example, geological processes or deformations of soil), under the influence of the enormous centrifugal force can be simulated and analyzed in just one hour.
The possibilities are staggering: a three-meter model of a dam wall placed in a centrifuge at 100 g will behave absolutely identically to a real 300-meter facility on the surface. “Our goal is to create a laboratory that covers everything – from milliseconds to tens of thousands of years, and from atomic structures to kilometer scales“, the project scientists enthusiastically share.