"… Four burning horses gallop in the sky, carrying the fire seed, from east to west, in the morning and in the evening, illuminating the world."
Lu Zhou yawned in the limousine and looked at Minister Nowak, who was sitting next to him.
"What are you talking about?"
Mao Zi smiled. He was so kind that it was impossible to tell that he was the head of the Ministry of Energy. Instead, he was like a friendly tour guide. He explained to Lu Zhou in a humorous tone.
"Homer's Epic! The description of Helios … which is also the nuclear power plant we are about to arrive at! "
As he said that, his tone was filled with emotion.
"The son of Helios once ignited the earth in order to bring the light closer to the earth. He turned Libya into a desert and burned the skin of the Ethiopian residents black. Homer probably didn't expect that thousands of years later, not only did people achieve great feats that only the gods could achieve, but they even surpassed the gods and found a gentle way to release the energy of the sun."
Lu Zhou: "Why is your version a bit different from the one I've heard?"
Minister Nowak smiled and said, "That's not surprising, there are many versions of this kind of thing. Not to mention that later generations will also go through a certain amount of artistic processing. If you are interested, we can find a chance to talk. I happen to have some research in this area."
Lu Zhou politely refused and said, "Thank you, but I'm not particularly interested in myths and legends."
For him, taking a day to deal with things that had nothing to do with academia was already the limit.
Especially since the ICM conference was about to begin.
"Okay, I understand, not everyone has the talent to be a poet …" Minister Nowak shrugged and looked out the window. He looked at the towering wall not far away and said, "We're here."
The Helios Nuclear Power Plant was located on the coast of the Baltic Sea, surrounded by a towering wall. Like the fusion power plant in Haizhou, it was guarded by Russian troops.
On the stone tablet in front of the main gate, Lu Zhou saw three trademarks. Two of them were General Nuclear Construction, which was responsible for the construction of the Xihe reactor, and East Asia Power, which was responsible for the nuclear core supply. As for the other one, it was the real owner of the fusion power plant — Rosatom Corporation.
As the oligarch of Russia's nuclear power industry, Rosatom Corporation controlled almost all of the production links in the entire Russian industrial chain and even most of the uranium mines in Siberia.
Cooperating with such a company was not only a choice made by East Asia Power, but also an option supported by the Russian government.
According to the contract signed between East Asia Power and Rosatom Corporation, while East Asia Power sold the nuclear core to Rosatom Corporation at a high price, they would also send engineers to the Helios Nuclear Power Plant to provide technical services for a period of 20 years.
These technical services included the maintenance and upgrading of the nuclear core control system, as well as the safety inspection of the nuclear core. In short, they would do everything possible to ensure that the nuclear core could operate normally.
On the other hand, during these 20 years, East Asia Power would receive 13% of the profits from the nuclear core provided by East Asia Power.
Although this kind of cooperation method of selling things to you and using your things to make money was somewhat unequal, who wanted East Asia Energy to be the only company in the world?
While the European Union and North America were still wavering, Russia signed this agreement without hesitation. Because of this, they successfully became East Asia Power's first overseas nuclear core customer.
Now, the nuclear core from China had finally arrived.
In order to welcome this historic moment of nuclear core ignition, not only did the Russian Minister of Energy personally come here, but he also arranged for Lu Zhou's schedule to be adjusted to early August.
In fact, if it weren't for the fact that they had to wait for Lu Zhou, they would have ignited the nuclear core a week ago.
A gray-haired old man stood at the entrance of the Helios Polymer Substation. When he saw Lu Zhou walking out of the car, his eyes suddenly lit up, and he smiled and greeted him.
"Welcome, Professor Lu! We meet again. "
"Hello, Academician Vasily."
Lu Zhou shook the old man's hand and smiled. He then looked at the serious-looking middle-aged man standing next to him.
"Who is this?"
"Lermontov." The serious-looking middle-aged man reached out his hand. Unlike the enthusiastic Academician Vasily, this serious-looking middle-aged man didn't seem to be interested in Lermontov. He said, "One of the people in charge here."
Lu Zhou didn't care about the attitude of the person in charge. He nodded at him and looked at the door.
At this moment, he suddenly saw an unexpected figure.
"Academician Wang? Why are you here? "
The chief engineer of the China National Nuclear Corporation, Academician Wang Zengguang!
One of the veterans of the nuclear power field who ignited the fusion fire with him in Haizhou!
Ignoring Academician Pan Changhong, Academician Zhou Chengfu, and Academician Li Jiangang from the Institute of Materials Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, these three were basically the three giants in the nuclear industry in China.
Because Lu Zhou didn't publish engineering articles, he didn't accept students, and he even resigned from his position, Wang Zengguang's influence in the nuclear industry was even greater than Lu Zhou's.
This time, Lu Zhou was really surprised. He didn't expect Academician Wang to be here.
"After all, this is our first overseas nuclear fusion project, I can't just ignore it." Wang Zengguang smiled and looked at Lu Zhou. He then said, "Let's go, the people from Rosatom Corporation have been waiting for us for a long time. Can't you see that Mr. Lermontov is getting impatient? Let's not stand at the door, let's talk inside. "
The group of people didn't stay at the door for too long.
Even without Academician Wang's urging, Minister Nowak didn't plan on letting Lu Zhou stand at the door and chat.
He couldn't wait for the ignition ceremony to begin.
While walking toward the command tower of the fusion power station, Lu Zhou learned from his conversation that Academician Wang, the representative from the China National Nuclear Corporation, arrived much earlier than him. Academician Wang even arrived a week earlier than him.
Ignition should have begun a week ago, but due to various reasons, it was delayed until now.
Even though this had nothing to do with China as it was mainly Russia's arrangement, many of Rosatom Corporation's technical and management staff were quite dissatisfied with this.
After all, a week late in the ignition meant a week late in the power supply, and a week late in the power supply meant an extra week of pressure on their capital chain.
If the ignition was delayed due to safety or other technical reasons, then it would be fine. However, just to wait for a Chinese person's flight and a minister's political show, the ignition date was delayed by an entire week. This made Lu Zhou a little unhappy.
But no matter what, this moment had finally arrived.
At this moment, there was a group of people standing in the command tower.
The person standing at the front was obviously Minister Nowak. Most of the people standing next to him were senior officials from the Russian Ministry of Energy, as well as core technical personnel from several nuclear power companies.
The cameras were all around the command room, and the reporters with their cameras and cannons in their hands made the command room, which was not very spacious to begin with, even more crowded.
However, no one cared about these details. They stared at the screen and buttons on the console in front of them. Almost all of the Russians present held their breath.
All of the preparations were completed a week ago.
Now, they only had to press the last button!
Minister Nowak, who was standing in front of the console, tried to calm his heartbeat. He looked at the button in front of him and repeatedly rubbed his thumb and index finger.
He took a deep breath and looked away from the console. He looked around at the reporters and Rosatom engineers. He spoke in a solemn voice.
"This is a great moment!
"It not only bears witness to the Russian people's inextinguishable fire, but it also bears witness to our friendship with the people of Cathay … May it shine as brightly as the sun, and may our world be at peace forever because of the eternal energy."
With that, under everyone's gaze, he pressed the button.
Then …
There seems to be no reaction?
Lu Zhou stared at a series of indicators such as the radiation data and plasma temperature on the console. He frowned slightly. He didn't know if it was an illusion, but he felt like this was different from when he pressed the button in Haizhou.
Academician Wang and Academician Vasily obviously noticed this, and their expressions became dignified.
However, the reporters standing next to them and Minister Nowak himself didn't seem to notice anything wrong. They even began to cheer.
However, at this moment, the door of the command room was suddenly pushed open. An engineer wearing a hard hat quickly walked to Minister Novak's side and spoke with a trembling voice.
"Mr. Minister!"
After seeing the look on the engineer's face, he realized that something was wrong, and his face fell.
However, he still managed to maintain his composure. He maintained a dignified expression on his face.
"… What happened?"
"There seems to be a problem with the nuclear core."
The command center suddenly went quiet.
The reporters who were taking pictures stopped in their tracks.
Minister Nowak's expression froze for a moment.
When he came back to his senses, the cold sweat that stuck to his back and forehead broke out in a flash.
"What the hell happened?! What do you mean there is a problem with the nuclear core? "
The engineer in the hard hat gulped and spoke in a trembling voice.
"Our nuclear core …
"It doesn't seem to be lit."
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
