On the day of the experiment, the sky above Princeton was covered in thick dark clouds. It was as if a heavy rain was brewing.
Lu Zhou walked to the PPPL laboratory and suddenly felt like this road was unfamiliar.
It was like he wasn't going to the laboratory, but rather, he was going to the hospital delivery room.
Lu Zhou thought about it carefully and felt like this was a reasonable description.
The engineers and researchers of the "He-3" project team had worked countless days and nights for this project, or rather, for this illusory possibility.
Including himself, no one knew how much effort he had put into this project.
It was no exaggeration to say that the "He-3 atom probe" technology was his child.
Lu Zhou walked along the corridor to the control room door and walked inside.
The layout of the room was messy. The wires were tangled together and were tied with plastic ropes. The motherboard and wires of the computer, which was used to control the electromagnetic field of the atom gun, were exposed.
After all, this was something that was put together in a hurry.
The engineers here could only ensure that there were no malfunctions, but they couldn't guarantee that the visitors would be amazed.
Lu Zhou looked around at the people in the control room and quickly saw Professor Lazerson.
However, in addition to Professor Lazerson, there was also an unfamiliar man standing next to him.
The man noticed Lu Zhou walking toward him, and he reached out his right hand with a blank expression.
"Hello, Mr. Lu Zhou."
Professor Lazerson also noticed Lu Zhou, and he introduced his boss to him.
"This is the director of the PPPL laboratory, Professor Terry Brog."
Lu Zhou looked at the man in surprise. He shook his hand.
"Hello."
Lu Zhou had heard of Terry Brog before.
Last year, the former director of PPPL, Professor Stuart Prager, caused a US $438 million loss to the United States Department of Energy due to an NSTX-U equipment failure. Professor Prager voluntarily resigned, and Terry Brog "took over" the position of director of PPPL, as well as the director of fusion energy (FES), taking over the banner of the future of energy.
After he took over, the first thing he did was to clean up the mess left behind by his predecessor and strengthen the management of scientific research funding.
All the projects that didn't seem to be practical were cut. If the "He-3" project team didn't show enough potential, they would be the next target …
Lu Zhou vaguely guessed why this guy was here.
Professor Brog looked at Lu Zhou and cleared his throat.
He then spoke with a blank expression, "First of all, congratulations on reaching this step."
Lu Zhou: "Thank you."
"Don't thank me, I didn't help much. Also, what I'm going to say next isn't good news." Professor Brog paused for a second and said, "If this experiment fails again, I hope you can suspend the project. PPPL researchers aren't your private employees, we can't waste time on a project with no potential."
Lu Zhou frowned and said, "Even if I'm willing to pay for it?"
Professor Brog stared at Lu Zhou and said, "That's right."
The atmosphere between the two was a bit strange.
Professor Lazerson coughed and tried to mediate the situation. He then pulled Lu Zhou to the side.
Lu Zhou looked at Professor Lazerson and asked, "What is he trying to do?"
"Maybe …" Professor Lazerson hesitated for a second and said, "He's eyeing the US $4 million in the scientific research account …"
Even though Lu Zhou didn't want to speculate, it was obvious that this was the case.
"US $4 million?" Lu Zhou paused for a second, but his focus was different than Professor Lazerson's. He asked, "How come there's still US $4 million left?"
When Professor Lazerson heard this, he nearly choked.
US $4 million left?
Why do you sound like you're not happy?
"US $10 million is just a random price. In fact, we have a good relationship with the Brookhaven National Laboratory. They can't find a better buyer for the old equipment. Including the money in the original account, we only spent a little more than US $7 million … "
Professor Lazerson looked away as he said, "That's not the problem, it's the remaining funds in our scientific research account. You know, even though we seem to be living a comfortable life, controllable nuclear fusion is a technology that can't be commercialized in the short term. The Congressional Budget Committee has been giving us trouble … "
"What does this have to do with me?" Lu Zhou asked.
Professor Lazerson said in a serious manner, "Of course it has to do with us. If they cut our project, the funds can be transferred to other projects with more potential."
Lu Zhou paused for a second and couldn't help but curse in his heart.
"You can do that?"
"Who would have thought that you would transfer the money so quickly?" Professor Lazerson looked away and said, "If we signed an agreement and specified the use of the donation funds, the situation might have been more favorable for us … But there's no point in talking about this now, we just need to succeed."
No one could touch the "He-3" project's scientific research account, but they just had to cut the project itself. Even though this wasn't ethical, it was still part of the legal process.
However, just like Professor Lazerson said, there was no point in talking about this now.
If their project didn't produce any results, even without the US $4 million in research funds, Professor Brog would still find a way to cut the project.
After all, the PPPL had a lot of projects with more potential. They couldn't waste research resources on a project with no potential, even if they didn't have to pay for this project.
As the person in charge here, he had to look at the big picture.
Therefore, the "He-3" project team needed a victory to prove themselves!
…
After Lu Zhou arrived, after a short meeting, Professor Lazerson officially announced the start of the experiment.
Everyone was holding their breath as they worked at their respective posts.
They were afraid to disturb the plasma in the vacuum chamber and the helium-3 particles that were about to be emitted.
When everything was ready, Professor Lazerson didn't say anything. He just looked at Lu Zhou.
Lu Zhou didn't say anything either. He just gave Lu Zhou a thumbs up.
Professor Lazerson took a deep breath and pressed the button.
All of the work was done.
All that was left was …
All that was left was to pray.
The liquid helium that passed through the gate gradually soaked the wire. The conductor in the ultra-low temperature environment gradually approached the critical temperature of superconductivity.
The moment the magnetic track temperature reached the critical temperature of superconductivity, the current passing through the superconducting coil began to rise sharply, preparing for the helium-3 atoms to be emitted.
The moment the No. 1 signal light lit up, the speed of the helium-3 atoms was increased to the limit. At the same time, the "atomic gun" was loaded.
Everything was like a bullet being loaded, crisp and clean.
Professor Lazerson looked at Lu Zhou.
Lu Zhou nodded.
This time, he was the one doing it.
Lu Zhou took a deep breath and walked in front of the computer. He pressed the second button, which was also the last button.
It was like he pulled the trigger. The helium-3 atom suddenly moved out of the acceleration orbit and into the launch orbit tangent to the acceleration orbit.
There was no sound.
There was no phenomenon.
However, the moment the atomic gun emitted the helium-3 atom, the helium-3 atom was like a bullet. It carried a huge amount of energy and collided with the hot plasma.
The electromagnetic wave signal collected by the detector began to tremble.
Everything happened in the blink of an eye, but it felt as long as a century.
Lu Zhou, Professor Lazerson, and the other researchers in the laboratory, as well as the director of the PPPL laboratory, Professor Brog, all held their breaths for half a second.
At the same time, the helium-3 atomic nucleus that broke through the plasma quietly hit the target material …
The weak fluctuations were quickly captured by the probe behind the target material, and the impact data was fed back to the laboratory computer screen.
Time seemed to freeze at this second.
In the next second, the laboratory erupted in cheers.
Professor Lazerson threw his hat into the air and waved his fists in the air with excitement unbefitting of his age.
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