Lu Zhou's speech was beyond Academician Wu's expectations.
In his previous meeting with Ambassador Zhang, Lu Zhou revealed that he planned on talking about the new energy field.
However, no one thought too much about it. They thought he planned on talking about the future development of lithium-sulfur battery technology, as well as the support he needed from the state.
Because of this, Wu Shigang was invited to be the consultant for this meeting, the so-called "academic translator".
However, nuclear fusion was a systematic scientific research project …
There was no doubt that this was beyond his field of expertise.
Academician Wu noticed that the old man was looking at him, so he hesitated for a second and looked at Lu Zhou with a serious expression.
"Can you explain in detail?"
Lu Zhou nodded and said, "All energy sources on Earth, whether it is fossil fuels, wind energy, or water potential energy … They all come from the sun, and the sun's energy comes from fusion.
"Like I said earlier, from the perspective of technology and the experience of multiple industrial revolutions, the key to liberating all productivity and production factors is ultimately energy.
"If we can master the energy of fusion, it means that we control the sun and the future!"
The room was silent for a minute.
Lu Zhou also quietly waited for a minute.
He believed that the people sitting here had already heard no less than a hundred passionate speeches and had learned enough lessons from them.
However, he also believed in the importance of the Nobel Prize itself, as well as the energy of controllable nuclear fusion.
It was cleaner than fission power generation, and it consumed a wider range of raw materials.
One liter of seawater contained a mass of 0.03 grams of deuterium. Through nuclear fusion, it could provide energy equivalent to the complete combustion of 300 liters of gasoline.
Earth was extremely rich in deuterium; there were more than 45 trillion tons of deuterium in seawater alone. It was almost inexhaustible. As for the expensive tritium, it could be solved by the "tritium retention" method.
If one mastered controllable nuclear fusion technology, all of the energy problems faced by modern industry would no longer be a problem.
What did it mean once the energy problem was solved?
It meant that as long as one wanted to, even in a barren desert, one could build a high-rise reinforced concrete building. Even at the bottom of the sea where the sun never shines, you can still spread out a vast and boundless farmland … at least in theory.
Because at that time …
Electricity was no longer valuable …
Of course, only Lu Zhou could see these things, or rather, he believed that he could see them.
Compared to these fantasies that had not yet been realized, the things that leaders needed to consider were more realistic.
Academician Wu thought for a long time and looked at the old man. He then looked at Lu Zhou and spoke.
"The controllable nuclear fusion project has been around for a long time, but there hasn't been any significant progress. In fact, our country has already played a very important role in the ITER project. We know the value of this technology, and we are willing to invest more in it. But the most important question was, how confident were you? And whether it's worth it. "
Lu Zhou shook his head and said, "Unless it's a technology that has already been implemented, no technology can be guaranteed to work before the experiment begins. Science itself was trial and error. This was true for any field of science. You're an academician, so you should understand. "
"But the cost of trial and error in controllable nuclear fusion technology is probably a bit high."
When he said this, Wu Shigang felt his palms sweating.
Whether it was because of the shocking topic itself or the appetite of the young man in front of her.
At the very least, it was a project worth hundreds of millions of yuan.
At the very least, there was no limit to it.
Before it was actually built, apart from the visible black hole of funding, no one knew how much money it would cost …
Lu Zhou didn't hide anything from Academician Wu. He nodded.
"That's right, it's expensive, but it's worth it."
Perhaps he thought about it carefully, or maybe he was moved by Lu Zhou's last sentence.
The old man thought for half a minute and slowly said, "What kind of support do you need?"
Lu Zhou said in a positive tone, "Funding, people, and the cooperation of the relevant departments."
The old man nodded. He didn't even ask for a specific number; he only replied with three words.
"No problem."
…
While the conversation was going on in the courtyard, Academician Pan Changhong, who was at the Southwest Institute of Physics, was hosting an important work conference.
The core issue of the conference was the breakthrough in plasma confinement time achieved by the Wendelstein 7-X a month ago.
The person giving the report at the conference was Professor Sheng Xianfu, who just returned from an exchange visit in Germany. In his report, he mentioned the problems with the water-cooled divertor of the stellarator. He mentioned how the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics solved this problem, and he also mentioned Lu Zhou's thesis.
"In the stellarator research, Professor Lu's calculations played a vital role, and this is reflected in the updated control scheme of the Wendelstein 7-X Research Institute …"
In his PowerPoint, Professor Sheng showed the relevant technical details and quickly went through the data on the pictures.
In the end, he put his hands on the table and spoke in a positive tone.
"We have to pay attention to this problem. We started researching the stellarator too late, but if we don't pay attention, we will continue to be late. "
At this time, one of the researchers raised an objection.
"However, even then, the tokamak is more simple in engineering, and it is still the mainstream of international nuclear fusion research."
Professor Sheng nodded his head and argued with reason.
"I know that the tokamak is still mainstream, but that doesn't mean it is necessarily correct. Before this technology is born, all possibilities should be considered! "
Suddenly, another researcher raised his own opinion.
"The technical difficulty of the tokamak is in the plasma confinement, right? Why don't we ask Professor Lu to help us design a control scheme? "
Professor Sheng shook his head and said, "The tokamak's plasma confinement difficulty is more than one order of magnitude higher than the stellarator. Even if such a control scheme exists in theory, it is difficult to find the matching hardware to run it. "
The researcher said, "How do you know it won't work if you don't let him try?"
Professor Sheng was annoyed. "Then why don't you write him a letter?"
The researcher was speechless. He smiled and didn't say anything else.
He didn't want a Nobel Prize winner to do something for him.
Because of time constraints, the conference went into intermission.
Academician Pan walked into the hallway and recalled what Professor Sheng said in his report. He then lit a cigarette.
"I have a feeling that the tokamak might not work."
Compared to the media cheering for the results of the EAST system, Academician Pan, who was actually working in this field, was much more cautious.
This was because there were many things that might seem exciting to the layman, but to the experts, they couldn't even be considered as in-progress results.
Professor Zheng Gaoming stood next to Academician Pan and asked, "Why do you say that?"
"There's no special reason." Academician Pan shook his head and flicked the cigarette between his fingers. He then said, "It's just an intuition."
Suddenly, his phone in his pocket began to ring.
Academician Pan put out his cigarette and took out his phone. He then put it next to his ear.
"Hello?"
Academician Pan listened for a while and didn't say anything. He only nodded his head in the end.
"Okay, I got it."
Zheng Gaoming observed Academician Pan's expression and couldn't figure it out. He couldn't help but ask.
"… What?"
Academician Pan put his phone back in his pocket and looked at Professor Zheng.
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