Beijing.
A mysterious place on the First Ring Road.
Director Lu stood in front of the office door and took a deep breath. He reached out and gently knocked on the door.
When he heard someone say "come in", he pushed open the door and walked in. He then spoke respectfully.
"You were looking for me?"
The old man looked at the head of the Energy Bureau standing in front of the office door. He smiled and spoke.
"I have a letter here, take a look."
Without hesitation, Director Lu walked up and picked up the letter from the table.
When he saw the title, he thought to himself, "I knew it."
There were only a few people in the country who could send a letter directly to this place.
Just like he expected, this letter was related to the incident in Jinling.
[Dear … Sir.
I'm sure you've heard that in the latest experiment at the STAR research institute, our researchers have successfully achieved a magnetic confinement time of more than 60 minutes.
This research result allows me to foresee that in the near future, deuterium resources will become a new and important energy source for us to use. This energy source is more efficient, cleaner, and closer to the "essence" than any energy source we are familiar with.
In theory, 1 kilogram of deuterium-tritium mixture can release 108 million kilowatt-hours of energy. Based on the conversion ratio of 35%, it can produce 37.8 million kilowatt-hours of electricity.
Based on this estimate, only 167 tons of deuterium-tritium mixture would be enough to meet China's annual demand.
Ignoring tritium, which can be used as an intermediate product, deuterium, which is the main consumption, costs less than 4,000 yuan per kilogram. Also, with the expansion of the production scale, there is a lot of room to reduce this cost.
Based on these obvious data, we can see through simple calculations that the cost of nuclear fusion power generation will be less than one-thousandth of the cost of traditional thermal power.
The birth of this energy source will completely change the energy structure of modern society. It will also completely change the production and lifestyle of our society … and even everything we are familiar with.
As a scholar, I have the obligation to remind you that we are standing at the turning point of the times, and the door to a new era is right in front of us.
Of course, the price of opening this door is bound to be high.
As for whether or not to open it, the decision is up to you.
…
】
The letter didn't end there. There was also a timeline for the commercialization of controllable fusion technology, as well as the expected goals of the DEMO demonstration reactor, as well as a budget.
After reading the first page, Director Lu's eyebrows twitched.
The entire letter was filled with euphemisms about how good the prospects of fusion energy were and how important it was. However, from the slanted words, he could only see the word "send money".
He flipped to the next page. It was a proposal for the DEMO demonstration reactor.
It listed in detail Professor Lu's estimated parameters for the various components of the DEMO device, as well as the performance expectations of the completed DEMO device.
[Project objective: Complete the construction of the DEMO demonstration reactor before 2025.]
[Assessment criteria: The radiofrequency negative ion source prototype has a radiofrequency plasma uniformity higher than 95% under multiple drives, the negative ion extraction current density is not less than, the beam intensity is greater than 20A, the negative ion beam energy reaches 200 keV, the stable beam duration reaches 60 minutes …]
Although he had interacted with Lu Zhou a few times before, he didn't know that Professor Lu was also involved in engineering. This proposal was quite decent.
He read the proposal from the beginning to the end.
The more he read, the more serious his expression became.
Director Lu put down the letter in his hand and shook his head with a headache.
"43 billion yuan … This Professor Lu really knows how to spend money."
And it wasn't just about money.
Especially the part about "this reactor can meet the electricity demand of the entire Jiangsu province". It sounded like a bunch of bullsh * t, and it was the kind of bullsh * t that made sense.
The annual electricity consumption of the Jiangsu province was 580.79 billion kilowatt hours, which was second only to the 595.89 billion kilowatt hours in Guangdong province!
Even if this power station operated 24 hours a day, it would require at least 66300 MW of power to produce 580.79 billion kilowatt hours in a year!
What did 66300 MW of power mean?
The total installed capacity of the Three Gorges Dam was only 22000 MW, and the six Daya Bay units added up to about 6000 MW.
In other words, the power of one fusion reactor was equivalent to three Three Gorges Dams at full power? Eleven Daya Bay nuclear power plants?
What kind of f * cking monster is this?
Director Lu's rationality told him that this was bullsh * t.
If someone else had placed this proposal on his desk, he would have thrown it at their face without saying a word.
However …
After all, this was bullsh * t from Professor Lu.
It was quite tempting …
The old man looked at Director Lu and smiled. He then asked, "What do you think? How do you feel after reading it? "
"The proposal is very imaginative, I don't know why he's so confident, but …" Director Lu knew that the old man wasn't asking for his opinion. He hesitated for a second and carefully said, "I admit that what he said is what we need!"
China was a large energy consumer. Their annual consumption of coal and oil was in the hundreds of millions of tons. Especially the total amount of coal consumed, which accounted for almost half of the world's total coal consumption!
If what Professor Lu said in the letter was true, only 167 tons of deuterium-tritium mixture would be enough to meet China's annual electricity demand, then with the widespread application of fusion energy, China's future energy expenditure would be less than a fraction of its current expenditure!
Also, not only was the economic value and political significance behind it attractive, but it was also its cleanliness.
From the subsidies for the new energy industry to the "Renewable Electricity Quota Assessment Measures", the country's determination to develop clean energy was unquestionable.
Otherwise, the words "energy conservation and emission reduction" wouldn't be repeatedly mentioned at every conference.
This kind of efficient, cheap, abundant, and pollution-free energy could solve all of China's "sustainable development strategies" once and for all.
If all of this could be achieved, China would develop this technology at all costs.
"It's a bit imaginative." The old man nodded and paused for a second. He then said, "But I think it's worth a try."
Hearing this, Director Lu's expression changed slightly, and he immediately said respectfully.
"I got it."
Even though he still had some doubts about the contents of the letter, his doubts weren't important anymore.
It was impossible for one person to make a decision on a project worth more than 40 billion RMB casually. Now that Director Lu was speaking so casually, it was obvious that his proposal had been unanimously approved by the Senate.
Since even the higher-ups had unanimously agreed, there was only one thing he needed to do now.
Which was to draw up a plan to meet all of the conditions proposed by Professor Lu. He had to do everything possible to ensure that the "DEMO demonstration reactor" project could be launched as soon as possible!
The old man sitting behind the desk suddenly thought of something.
"Oh yeah, how is the International Nuclear Fusion Energy Program Execution Center going?"
Director Lu replied honestly, "Looking at the timetable, they plan to start building the demonstration reactor in 2025 … But the conditions aren't ready yet. It looks like we'll have to postpone it. "
The old man shook his head and said, "It's too slow."
It was fine if there wasn't a comparison.
With this comparison, the disparity between them was obvious.
Director Lu: "You can't rush scientific research."
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