Lu Zhou looked at the old man's solemn expression and paused for a second. He then smiled and spoke.
"There's no need to thank me, I'm just doing what a scholar should do."
For him, studying difficult problems was a very interesting thing in and of itself.
It was like solving a math problem.
Whether it was the exploration and thinking about the unknown, or the refreshing feeling of finally walking out of the maze, all of this made him feel happy.
Regardless of what other people thought, this was what he thought.
And it had never changed.
Therefore, even if he didn't have the system mission to motivate him, he would still do his best to bring controllable fusion to this world.
However, without the pressure from the system, all of this probably wouldn't have happened so quickly …
The old man was moved, and he said emotionally, "It's an honor for our country to have a scholar like you!"
Lu Zhou said humbly, "You're being too kind. If it wasn't for the cooperation of others and the support of various departments, it would have been impossible for me to achieve such an achievement on my own. "
The old man smiled and didn't say anything.
Even though the Manhattan Project was the result of the joint efforts of thousands of people, no one would ignore Oppenheimer's importance.
After pausing for a second, he spoke.
"In any case, you're a hero to the Republic. If you have any requests, please be sure to tell me."
Lu Zhou thought for a second and smiled. "It's not so much a request, it's more of a suggestion."
The old man said in a serious manner, "Professor Lu, please go ahead."
Lu Zhou: "The breakthrough in controllable fusion technology will bring about productivity changes, but it will inevitably have an impact on the traditional energy industry. If we don't properly deal with these contradictions, these contradictions will likely become obstacles to social change."
The old man smiled and said, "Don't worry about this, Professor Lu, we don't have these kinds of problems."
Different from western countries.
In China, there was no such thing as an "energy giant".
Whether it was the Three Barrels Oil Company or the State Grid of China, even though they were nominally companies, in essence, they weren't capitalists.
At the end of the day, the socialist market economy did not completely serve the needs of capital.
In the face of a higher level of interest, there were only two paths to choose from. Either go with the flow of history, or be thrown under the wheels of history.
This included, and was not limited to capital.
When Lu Zhou heard the old man's words, he nodded.
Since he had already considered it, there was no need for him to say anything more.
How to balance the interests of all parties, how to properly arrange the workers in the coal and electricity industry, these topics belonged to the field of sociology and economics. He didn't really want to talk too much about it, and he believed that there were more experts in the Academy of Social Sciences who knew more about this than he did.
What he was interested in, and what he was responsible for, was only research.
Therefore, if the first question was just a casual question, then the second question was the real topic that he wanted to talk about.
Lu Zhou paused for a second and said, "The second thing is about controllable fusion itself."
The old man said in a serious manner, "Professor Lu, please go ahead."
Lu Zhou leaned against the soft pillow and stared at the ceiling of the ward. He organized his thoughts and slowly said, "Currently, the fuel for controllable fusion is deuterium and tritium. After solving the problem of self-sustaining tritium, controllable fusion technology has the foundation for commercial use. However, no matter how high the self-sustaining efficiency is, there will still inevitably be a loss of tritium.
"Therefore, there is a point of view in the academic community, which is to use deuterium and helium-3 as reactants for fusion reactions. Because the fusion of deuterium and helium-3 produces electrons instead of neutrons, the loss of reactor materials is lower, and more energy can be released. "
The old man couldn't keep up with Lu Zhou's thoughts, and he frowned. "Helium-3?"
Lu Zhou nodded and said, "If you don't understand, you can think of the DT fusion reactor that we are currently using as burning coal, and the helium-3 fusion as burning oil."
This could be said to be a relatively abstract metaphor.
Even though it wasn't rigorous academically, it was easy for ordinary people to understand.
The old man said, "The helium-3 fusion you are talking about, I'm afraid it won't be easy to achieve."
Lu Zhou smiled and said, "Of course."
The more charge the nucleus carried, the greater the Coulomb repulsion, and the greater the kinetic energy required for the nucleus to approach, which meant the reaction cross-section would be smaller.
According to theoretical calculations, the deuterium-tritium fusion reaction cross-section was dozens of times larger than the deuterium-3 fusion reaction cross-section. This meant that in order to achieve the Lawson's Criterion, the helium-3 fusion reaction might require a temperature of billions of degrees.
With the current technology, it was impossible to use helium-3 as a fusion reactor fuel.
Therefore, helium-3 fusion was widely regarded as an ideal second-generation fusion fuel.
The old man went silent for a while and said, "The cost of generating electricity from the DT fusion reactor is low enough, and it will be inexhaustible for hundreds of years. Is it necessary to develop this helium-3 resource now?"
Lu Zhou said, "I think it is."
The old man: "Oh?"
Lu Zhou said, "The helium-3 fusion reaction doesn't produce neutrons, so it's safer than the deuterium-tritium reaction. From an engineering point of view, this is the only way to achieve miniaturization and lightweight fusion reactors. On the other hand, the controllable fusion reactor has been ignited. Since the feasible technical route and solutions are known, the next country to master controllable fusion technology will be born in 20 years at the latest. "
This wasn't the pre-industrial era. In the information age, no technology could be kept secret forever.
Even if other people weren't as good as STAR2 in terms of control schemes and anti-radiation materials, they could at least come close. Just like the atomic bomb, the path of the latecomers was always smoother than the pioneers.
The way to maintain an advantage wasn't by locking the door, but by always being ahead of others.
The old man had a serious look on his face as he asked, "What is your suggestion?"
Lu Zhou said in a serious manner, "Restart the manned moon landing program."
Of course, just landing on the moon wasn't enough.
It would be best to build a permanent research station on the moon, or even an outpost for space colonization, or even a city …
The old man couldn't keep up with Lu Zhou's train of thought. He hesitated for a second before he smiled and said, "Why are you suddenly talking about space?"
Lu Zhou smiled and explained, "Helium-3 is extremely rare on Earth, and it's not suitable for industrial fuel. However, it's quite abundant on the moon. If we want to stay ahead of others forever, we must always be ahead of others. Whether it's in terms of technology or resources. "
The old man nodded thoughtfully.
Seeing that the old man seemed to understand what he was trying to say, Lu Zhou struck while the iron was hot and continued to speak.
"The energy problem has been solved. We've already obtained the ticket to the space age ten or even twenty years ahead of time. Now that the new continent is right in front of us, we're closer to it than anyone else. It would be a pity if we didn't touch it. " Lu Zhou smiled and said, "Our current interests are important, but on this basis, we should also look into the distant future."
"It's right above us. Sooner or later, it will become the Persian Gulf of the new century. Not just energy, but also an inexhaustible supply of minerals. From the Earth-Moon system to a more distant galaxy, it will become our springboard to the universe. Whoever controls that place will have control over the entire galaxy and the future in their hands! "
Compared to international politics and financial markets, as a scholar, Lu Zhou was naturally more concerned about the distant future.
Even though the blueprint in his mind might not be realized in this era, this didn't prevent him from doing something about it.
He believed that one day, he would be able to see it.
Even if he couldn't see it, someone else would see it for him.
The old man seemed to be touched. He looked at Lu Zhou and said in a serious manner, "We will seriously consider your proposal."
He looked at his watch and saw that it was almost time. He stood up from the stool.
The old man suddenly remembered something. He changed into a casual tone and smiled to ease the atmosphere. "Originally, I came to visit the patient, but I didn't expect to talk to the patient for an hour about national affairs. Speaking of which, Professor Lu, are you not going to think about yourself? "
Lu Zhou: "Myself?"
Old man: "Yes."
From the beginning, he asked Lu Zhou if there was anything he wanted.
As long as it was within his capabilities, he would find a way to fulfill his wishes.
However, the young man in front of him once again exceeded his expectations.
Lu Zhou stared at the ceiling for a while and smiled. "This question is too difficult, I really don't have any special needs … In fact, I don't lack anything in my life. If there's anything I wish for, other than the research itself, it's probably to see the results of my own research put to good use. "
With a slightly moved expression, the old man solemnly promised, "Regarding this, I can guarantee you."
Lu Zhou smiled and said, "Okay, then I'm relieved."
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