Beijing.
Chang 'an Avenue.
After a morning meeting, the CEO of China Petroleum, Wang Yongping, walked out of the conference room. He looked at the meeting notes in his hand and had a complicated expression on his face.
Since the beginning of the month, the higher-ups had made a series of adjustments to the energy development strategy. In the previous meeting, they made detailed deployment plans for the next five years for several domestic energy companies.
As for the content of the meeting …
It wasn't a good thing for China Petroleum.
First of all, the upper limit of overseas investment was reduced by about US $130 billion. Second, the signed contracts remained unchanged, and the expansion of overseas oil and gas fields would be stopped within three years.
Not only that, but there were also a series of hard targets such as "50,000 charging stations in two years" and "at least four charging stations at every gas station along the highway".
Looking at all these signs, it seemed like the country was determined to remove fuel from civilian oil products.
In fact, it wasn't that he couldn't understand the decision made by the higher-ups. After all, the amount of foreign exchange reserves China consumed every year on energy imports was astonishing.
However, understanding was one thing. It would be a lie to say that he didn't feel any pain in his heart.
Especially when it came to overseas investment, which was the most profitable area.
After such a stab, he more or less felt some pain in his flesh.
However, they weren't the most miserable.
At least compared to the coal companies that were defeated, they were considered lucky.
Not to mention anything else, just the understatement of cutting down on production capacity would make many people stroke their hair off.
Especially the placement of laid-off employees, the local finance of several coal-producing provinces …
Wang Yongping was just thinking about these problems for them, and he felt his scalp tingle.
Other than that, it wasn't just the energy mining companies, the two major power grids and the five major power groups were also assigned their respective tasks.
Especially for the total installed capacity of fusion reactors and the adjustment plan for industrial and residential electricity prices, there were clear regulations.
However, compared to the price they paid, the power companies still received a lot of benefits from this meeting.
Especially the cross-regional power transmission projects to Laos and Myanmar.
If this project was completed, not only would it make money, but it would also be a political achievement …
Exporting energy to neighboring countries meant that the country would have a stronger say in the region.
Wang Yongping admitted that he was jealous.
This was like sitting at home, and the credit automatically fell to one's head.
But there was nothing he could do. Who wanted his luck to be so good?
…
With the breakthrough of controllable fusion technology, both domestic and foreign political situations would usher in a new round of productivity changes.
Among them, there were naturally people who rejoiced and people who were worried.
However, the fate of an individual was often insignificant in the changes of the times.
Just like how the tide of history could not be reversed, nothing could stop it from moving forward.
In such an environment, the entire year 2020 would not be peaceful.
However, compared to the busy "actors" on the stage, Lu Zhou himself, who had opened the curtains to this new era, was much more relaxed.
He even had time to drop by the TV station next door.
The day before the New Year, at the studio of the Light of Science program, the audience was packed.
Lu Zhou walked into the studio amidst the applause. He walked onto the stage and waved at them with a smile. He then sat on the sofa that was prepared for him in advance.
While sitting on the sofa, Lu Zhou briefly looked at the audience.
The faces of the audience were relatively young. Most of them looked like students from local universities, and some were from nearby high schools or even middle schools.
When everyone saw Lu Zhou, they looked very excited, and the applause from the audience was quite enthusiastic.
The only thing they didn't know was whether or not these people were extras hired by the TV station …
Emmmm …
I'll just pretend they're not.
The host, He Ying, was sitting across from Lu Zhou. She looked at Lu Zhou and smiled.
"Professor Lu, are you feeling better?"
Lu Zhou smiled and nodded. "I'm pretty much recovered, otherwise, I wouldn't be sitting here."
Friendly laughter came from the audience.
Just like what was planned, the camera hanging above the studio gave a few close-up shots of the audience's expressions.
The publicity department wanted him to use this program to send a signal to the public and the international community that his health was improving.
Even though Lu Zhou wasn't sure if there were any objections, he still gladly agreed to their request.
After all, his body was pretty much recovered.
He felt a little bad that so many people were worried about his health.
After some small talk, He Ying smiled at Lu Zhou and said, "Before the program begins, I want to ask you a few questions on behalf of our audience."
Lu Zhou crossed his fingers on his knees and leaned against the sofa. He smiled and said, "Go ahead, as long as I can answer, I'll tell you everything."
"Don't worry, Professor Lu, it's going to be easy for you." He Ying flipped through the card in her hand and said, "The first question is from a netizen from Jiangsu.
"He expressed concern that the heat pollution caused by controllable fusion may exacerbate global warming. Professor Lu, what do you think about this?"
There are people who know about heat pollution?
Lu Zhou raised his eyebrows with interest. There was a hint of surprise on his face.
It seems like this year's audience is pretty good.
At least they didn't ask questions like "will the explosion of a fusion reactor be more powerful than a fission reactor?"
Lu Zhou leaned back on the sofa and thought for a moment. He smiled and said, "Global warming is a systematic topic. Let's not discuss the possibility mentioned by this friend for now. Let's think about it from a scientific point of view."
He Ying: "Scientific perspective?"
Lu Zhou: "That's right. Middle school physics probably mentions that when we study a moving object, the first thing we have to do is choose a suitable reference system. Then we have to study the relative motion of the object to the reference system."
"For example, when we discuss a sprinter's speed, we will not discuss the size or frequency of his steps, nor will we discuss the speed of his arms. Instead, we will consider the sprinter as a whole, using the track or something else as a frame of reference to discuss his displacement and time relative to the track at the same time."
"For a large system, like the Earth. When we study it, we can't just study a single sample of the system in isolation. Instead, we should discuss it from an equivalent spatial scale and time scale.
"Singling out controllable fusion and placing it on the same level as the Earth's environment is contrary to scientific thinking."
"Because whether it is thermal power or nuclear power, they are only ways to generate electricity. What determines the total calorific value of a society isn't the way to generate electricity, it's the demand. "
He Ying: "Demand?"
Lu Zhou nodded and said, "That's right."
To a certain extent, controllable fusion would accelerate the development of productivity, but would it stop development without nuclear fusion? That was obviously impossible.
As long as there was a demand for development, over time, civilization would eventually develop to that point. It would just take a longer time and pay a heavier price along the way.
Lu Zhou looked at the confused expressions on the audience's faces. He guessed that they probably didn't understand, so he spoke in a more understandable way.
"On a short time scale, controllable fusion technology is conducive to mitigating global warming. The median energy conversion efficiency of traditional thermal power technology is about 35%, which means that to produce one unit of electricity, we need to burn coal to release a total of 2.85 tons of heat, and the corresponding release of carbon dioxide and other sulfur-containing gases. "
"But controllable fusion doesn't have this problem. According to the ferrofluid electric energy generator on the STAR-2 demonstration reactor, the theoretical energy conversion efficiency can reach 50%, and there is room for further improvement. Based on the 50% figure, for one unit of electricity, we only need to release two units of total heat, and there are no greenhouse gas emissions.
"China is a major energy consumer. Our annual coal consumption accounts for half of the world's total energy consumption. If we make a change in carbon emissions, the entire world will change because of us. "
On a longer time scale, not only did they have to consider human behavior, but they also had to consider other factors.
For example, the cycle of solar activity.
In the middle of the 21st century, there was a high probability that solar activity would enter the Maunder minimum, and the heat reaching Earth would be 0.3% less than the maximum.
What did 0.3% mean?
According to Mr. Zhu Kezhen's "History of the Meteorology of Hua Nation", the four Little Ice Ages in history happened to be the special period when the Yin and Zhou Dynasties took over, the end of the Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms, the end of the Tang Dynasty and the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty took place. Take the end of the Ming Dynasty as an example. According to historical records, in the winter of the seventh year of Emperor Wuzong of the Ming Dynasty, Dongting Lake was frozen, and the Yangtze River was frozen.
Compared to solar activity, the heat released by human activities was on a completely different level.
At least for now, there was still a long way to go.
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