Chapter 520: The Fewer Words There Are, the More Information There Is
Beijing.
Even though it was late at night, the China National Nuclear Corporation building was still brightly lit.
Su Yiwen received a call for a conference even though he had already left work and was already laying in bed. He climbed out of bed, put on some clothes, then drove to the corporation building.
Su Yiwen yawned while sitting in the conference room. He looked at Section Chief Zhang, who was sitting next to him, and he couldn’t help but speak, “What the h.e.l.l is going on, why are we having a meeting so late?”
“I don’t know.” Zhang Xueqian shook his head. He thought about something and said, “I just heard that it has something to do with the recent stellarator experiment at Jinling.”
A week ago, very few people would know what a stellarator was. Even if they were familiar with the word, they would not be able to precisely explain what it was.
But now, anyone that looked at the news broadcasts or saw the trending pages online would know about the shocking one hour run-time of the STAR machine.
After all, this was the research result that shocked the entire plasma physics community.
However…
What did this have to do with the China National Nuclear Corporation?
“Stellarator?” Su Yiwen stared at his boss and said with a strange expression, “Aren’t the Chinese Academy of Sciences researching that thing? What does it have to do with us?”
Old Zhang glanced at him and said, “You’re asking me, who do I ask?”
They didn’t wait for long before the conference began.
While chatting with Old Zhang, Su Yiwen learned that this conference was personally hosted by the CEO of the corporation. Not only did the department level leaders receive notice of the conference, but high-level engineers and senior researchers from various city-level research inst.i.tutes also received a notice for the conference, and almost all of them were coming.
Even though Su Yiwen didn’t know what the CEO planned to speak about at the meeting, looking at the dozen or so Academy of Sciences academicians and the Academy of Engineering academicians sitting in the front row of the conference room, Su Yiwen put on a serious att.i.tude.
Normally speaking, these big names wouldn’t attend the same meetings as them, and even if they did, only a few of them would come.
But now, all of these big names were sitting here.
Obviously, important things were about to be discussed at this conference.
Soon, a dignified looking man walked on stage.
Xu Jianfeng cleared his throat and reached out for the microphone. He didn’t waste time on his opening statement, and he spoke in a simple and concise manner.
“My apologies for hosting a meeting at this hour. You’ve all worked hard during the day, so I know it’s not easy for you all to be here.
“The things I am about to say are very important, and I hope everyone will carefully listen to every word and take notes.
“There are a lot of things that I have to say, but I’ll try to keep it short.”
CEO Xu paused for a second and spoke in a more serious tone.
“I’m sure everyone has heard that a week ago, there has been a huge breakthrough in the controllable nuclear fusion field. Professor Lu Zhou’s research team was able to achieve a one-hour high-density plasma confinement time.
“I’m glad to see our country is at the forefront of controllable fusion technology.
“Our country is a major energy consumer, and we have an urgent need for sustainable energy. Two hours ago, the Communist Party of China issued an administrative doc.u.ment to relative government departments, which outlined a plan and implementation guideline for a controllable nuclear fusion demonstration reactor.
“The main contractor for this project is the China National Nuclear Corporation!”
There was a commotion in the crowd.
Some people’s eyes lit up with excitement.
Other people shook their heads, looking worried and anxious.
The vast majority of people looked bewildered.
Controllable nuclear fusion…
For most people, this was something that they would only see in science fiction movies.
Even just yesterday, a lot of them were discussing designs for the next-generation nuclear fission power plants and the future prospects for nuclear fission development.
However, within a day, their designs seemed to have been tossed into the garbage bin.
Xu Jianfeng, who was standing on stage, didn’t care about the commotion. He knew in his mind that it wasn’t easy for them to digest this information.
He said in a clear and sonorous voice, “Designing, preparing, building… This is the government’s instructions.
“As the leading corporation in China’s nuclear power, we are responsible and obligated to follow the national energy development strategy and stand at the front line of new energy development!
“From now on, the research project for the fourth-generation nuclear fission technology will be suspended. The controllable nuclear fusion project will be the main project for our group and will be executed with the highest priority!
“I know there are many difficulties yet to be solved, but I believe in you, and I believe that we can overcome those difficulties!”
There was a thunderous applause in the conference room.
Xu Jianfeng instructed everyone to be quiet. He gently sorted his doc.u.ments on the multimedia desk and said in a steady voice, “Our corporation will work closely with the STAR Stellarator Research Inst.i.tute. At the same time, we will a.s.semble a small team of experts that would be based in Jinling, and we’ll also cooperate with the research team at STAR Stellarator Research Inst.i.tute.
“I have a list of names here. I will name everyone that will report to Jinling tomorrow.
“I hope everyone who is named will follow the higher-ups’ orders. If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask me.”
This indicated that the conference was about to be over.
The only thing left to do was to announce the names of those who would be part of the Jinling team.
Controllable nuclear fusion…
Su Yiwen looked at the list of names in the CEO’s hand and felt his heart warming up.
Why do I feel like…
I might have the opportunity to witness history.
…
The government’s response was much faster than what Lu Zhou had antic.i.p.ated.
Three days after he sent out that letter, he received a response from the president.
There were only two words.
[No problem.]
There was a saying—”the fewer words there are, the more information there is.”
Lu Zhou fully experienced this after he received the letter.
The first to arrive was the 43 billion yuan research funding.
His nearly empty research fund was once again filled with cash.
It wasn’t just research funding, the relevant government policy support also came along.
After the Communist Party of China released the administrative doc.u.ments to the relevant departments, the controllable fusion demonstration reactor didn’t encounter any barriers. Instead, it was launched at an extraordinary speed.
After consulting Lu Zhou’s opinion, this fusion machine would be called the “STAR-2”.
The main responsible party for this was obviously the STAR Stellarator Research Inst.i.tute, and the main contractor was the China National Nuclear Corporation, a leading enterprise in China’s nuclear energy field.
From developing and designing nuclear power technology to the design of nuclear power plants, not to mention the production and supply of nuclear fuel, this state-funded enterprise was directly managed by the Communist Party of China, and they had a lot of experience in nuclear-related projects.
There were a lot of small cooperating parties, such as Sinopec Group, State Grid Corporation of China, and other state-owned or state-funded enterprises. In total, there were more than a hundred parties that were involved in this project.
Some of them were giving research funds, some were giving research talents, the others gave both.
In short, all of the issues outside of research were solved by these state departments.
All Lu Zhou had to worry about was how to implement this ma.s.sive engineering project…