Chapter 500: 4 Billion Yuan Well Spent?
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
[WEGA Transforms Into STAR, Is This 4 Billion Yuan Well Spent?]
This t.i.tle was meant to stir up public discussion, while the article body used three paragraphs to objectively portray a simple narrative of the past and present of the STAR Stellarator.
However, this so-called objective narrative was only five hundred words.
And even the five hundred words were only used to merely pave the way for their biased opinion.
Lu Zhou saw this and raised his eyebrows with interest. He couldn’t help but wonder what Academician Zhou planned on doing; therefore, he continued to read the article.
He quickly realized the intention of the article.
Simply speaking, this scientific article had two main intentions.
The first was to pour cold water on this burning fire. They explained the 1-second plasma confinement time from a simple scientific standpoint, saying how it wasn’t anything novel in the controllable nuclear fusion field.
Then, it subtly pointed out the work done by the STAR project team so far, saying how all they did was spend 4 billion yuan to buy a “second-hand machine” from someone else.
As for the central idea of the article, other than criticizing the technical route of STAR Stellarator, they also said that he was “trying to impress people”, “wasting our country’s resources”, and “affecting the development of controllable nuclear fusion”.
Lu Zhou could probably guess why Academician Zhou was doing this.
It was nothing more than trying to defeat Lu Zhou before his wings were fully grown.
After all, the country’s investment into the controllable nuclear fusion field was limited. If Lu Zhou received more resources, then naturally, he would receive less.
Did this article have any impact?
It actually had a little.
A commentary article signed by a big name had a certain amount of influence in the higher-ups’ decision-making process.
Furthermore, this article wasn’t a normal article.
This was written by Zhou Chengfu himself, the head of the ITER China project team as well as the director of the China International Nuclear Fusion Energy Program Execution Center.
If this article were targeting some no-name scholar, they would be killed just by the influence of this review article alone.
As for Lu Zhou…
It did have a certain amount of impact, but it was limited.
This was the power and aura of a n.o.bel Prize winner.
But then again, average scholars weren’t worthy of being personally attacked by Zhou Chengfu.
“Nicely written.” Lu Zhou chuckled and turned over the newspaper.
Seeing that Lu Zhou wasn’t angry and casually dismissed this matter, Sheng Xianfu couldn’t help but ask, “Aren’t you angry?”
Whether it was Professor Li Changxia, or Professor Sheng Xianfu, or the others, the technical backbone of the STAR project team comprised of middle-aged scholars who were in their thirties. They often weren’t able to hold back their anger.
After all, if they could manage their anger and understand the philosophy of playing safe, they wouldn’t have come work for Lu Zhou.
Lu Zhou knew he was going to ask this, and he smiled as he replied nonchalantly, “Do you see Academician Pan getting angry?”
“I don’t know… But how can we just leave it like this?” Sheng Xianfu asked, feeling unjust.
“What else are we going to do? Write a scientific review and criticize the tokamak? Offending most of the controllable nuclear fusion experts?” Lu Zhou threw the newspaper aside and said, “Why am I still doing research then, why don’t I just become a reporter for the newspaper…”
Actually, if he really wanted to, he could write an article.
If any unresolved technical problem was a flaw, then every technical route had flaws.
For example, the tokamak was an external magnetic field coupled with the magnetic field generated by the plasma current, which was equivalent to running tens of millions of amps on an unstable, turbulent conductor.
Serious problems such as twisting, magnetic tearing, and magnetic reconnection could all lead to the collapse of the entire system. And the consequences could be far more dangerous than the stellarator; it could cause serious damage to the equipment.
This was one of the reasons why every tokamak experiment was done cautiously and carefully.
Actually, Lu Zhou sometimes wondered if there were any new ideas that could jump out at him. He wondered why mathematics was so easy to deal with compared to this. After all, he solved the existence of a smooth Navier–Stokes equation and the plasma turbulence problems. If only he could also solve the twisting, magnetic tearing, and magnetic reconnection problems for everyone.
But then again, even Old Zhou wouldn’t use this kind of ridiculous argument to attack his opponent.
He noticed that Sheng Xianfu looked like he didn’t want to take this loss, so Lu Zhou spoke slowly.
“Facts speak louder than words, and our result is the biggest counterattack.
“Right now, your job is to prepare for the experiment in August.
“Next time, we will aim for thirty minutes.”
After hearing thirty minutes, Sheng Xianfu’s facial expression changed; he looked a bit reluctant.
“Thirty minutes… Isn’t it a bit too difficult for STAR Stellarator?”
Even with the upgraded water-cooled divertor and improved control scheme, the Wendelstein 7-X was barely able to reach this number.
Lu Zhou smiled and said, “Scared?”
Sheng Xianfu looked at Lu Zhou’s confident expression and paused for a second.
He went silent for a while before a smirk gradually appeared on his face and reignited his fighting spirit.
“… No way, I’m not scared of anything.”
…
There had always been a power hierarchy problem in academia.
There were some people at the top of the academic hierarchy that didn’t talk about specific academic problems. Instead, they incorporated the issue of morality, race, and even politics into academic problems. They also took advantage of the general public’s knowledge gaps and tried to incite their sense of justice and nationalism to attack their opponents. This was one of the common tactics used by tyrants in academia.
Even the international big names like Old Qiu had been screwed by the Chinese academic community.
These people didn’t reason, didn’t disprove. They only selectively chose facts that were beneficial to them and exaggerated them.
Zhou Chengfu was definitely an expert in using this tactic.
Even if Lu Zhou wanted to respond to this article, it would be difficult.
However, Lu Zhou actually didn’t have to do that.
Because the end result was always the best counterargument.
He never really cared about what Zhou Chengfu said.
Of course, even though he didn’t care, there were many people that cared for him.
Like Academician Pan.
Even though the old academician was retired, he had been paying attention to the things that were happening in the industry.
After he read that article signed by Zhou Chengfu, his first reaction was to call Lu Zhou. He tried to persuade Lu Zhou not to do anything out of anger. If Lu Zhou acted impulsively, he might fall into Zhou Chengfu’s trap.
Lu Zhou obviously already knew this; therefore, he told Academician Pan not to worry.
Lu Zhou knew exactly what to do and what not to do.
Other than Academician Pan, there was also the princ.i.p.al of Jin Ling University, Princ.i.p.al Xu.
Princ.i.p.al Xu’s temper was not nearly as nice as that of Academician Pan’s.
The STAR project was one of the key projects for Jin Ling University. Furthermore, Lu Zhou was the pride of Jin Ling University. Old Pan had a history with Zhou Chengfu, but Princ.i.p.al Xu was having none of this.
Lu Zhou found Princ.i.p.al Xu. He was about to discuss the control scheme of the stellarator with him when Princ.i.p.al Xu spoke first.
“What is with this Zhou Chengfu guy?”