Chapter 470 Buy One and Bring It Back

The high-level executives held meetings for several days, and during these few days, Lu Zhou was not idle. Under the recommendation of Academician Pan, he met many domestic scholars who are engaged in the research of controllable nuclear fusion.

Strictly speaking, domestic colleges and universities do not have a major in controllable nuclear fusion.

Big cows engaged in research in this field, most of the professors in the field of plasma physics, or engineers in nuclear engineering.

The situation in China is different from that of Princeton, and the research on stellarator is basically blank. When Lu Zhou was at the PPPL Research Institute, he wanted to pull out a research team, which he could do easily.

However, now, he can only rely on Academician Pan's contacts in this field to find talents.

Of course, in addition to talent, there is a more critical issue that must be resolved.

Now that the rice is available and the chef has prepared it, the only thing missing is a pot for cooking.

After handing over a completed list to Lu Zhou, Academician Pan said, "You plan to do stellarator research, but we don't have enough manpower and funds, so we need to build a stellarator first. This problem is more critical than what you said, how do you plan to solve it?"

There are only eight stellarators in operation in the world, including the H1-Heliac obtained from Australia by Nanhua University. As for the legendary "first quasi-circular symmetric stellarator" jointly built by Huaguo and Japan, the agreement was just signed last year, and it will take a few years for the project to land.

China can afford to wait, and the world can afford to wait, after all, controllable nuclear fusion itself is a century-old project.

However, Lu Zhou couldn't afford to wait.

If the successful ignition of the "DEMO" demonstration reactor cannot be achieved before 2025, the task chain for "Fusion Light" will be regarded as a failure. Although according to the system's consistent Buddhist principles, there is no such thing as asking him to spit out the experience he has gained, but the reward for completing the task chain in the end will undoubtedly say goodbye to him.

After accepting the list from Academician Pan, Lu Zhou thought for a while and said, "There is a stellarator that has been shut down in Germany, that is, WEGA, which is the prototype of Helix 7X. We don't need to build one from the beginning to the end. You can directly get a ready-made one, and then refit it on the basis of the original one.”

Academician Pan looked moved, and said in disbelief: "Are you going to buy WEGA back?"

Lu Zhou nodded, "If you want to enter this industry, you can't save tuition fees."

Lu Zhou thought that Academician Pan was worried about money for the country. After all, the imitation stellarator is expensive. Even if it is the retired WEGA, it is not a small sum of money to buy it back.

In fact, however, Academician Pan is not worried about money at all.

"It's not a question of tuition fees, are they willing to sell this thing?"

Lu Zhou shook his head: "It's hard to say, but this matter can be discussed. I have some friendship with scholars from the Institute of Plasma Physics of the Max Planck Society. It should be no problem to persuade them to sell old equipment that is not used."

In fact, WEGA has been shut down since 2013, and the research focus of the Institute of Plasma Physics of the Max Planck Society has all been placed on the new toy Helix 7-X. There is still hope for convincing them to sell WEGA.

After a pause, Lu Zhou continued.

"When the arrangements here are settled, I will personally fly to Germany to try to negotiate this matter."

Hearing this sentence, Pan Changhong had an envious expression on his face.

He, who has little contact with the international academic community, really envies the thing of network resources.

At the beginning, in order to fill the gap in domestic stellarator research, Nanhua University organized three study groups to go to the Australian National University in 2017, and finally reached a cooperation agreement, and finally spent 35 million Australian dollars to buy a "small" return.

Also known as H1-Heliac.

Compared with Japan and Germany, Australia's research on stellarator is obviously only at the bottom. The H1-Heliac, which was independently designed and assembled by the Australian National University, is far from advanced.

If there is a choice, who would be willing to choose the H1-Heliac assembled by the Australian National University?

If Lu Zhou really has this way, he can buy back WEGA, which has been shut down in Germany.

This matter alone can be regarded as a great achievement for Huaguo's controllable nuclear fusion business.

...

When Lu Zhou returned to China this time, he brought two great gifts to Hua.

One of them is the Nobel Prize, and the other is the cake of controlled nuclear fusion.

Although the pie was still raw and everyone could only watch it but not eat it, he was confident that he would be a good cook and bake the pie well.

As for Lu Zhou's two big gifts, Huaguo reciprocated and paid the greatest attention.

After half a month of meeting and discussion, the academicians of the two academies discussed and voted, and the project on stellarator research finally officially landed.

After consulting with Lu Zhou, the project team was named "STAR", which is parallel to the "EAST" Tokamak controllable fusion reactor plan in terms of level.

As for the funding, the state also gave it quite generously, with a total of one billion yuan.

Considering that a lot of equipment, including stellarators, needs to be imported, the unit of this expense is naturally US dollars...

Southwest Institute of Physics.

After hearing the news, Jia Liang couldn't help clicking his tongue.

"One billion dollars, this is too much money."

Although the level is parallel to the "EAST" project, in terms of funding, it is enough for the budget of several "EAST" projects.

Even if you win a Nobel Prize, it's not worth so much money, right?

Sitting in the middle of the office, Zhou Chengfu, who was reading a newspaper, did not look up and said expressionlessly.

"No matter how much money there is, it was won by others, and we have nothing to do with it."

That being said, it is impossible to say that it has no effect at all.

Research on controllable nuclear fusion itself is a money-burning project, but the country's investment in this area is not unlimited.

Although the expression on Academician Zhou's face did not change, Jia Liangcai could still tell that the old man was not very happy.

After all, he had the final say on all domestic research on controllable nuclear fusion.

Now a young man popped up all of a sudden and wanted to build another hill next to him. It is impossible to say that there is no displeasure in his heart.

But the aura of a Nobel laureate...

It is indeed a bit too dazzling.

Guessing what the old man was thinking, Jia Liang continued, "You said Academician Pan, although he is the veteran of our Huaguo ITER cooperation group, he is not alone in his contribution, let alone he has retired, and now you are our domestic leader. The person in charge of the controlled nuclear fusion project."

"This Lu Zhou wants to engage in controllable nuclear fusion. Instead of visiting you in Rongcheng, he will pull the banner of Academician Pan to start a new stove. Wouldn't it be a bit too condescending?"

"Do your job well. Are you worried about these things?"

After reprimanding in a low voice, seeing Jia Liangcai who quickly shut up and remained silent, Academician Zhou continued unhurriedly.

"He does his work, we do ours. After all, stellarator is not our specialty. If we can cooperate, we can cooperate. If we can't cooperate, it is because of our limited conditions. Can he still blame us?"

Hearing this sentence, Jia Liangcai smiled knowingly.

"President Zhou said yes, I understand!"