Chapter 538: Helms' Countermeasure
The time is getting closer and closer to the end of the month.
Finally, all the contradictions are also on the verge of a critical point.
Soon the next closed-door meeting of the ITER Council will be held in Saint Paulé-Dulantes, France. During this meeting, the US side will once again question the Chinese representatives on issues related to the STAR Institute and intellectual property rights.
If nothing else, this may be the last time the ITER Council discusses this issue.
Because all kinds of signs are showing that the result of this meeting will determine whether Hua Guo will stay or stay in the ITER organization.
As for the compromise made by Hua Guo, the outside world basically has no expectations.
Some ITER employees, who did not want to be named, were even interviewed by the media, which may become the trigger for the disintegration of the ITER organization.
This may sound like an exaggeration.
But in fact, it is not impossible.
As we all know, there are seven major participating countries in IITER, namely Europe, the United States, Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, and India. And almost every participating country, except ITER, has its own domestic controllable nuclear fusion project.
It has almost become the consensus of all countries to establish their own technological advantages in controllable fusion research.
As for international public projects such as ITER, it is not difficult to predict the attitudes of countries pushing each other.
This can be seen from the lack of funds for the ITER project every year.
Obviously, no one thought how far this bulky, barely-cobbled-together wheel would go.
What's more, the captain at the helm is still European.
The U.S.'s sudden attack on intellectual property rights can be said to have put the contradiction on the table.
The fusion light that was finally ignited was like a candle in the wind, faltering in the cold night.
However, no matter how the international situation changes, for scholars engaged in research in this field, the experiments that should be done still have to be done.
At the same time that Lu Zhou received the good news from Daya Bay, an experiment on magnetic confinement time was also going on in the Helix 7-X laboratory in Germany.
"37 minutes and 6 seconds," Kerwin continued, looking at the timing on the computer screen, "this is probably the best result this month."
Although there is still a terrifying gap from the 1 hour of the STAR device, at least they have been able to stably maintain the magnetic confinement time for more than half an hour.
Professor Millek asked: "Can the ignition experiment be carried out?"
Professor Kleber shook his head: "The radiation problem is still unsolved."
Professor Millek: "Has there been any progress?"
"Progress?" The expression on Professor Kleiber's face became more bitter, "The only progress is probably that we have a vague feeling that the alloy route may not work. The swelling effect of metal materials in the neutron irradiation environment is It's so obvious that no matter how hard we try to change that...unless we can confine neutrons? But that sounds too magical."
The latest technology is to use a molybdenum and zirconium alloy, which is quite effective in resisting the swelling effect of neutron irradiation, but the alloy doped with molybdenum is much more difficult to weld than austenitic steel.
And not only that, no matter how small the doped molybdenum element is, the radioactivity of its transmutation products will always be an unstable factor.
Milek thought for a moment, then suddenly thought: "If alloys are not good, what about non-metallic materials?"
Kerwin shrugged helplessly: "There are many non-metallic materials, but the question is do you have a good suggestion?"
It is not the first time that this point of view has been raised in the field of controllable fusion research, even in the last century. But the problem is that research in this field has not made great progress.
Thinking of this, Kerwin couldn't help but fell into deep thought.
If it was Lu Zhou, what choice would he make?
However, Kerwin, who was thinking about this question, had no idea at all.
Thinking of this, he sighed.
It would be great if we can cooperate with the STAR Research Institute on stellarator research...
If the teammate is Professor Lu, he is confident that the time for commercialization of controllable fusion will be shortened by at least 20 years.
And once this technology is completed, the entire human civilization will benefit from it.
But judging by the current situation...
This is obviously impossible.
...
Outside the laboratory, Helms, who was sitting in the lounge, was drinking coffee leisurely, his eyes wandering to the watch from time to time.
A few months ago, he was just an ordinary middle-level official in the CIA. However, he was appreciated by the top because of an evaluation report on controlled fusion research.
Now he is an intelligence commissioner on controllable fusion issues appointed by the CIA. He is fully responsible for the collection of important intelligence in related fields, and enjoys certain decision-making power in some matters.
This time he came to Germany, one is to learn about the latest progress of stellarator research at the Institute of Plasma Physics of the Max Planck Society, and the other is to meet with senior officials of the German Ministry of Economics and Energy.
The countermeasures on the Huaguo issue are very effective. At least on the surface, it seems that the research on controllable fusion in Huaguo has come to a standstill.
The continuous strikes of STAR-1 and HL-2A, and the interruption of the cooperation between EAST and General Atomic Energy, make people wonder how far they can go on this subject without the "help" of the international community.
In any case, now is the time to pursue the victory,
Of course, although on the surface, the plan is going well, but he will never do stupid things to underestimate his opponent.
At least the name Lu Zhou was an unstable factor that he couldn't let go of.
Judging from the limited intelligence, the cause of the failure of the two devices is inseparable from this person's name.
At this moment, sitting across from him is Lehmann, the CIA's intelligence specialist in Germany.
Unlike the general agents lurking underground, his identity is public and registered with the German Ministry of Defense. The main responsibility is sitting in the office drinking coffee, or exchanging information with German intelligence.
He coordinated the meeting between Helms and senior officials of the German Ministry of Economics and Energy.
When the two were chatting, they happened to talk about the name Lu Zhou.
Although the focus of Lehman's work is not here, he still raised his eyebrows with interest.
"...So how many teachers do you think this Professor Lu is worth?"
Helms: "If you really knew him, you wouldn't ask such a stupid question. His value is not calculated by a few divisions, but by Silicon Valley or Seattle."
Not paying attention to Helms' ridicule, Lehman said with a smile: "When did Silicon Valley and Seattle become a unit of measurement?"
Helms: "Silicon Valley and Seattle are not, but the potential economic value behind them is. If a person can create a GDP of more than 10 billion or even 100 billion, I think he has this potential."
Lehmann: "Can a Nobel laureate create a GDP of 100 billion? Is this the currency of Zimbabwe or Venezuela?"
"Of course it's US dollars, and it's just a conservative estimate. The more I study his information, the more certain I am of my inference," said Helms, putting down the coffee in his hand, "however, whether it is the White House or the CIA's approval of this name The level of attention is obviously not enough, and I think this is quite dangerous."
Lehman leaned back in his chair: "Perhaps you can write a detailed report and send it to the White House to remind that pushy president."
Helms: "Actually, I'm doing it."
While talking, a group of people came to the door.
The leader is Norbert, Secretary General of the German Ministry of Economics and Energy.
Standing up, Helms extended his right hand with a smile.
"Hi, Mr. Norbert, glad we met again."
"Hello, Mr. Helms," shaking Helms' right hand, Norbert didn't exchange too many greetings, and went straight to the point, "You probably didn't fly here from the United States just to find me. Just drink coffee and talk about anything."
"The thing is like this," Helms said with a smile, retracting his right hand and sorting out his thoughts for a moment, "Our Congress has reassessed the controllable fusion plan and restarted an investment with a budget of about 2 billion US dollars. It is expected to build a new stellarator experimental device at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. For German companies, this will mean an order of at least one billion US dollars and thousands or even tens of thousands of jobs. I believe you should be interested."
"Oh?" Norbert raised his eyebrows with interest, but there was no further expression. "Although I am very interested in this topic, why are people from the CIA coming to discuss with us?"
What made him even more puzzled was why the people from the CIA disclosed this news to him.
"Because the specific bidding plan will come out probably next month. If you are interested in this project, I have a small proposal."
Norbert said calmly: "What proposal?"
"The closed-door meeting of the ITER Council at the end of the month." Seeing Norbert's expression, Helms showed a smile on his face, "We think it's time for Huaguo to get out of the game."
-
(Recommend a system flow novel "System Founder" with an interesting setting, a new book with conscience~)