Chapter 468: Experienced Expert

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

After that, Lu Zhou talked with the old man for a long time.

The topics discussed were mainly centered around the details of controllable nuclear fusion.

This included the advantages and disadvantages of various technical pathways, technical difficulties, and which problems could potentially be solved.

Because Academician Wu was out of his element, he sat next to them and didn’t say anything. He merely listened quietly like a plebeian.

For the more difficult parts, Lu Zhou tried to explain them in layman’s terms.

Of course, other than talking about controllable nuclear fusion, they also talked about the idea of constructing an Institute of Advanced Study in China which was to be similar to Princeton’s.

As for Lu Zhou’s special treatment in China, he didn’t mention it, and the old man didn’t ask.

Because this simply wasn’t something worth talking about.

Even if Lu Zhou didn’t mention anything, there naturally would be someone to take care of him.

Lu Zhou followed the guards and walked out of the courtyard. Wang Peng waited outside next to the black car.

He used to be a stranger, but he was now Lu Zhou’s good acquaintance.

“Finished?”

“Finished,” Lu Zhou sat in the passenger seat as he replied casually.

Wang Peng nodded and didn’t say anything.

Whatever Lu Zhou talked about when he was inside was none of his business.

Once Lu Zhou put on his seatbelt, Wang Peng started the car.

Lu Zhou looked at him and asked, “Oh yeah, where are we going? I don’t have a place to stay in Beijing.”

Even though the old man verbally agreed in the meeting, the specific implementation had to be discussed at a high-level internal government conference.

After all, funding controllable nuclear fusion wasn’t cheap by any stretch of the imagination.

Lu Zhou still had to stay in Beijing for two days. One was to wait for the results of the high-level meetings, and the other was to communicate with the Chinese controllable nuclear fusion scholars.

Wang Peng heard Lu Zhou and smiled heartily.

“Professor Lu, you must be kidding! You’re in your home country; how can we not give you a place to stay?”

…

Lu Zhou stayed at the same place he stayed at when he came to Beijing for that meeting.

When Manager Wang saw Lu Zhou, he had an innocent smile on his slightly chubby face. He then greeted him enthusiastically.

“Professor Lu, are you happy with the tea from last time?”

“Very satisfied, thank you so much,” Lu Zhou said with a smile.

Manager Wang smiled and said, “You’re too kind. If you want, we can get you some more.”

This time Lu Zhou didn’t refuse the tea, nor did he offer to pay.

He knew the hotel was a public institution, and if he gave money to Manager Wang, it would cause him trouble.

Also, since he won two enormous awards for China, taking two packs of tea wasn’t a big deal, right?

As Lu Zhou followed Manager Wang to his room, he suddenly remembered something.

“Oh yeah, Manager Wang.”

“What’s up?”

Lu Zhou looked around and asked, “Is there a conference room here?”

Manager Wang smiled and said, “Of course there is. If you need to use it, just tell me.”

Lu Zhou nodded and said, “I’ll need it the day after tomorrow.”

Manager Wang: “Okay.”

…

It had been 11 years since China first participated in ITER.

The start of all of this was because of a letter from the Southwestern Institute of Physics to the Communist Party of China.

The person that wrote the letter was Academician Pan Changhong, the dean of the Southwestern Institute of Physics.

Even though Academician Pan had retired from his Southwestern Institute of Physics position, he was an experienced expert and still had a considerable amount of influence among the domestic nuclear fusion community.

After some planning with the relevant departments, Lu Zhou finally met the person that convinced China to join ITER.

When Lu Zhou saw the old man, he politely reached out his hand and said, “Hello, Academician Pan, I have been looking forward to meeting you for a long time.”

“I’m the one that is supposed to be looking forward to meeting you,” Academician Pan said as he shook Lu Zhou’s hand. He then smiled as he continued, “I’ve always heard that Professor Lu is young and promising, but I have never met you before. I didn’t expect you to be younger than I imagined… and even more charismatic.”

Lu Zhou smiled and politely made a gesture. “You’re too kind. Please, take a seat.”

Once they sat down at the conference table, the hotel staff poured a cup of tea for each of them. The hotel staff then left the conference room, and on the way out, the hotel staff closed the door gently.

Lu Zhou organized his train of thought first. He was about to speak, but Academician Pan was the one to speak first.

“You think the stellarator has potential?”

Lu Zhou nodded and said, “Yes, I think so.”

Academician Pan looked sharply at Lu Zhou and said, “Are you certain?”

Lu Zhou: “Yes.”

“Why?”

“My intuition.”

Intuition?

When Academician Pan looked at Lu Zhou’s emotionless face, he was slightly stunned. He smiled and shook his head before he said, “… Scientific intuition? Interesting… You believe in your intuition that much?”

“Of course!” Lu Zhou nodded and said, “If I don’t believe it, how can I convince others to believe it?”

Academician Pan smiled and gave a simple answer.

“Since you put it that way, I am convinced. I’m curious. Tell me; how do you plan on convincing me to do?”

Lu Zhou smiled and paused for a second before he replied, “Controllable nuclear fusion is a project that has systematic risk, and the technical difficulties range from plasma physics to materials science to information technology. All of these research units have to cooperate together. This is very difficult to achieve by myself.”

Lu Zhou paused for a second and looked at Academician Pan. He then made a sincere request.

“I need your help.”

Academician Pan was stunned; he didn’t expect Lu Zhou to make such a sudden request.

There was a brief moment of consideration, but after a while, he still shook his head.

“I can’t help you. Besides my old age, the stellarator isn’t my research direction. I can conduct lectures, but to do experiments with you young people, that’s really difficult for me.”

The old man paused and reminded Lu Zhou of something.

“Not to mention, the main person in charge of China’s controllable nuclear fusion is Academician Zhou. If you need support, you should talk to him instead of coming to me.”

Lu Zhou shook his head and said, “The research led by Academician Zhou is mainly on the tokamak device. He won’t support my point of view.”

Academician Pan didn’t say anything, but his face conveyed his agreement.

This wasn’t just an engineering problem; this was also a problem in academia.

After all, after spending billions in research, no one wanted to hear someone with a different research plan who might take their resources.

Funding was only part of it; this also involved jurisdiction.

Authority and power weren’t academically related; it couldn’t be solved with just one conversation.

Lu Zhou paused for a second before he said, “Actually, yesterday I was contacted by the higher-ups and received funding and policy support guarantees. The new project will be carried out simultaneously with the original tokamak project.”

Academician Pan said, “You… talked to the higher-ups?”

Lu Zhou nodded and said, “Yes.”

If that’s the case… then this thing is different.

Academician Pan went silent for a while. He seemed to be hesitating.

Lu Zhou didn’t say anything. Instead, he quietly waited for him to gather his thoughts.

As the old man looked at the steam rising from the teacup, he suddenly relaxed his tense face and looked at Lu Zhou with a smile.

“If you don’t care about me being old, then I’m willing to give it a shot.”

Lu Zhou smiled and reached out his hand.

“Welcome to the team!”

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