Chapter 499: In-progress Results

Translator: Henyee Translations  Editor: Henyee Translations

Bam!

A newspaper was slammed on the table.

The big eye-catching headline made people turn their heads.

[Big News! STAR Stellarator test runs successfully!]

Even though it wasn’t heavily advertised to the public, this and other similar news still appeared in China National Nuclear Corporation’s newspaper, “China Nuclear Industry News”.

Considering the fact that the stellarator for Lu Yang was still being transported, this was probably the first time a stellarator set foot in China.

However, even though this was something worthy of celebration, it was impossible for everyone to be satisfied.

At least when Zhou Chengfu was reading this newspaper, he wasn’t happy at all.

Jiang Liang was standing next to his desk. When he read the newspaper, he secretly pouted. He looked like he was both jealous and envious at the same time.

“This kid really doesn’t care, spending €500 million in the blink of an eye.”

Zhou Chengfu was expressionless when he spoke slowly.

“It’s not like he’s spending his own money, why would he care…”

Also, after one successful stellarator ignition, it was much easier to receive additional research funding.

Zhou Chengfu glanced at the newspaper on his desk and laughed coldly.

“1 second…”

This achievement was far worse than that of HL-2A.

Zhou Chengfu picked up the newspaper; he was about to throw it in the trash can.

Suddenly, while holding the newspaper in his hand, he had an idea in his mind.

Maybe, he could capitalize on this…

…

The successful STAR Stellarator experiment opened the door for stellarators to the Chinese controllable nuclear fusion field.

Two days after the successful experiment, reporters from magazines such as China Nuclear Industry News, Science and Technology Weekly, etc ran reports and interviews on the latest STAR project. When the members of the city council of Jin Ling heard the news, they came to visit the laboratory under the Purple Mountain and to show their appreciation for the stellarator project.

Lu Zhou let Academician Pan deal with these trivial matters.

He wasn’t interested in doing any media interviews before any decisive results came out; he was even less interested in the city council members.

Other than the in-progress STAR Stellarator results, the greatest joy this successful experiment brought him was probably the system rewards that came out of nowhere.

He completed two of the system’s branch missions at once, which gave him various experience points—100,000 in materials science, 50,000 in biochemistry, 50,000 in physics, 100,000 in engineering, and 1,000 general points.

This was undoubtedly an unexpected surprise for him.

The total accumulated experience was over 300,000; it was not an exaggeration to say that he hit the jackpot.

While Lu Zhou sat in his office at the Institute for Advanced Study, his consciousness was currently in the system space.

He looked at his updated characteristic panel.

[

A. Mathematics: Level 7 (144,000/1.2 million)

B. Physics: Level 5 (83,215/300,000)

C. Biochemistry: Level 4 (74,000/100,000)

D. Engineering: Level 3 (5/100,000)

E. Materials science: level 5 (13,000/300,000)

F. Energy science: Level 2 ( 0/50,000)

G. Information science: Level 1 (3,000/10,000)

General points: 4,975 (one lucky draw ticket)

]

He leveled up both in materials science and engineering.

His materials science level was at level five now, which was the same level as his physics.

As for engineering…

Even though he wasn’t really involved in engineering research, there was no harm in having more talents.

Also, a scholar that had an understanding of the engineering field often gave more constructive suggestions. Their laboratory research results were also more like to be easily applied in the real world.

After Lu Zhou closed his characteristic panel, he double-checked the branch mission of the Fusion Light mission chain before he exited the system space.

After his consciousness was brought back to his office, he stretched his back and leaned against his office chair.

It was pretty tiring sitting in the same position.

He stretched his stiff arms and looked at the clock on the wall; it was already half-past twelve in the afternoon.

He felt a bit hungry, so he got up and left his office. He then went straight to the cafeteria of the Institute for Advanced Study.

Since it was a bit past lunchtime, there weren’t many people in the cafeteria.

After Lu Zhou got his food, he found a place to sit down and began eating.

Coincidentally, Yang Xu came to the cafeteria as well. He noticed Lu Zhou sitting there, so he walked over and placed his food tray across from Lu Zhou.

“What a coincidence, you’re having a late lunch as well?”

Lu Zhou: “There’s been a lot of work piled up, so it slightly delayed my lunch.”

Yang Xu: “I really think that you should hire two assistants. Whether you need help making your coffee or not, at least they will save you a lot of trouble.”

Lu Zhou: “I’ll think about it. What about you? What have you been up to?”

“Mainly research-related work.” Yang Xu suddenly thought of something, so he said, “Oh yeah, there’s something I have to talk to you about.”

Lu Zhou: “What thing?”

Yang Xu: “We hired a bunch of new people at the beginning of the year, right? Most people don’t really know each other, so they’re lacking a bit in cooperation and teamwork. I talked about it with Liu Bo, and we plan on organizing a sports event next month, to boost everyone’s morale and friendship.”

“Sure, health is the capital for scientific research. I support this,” Lu Zhou smiled and said. “Give me a budget statement, and I’ll cover the prizes.”

Yang Xu smiled and said, “I’ll remember that.”

After Lu Zhou ate his lunch, he returned to his office and switched on his computer. He began to work on his unfinished work from the morning.

A few hours ago, the STAR team finished the experimental report and summarized the plasma diagnostic data, which they sent to his work email.

After Lu Zhou opened the email, he downloaded the attachment and began to read it carefully.

[Longitudinal wave field 51.14T, plasma current 0kA, plasma confinement time 1.11s, maximum time 1.75s, auxiliary heating power 40MW, plasma line average density greater than 7.5×10^19m-1, electron temperature 9.86keV (around 1.1 billion degrees)…]

Lu Zhou looked at the data on the spreadsheet and nodded with satisfaction.

From the data alone, it seemed that the last experiment was quite successful.

We can try putting in hydrogen for our next experiment.

Also, we have to solve the supercomputer and plasma control schemes as soon as possible. Otherwise, the magnetic confinement time isn’t going to increase.

And the water-cooled divertor; if we want to accommodate higher fusion temperatures and confine high-density plasma for more than 30 minutes, we might have to redesign this component.

Lu Zhou was thinking about this in his mind.

Suddenly, he heard hasty footsteps coming from the corridor.

Soon after, he heard someone knocking on the door.

Lu Zhou closed his email and looked at his door.

“Come in.”

Sheng Xianfu was holding a newspaper as he walked in, obviously exasperated.

“This is ridiculous!”

He placed the newspaper on Lu Zhou’s desk.

When Lu Zhou looked at the headline of the article, he raised an eyebrow.

Are they… trying to provoke us?

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