Chapter 540: Construction!

After China announced its withdrawal from ITER, it was like a brick was thrown in the quiet pond, setting off an uproar in the international community.

Various major media outlets reported on this incident and made different analyses as well as comments on the whole situation.

The secretary of the United States Department of Energy and spokesperson of the European Union Energy Department had repeatedly emphasized that this wouldn’t affect ITER’s progress and that all of the remaining country members were still focusing on energy development. However, the academic community and media outlets had a negative view of this situation.

Some even commented that this was the starting point of ITER’s collapse.

This rumor was floating around both in China and around the world.

Even though this piece of news was only a tiny segment in the news broadcast, it still attracted a lot of attention.

On Weibo, this piece of news that had nothing to do with boring celebrities flexing their wealth was actually on the top-ten trending page.

Even though the popularity of this event quickly decreased, it still caused widespread discussion.

Some people praised China for its domineering response to the US representatives’ unreasonable demands. Other people thought that brute-forcing wouldn’t fix any problem, and expressed their concerns for the Chinese future controllable nuclear fusion research field. They even blamed it on Lu Zhou…

[Apparently, the reason why China left ITER was that the STAR research institute didn’t fulfill ITER’s protocols.]

[Really?]

[I think it’s real! My neighbor’s uncle is working at some nuclear fusion research institute. Apparently, our nuclear fusion research institute was ruined by that Professor Lu.]

[What the hell do you mean ruined? Is the STAR machine not the best in the world?]

[They said it’s the best, but surely STAR research institute isn’t the only one doing research on controllable nuclear fusion. According to the ITER Agreement, the country members must share their research progress on controllable fusion research with other country members. However, the STAR research institute didn’t fully disclose their research details!]

[If this is real, then Lu Zhou both brought us success and failure…]

[Stop bullsh*tting, this story has a million loopholes! For a national scientific research project like this, do you really think the research institute gets to decide on whether or not they disclose their results?]

[Omg, do you know what a contract is? Do you think the Americans are just questioning us for no reason? Are you confident that the STAR research institute didn’t conceal any of their research results?]

[…]

“This is so annoying!” Xiao Tong sat at the table and scrolled through her Weibo. She said furiously, “These people have no idea what they’re talking about, they’re just speaking nonsense!”

My brother is working so hard…

Yet these people are still talking trash about him.

Lu Zhou looked at how riled up Xiao Tong was, but he only gave a short answer.

“Don’t use your phone when you’re eating.”

Xiao Tong put her phone down. She felt dissatisfied.

“Brother, do you not care what the people on the Internet are saying about you?”

Lu Zhou chuckled and replied nonchalantly, “A thousand people have a thousand brains and a thousand mouths. You will never make everyone be satisfied with you. These things are all insignificant, just make sure you live your best life.”

The world was dominated by laymen.

Whether it was in academia or in the industry, once a person reached the status of a celebrity, then their name was no longer just a name.

Compared to Lu Zhou’s contributions to society or his “boring” research work, people would always be more keen to report on minor things. They would try to judge based on things like moral standards or his personal life.

It was just like how most people didn’t even know what Yang Chen-Ning received the Nobel Prize for, but they would gladly blabber about his wife who was 50 years his junior.

Lu Zhou was used to seeing this.

Just like how in his Weibo comments area, rather than talking about the groundbreaking problems that he solved, netizens were always focused on why he was so handsome but didn’t have a girlfriend…

Xiao Tong felt suspicious. She looked at her brother and said, “Why do I feel like you’re not in a good mood?”

“Am I?” Lu Zhou rubbed his chin. He didn’t feel any different than usual.

Xiao Tong nodded her head in a half-serious way.

After a while, she began to think about something naughty, and she said worriedly, “Brother…”

“What now?”

“Are you…” Xiao Tong was embarrassed as she said, “Are you the type of person that gets turned on when people insult you?”

Lu Zhou: “F*ck off.”

…

Lu Zhou’s mood had been pretty good recently.

Even though China’s withdrawal from ITER had a certain degree of influence on his work, but compared to the breakthroughs that he recently made on his research, the effect of leaving ITER was negligible.

It wasn’t just the PGC-1 material breakthrough, the first stage of the liquid lithium neutron recovery system design had also been completed.

Right now, he had all of the puzzle pieces in his hands.

All he had to do now was to complete the final, most important step…

STAR research institute.

A meeting was about to begin in a conference room inside the research institute.

All of the institutions that were cooperating with the STAR research institute had sent their engineers and representatives to this conference room.

Academician Wang was inside the conference room. When he flipped open his notebook, he suddenly heard a familiar and loud voice.

“I was wondering if you were going to come, I didn’t expect you to actually be here.”

“Oh, Old Sun?” When Academician Wang Zengguang saw the old man sitting next to him, his eyes lit up as he said, “Haha, long time no see!”

This was Sun Zhonghai, the chief engineer of the China National Nuclear Corporation!

Even though this guy wasn’t very likable, he didn’t care. After all, these two had known each other for more than 20 years.

“Yeah, long time no see.” Engineer Sun saw looked at his friend and said, “More than a year, right? Your hair isn’t even white yet, but half of them are falling off.”

“Haha, maybe you should look at yourself in the mirror first.” Academician Wang smiled and said, “I’ll be bald, but at least I’ll get to attend your funeral.”

Engineer Sun looked at the front of the conference room and said, “Speaking of which, did Professor Lu give you a heads up on what this meeting is for?”

“He didn’t tell me anything.” Academician Wang shook his head and looked at the red curtains on stage. “It’s about to begin soon, why don’t you just wait for a bit?”

Prior to this, he only heard that they were going to discuss important things at this conference. However, the STAR research institute didn’t tell them the specifics.

The conference began.

Once the curtains unveiled, the two stopped talking. They quietly waited for the conference to begin, just like everyone else.

Lu Zhou walked on stage and looked at all of the attendees. He cleared his throat and said slowly, “A week ago, there has been a breakthrough in the first wall material research.

“The PGC-1 material, developed by the Jinling Institute of Computational Materials, has reached the neutron radiation-resistant requirements for the fusion reactor.”

There was a commotion in the audience.

Academician Wang and Engineer Sun looked at each other with shock in their eyes.

They were also excited.

Lu Zhou didn’t stop.

He continued to speak in a clear and steady voice, “We have done enough preparations to integrate this material.

“I think that it is time to push our plan to the next stage.”

The venue was dead silent.

Even though Lu Zhou’s speech wasn’t particularly passionate or monumental, everyone here couldn’t help but clench their fists and hold their breath.

Lu Zhou was just as excited as everyone else, but he didn’t show it on his face.

He took a deep breath and looked around the venue. He then made a clear announcement.

“The STAR-2 demonstration fusion machine.

“Will begin…

“Construction immediately!”

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