Scholar’s Advanced Technological System

Beijing.

A mysterious place inside a ring road.

Director Lu stood in front of the office door and took a deep breath. He reached out his hand and gently knocked on the door.

After he heard someone say, “Come in,” he opened the door and walked inside. He spoke respectfully.

“Sir, did you ask for me?”

The old man looked at the head of the energy department standing at the doorway, and he gently smiled.

“I have a letter here, take it and read it.”

Without hesitating, Director Lu walked up and picked up the letter from the desk.

He looked at the title of the letter and had an epiphany.

This made sense; there were only a few people in the country that could directly send letters to this office.

Just as he expected, this letter was related to the matters at Jinling.

[Dear…

[I’m sure you have heard about our STAR research institute’s latest experiment. Where our researchers were able to achieve a one hour magnetic confinement time.

[This research result allows me to believe that in the near future, deuterium will become a brand new, important energy source for us to use. This type of energy is cleaner and more efficient than any other type of energy that we are familiar with.

[In theory, one kilogram of deuterium and tritium mixture can release 108 million kWh of energy in a complete reaction. Using an energy conversion ratio of 35%, 37.8 million kWh of electricity can be produced.

[Using a rough estimation, we would only need 167 tons of deuterium and tritium mixture to satisfy China’s yearly energy demands.

[Aside from the fact that tritium can be used as an intermediate product, the main consumption material, deuterium, costs less than 4,000 yuan per kilogram. And by expanding the production scale, this cost could be greatly reduced.

[Based on these apparent facts, we can deduce through a simple calculation that the cost of nuclear fusion energy will be less than a thousandth of the cost of traditional thermal power.

[The creation of nuclear energy will completely change society’s energy structure. It will completely change our lifestyles and production capacity… It will change everything we know of.

[As a scholar, it’s my duty to remind you that we are at an inflection point in history, and the door to a new era is right in front of our eyes.

[Of course, the cost of opening this door will be huge.

[The decision of opening this door is in your hands.

[…]

The letter wasn’t over; it was followed by a timeline for the commercialization of controllable nuclear fusion technology, the goals of the demonstration reactor, and a budget statement.

For the time being, Director Lu didn’t finish reading the letter. After reading the first page, his eyebrows twitched.

The entire letter was full of polite wording. It was about how good the future of fusion energy was and how important it was. However, between the lines of the handwritten letter, all he could see was, “give me the money”.

He turned the page to the demonstration reactor plan.

It contained a detailed list of Professor Lu’s estimated specifications for the various DEMO reactor components, as well as an estimation for the performance of the DEMO machine.

[Project objective: To complete the construction of the DEMO demonstration reactor by 2025.

[Assessment Criteria: Radiofrequency prototype negative ion source surface: 0.45 x 3.2m, radiofrequency plasma under multi-drive has a uniformity of over 95%, negative ion extraction current density is greater than 300A/m^2, beam intensity greater than 20A, negative ion beam synthesis energy indicator reaches 200keV, beam stability lasts for 60 minutes…]

Even though he had met Lu Zhou a few times, he never knew that Professor Lu Zhou was involved in engineering as well. The plan looked legit.

He read the plan from start to finish.

The more he read, the most serious he looked.

Director Lu was irritated, and he put down the letter and shook his head.

“43 billion yuan… Professor Lu really knows how to make us spend money.”

This wasn’t just about money.

Especially that one specific line in the plan—”This reactor alone can satisfy the electricity needs of the entire Jiangsu province.”

It was an obvious boast and likely wasn’t backed by facts.

One should know that the yearly electricity consumption in Jiangsu was 580.78 billion kWh, second only to Guangdong’s 596.89 billion kWh, with Jiangsu’s consumption ranking second in the country!

Even if this power generator was running 24 hours a day, to produce 580.79 billion kWh a year would require at least 66,300 MW of continuous power!

What did a power output of 66,300 MW mean?

The total power capacity of the Three Gorges Dam was only 22,000 MW, while the six nuclear power units in Daya Bay only added up to around 6000 MW.

Which meant that the power of one fusion reactor was equivalent to three Three Gorges Dams? Or eleven Daya Bay nuclear power units?

What kind of monster reactor was this?

Common sense told Director Lu that this was impossible.

If it were anyone else that drafted this plan, he wouldn’t think twice before throwing it in the garbage bin.

However…

This was from Professor Lu.

And when he thought about it carefully, it was actually kind of tempting…

When the president looked at how perplexed Director Lu was, he smiled and asked, “What do you think about this?”

“The plan is extremely ambitious, I don’t know where he got this confidence from, but…” Director Lu realized that the old man wasn’t asking for his opinion, so he hesitated for a second before saying cautiously, “I am certain that the things he said, are exactly what we need!”

China was a huge energy-consuming country. Their annual coal and oil consumption was measured in billions of tons. Especially their coal consumption, which accounted for almost half of the world’s total coal usage!

If Professor Lu’s letter was correct, that their entire country’s electricity needs could be met with just 167 tons of deuterium and tritium mixture, then with the wide application of fusion energy, China’s future energy expenditure would be a fraction of the current cost!

Also, the motivating factors weren’t just the political and economic value behind it, but it was also the cleanliness factor.

Due to the Renewable Energy Assessment subsidy provided by the state, the various provincial administrative regions were inclined to meet their quota for minimum renewable energy consumption. The state had always been determined to develop clean energy.

This was one of the reasons why “conserving energy” was mentioned at every large government meeting.

Fusion energy was efficient, cheap, abundant, and hardly produced any type of pollution. It could basically solve all of China’s sustainable energy problems, once and for all.

If all of this was achievable, the state should develop this technology at all costs.

“It is quite ambitious.” The president nodded and paused for a second before saying, “But I think it is worth trying.”

Director Lu’s made a subtle expression, and he immediately said respectfully, “I understand, sir.”

Even though there were still some doubts in his heart about the contents of that letter, his doubts were no longer important.

A 40 billion yuan project couldn’t be decided by one individual alone. Hearing how relaxed the president’s words were, it was obvious that this proposal was unanimously agreed by the National People’s Congress.

Since the highest governing body agreed to this proposal, there was only one thing left for him to do.

Which was to draw up a plan that would meet all of Professor Lu’s conditions and to try his best to ensure that this “DEMO demonstration reactor” project could begin as soon as possible!

Sitting behind the desk, the president suddenly thought about something.

“Oh yeah, how is the China International Nuclear Fusion Energy Program Execution Center project going?”

Director Lu replied honestly, “Looking at the timeline, they plan on constructing the demonstration reactor in 2025… However, given that the various conditions are not met, I’m afraid it might be postponed.”

The president shook his head and said, “So slow.”

Comparison is the thief of joy.

By comparing these two demonstration reactor projects, the timeline gap was apparent.

Director Lu: “… Scientific research cannot be rushed.”

“You’re right, slow and steady is the way to go.” The president nodded and said, “Then let them slowly do their research. Since they don’t need money for the time being, just take out part of their research funding.”