Chapter 491: Then Invite Them All Over

“Exchange visit at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics… This is a good opportunity, but how come it was never mentioned in the meeting,” Yuan Yuan said while reading the email and the attached documents about the exchange. He had a strange expression on his face.

In the field of plasma physics, in addition to the PPPL, the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics was probably one of the most advanced research plasma institutes in the field.

Logically speaking, one shouldn’t give up this opportunity.

Zhuang Qingwei was sitting on the office desk beside him, and he shook his head and said, “Don’t even think about it.”

Yuan Yuan frowned and asked, “What do you mean?”

Zhuang Qingwei sighed and kindly pointed out. “Look carefully at the organizer.”

Yuan Yuan: “STAR Stellarator Research Institute… Is there a problem?”

Zhuang Qingwei said, “Do you not know that Academician Zhou doesn’t like Professor Lu?”

Yuan Yuan asked, “Just because of… this?”

Zhuang Qingwei: “Yeah!”

Yuan Yuan angrily said, “This is ridiculous!”

Seeing how angry Yuan Yuan was, Zhuang Qingwei shook his head and tried to persuade him. “There are many opportunities for academic exchange. You’re about to get a promotion; there’s no need to offend Academician Zhou because of something small like this.”

“How is this something small?” Yuan Yuan said while looking at the proclamation on the computer screen.

There were many conference nuclear fusion seminars and conferences one could attend.

However, the opportunities to learn the core nuclear fusion technologies were rare.

He was an engineer; he knew how valuable this kind of opportunity was.

For example, the water-cooled divertor on the WEGA. If one could thoroughly digest this piece of technology, one could make some modifications and apply it on the tokamak or even apply it in a magnetic plasma interaction experiment.

Yuan Yuan shook his head reluctantly. He finally decided not to go against his boss.

It wasn’t worth it.

He stood up from his chair and sighed.

“I’m going for a smoke.”

Zhuang Qingwei: “Go ahead.”

…

“The Southwestern thing didn’t go well; I’m sorry.”

Pan Changhong’s face was a bit embarrassed when he said this.

He made a promise, saying that as long as the Max Planck Institute agreed, he would handle the rest.

Lu Zhou made an agreement with the Germans and even sacrificed his own technology for this opportunity, but he dropped the ball.

He talked to the higher-ups regarding this matter, but he knew it wouldn’t be that useful.

Zhou Chengfu was the leader of the Southwestern Institute of Physics and the chief engineer of the China International Nuclear Fusion Energy Program Execution Center; he had control of billions in research funds and hundreds of projects.

In academia, anyone that had control of these resources was the king.

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Especially in the small field of controllable nuclear fusion, there were only four tokamaks and a dozen or so research institutes; most of the projects and funding had to go through him.

Not only did he control the Southwestern Institute of Physics, even the Institute of Materials at the Chinese Academy of Sciences had to listen to him.

Who would care if the ministers commanded him? So what if Academician Zhou was willing to lend his people?

It still depended on whether or not the experts themselves were willing to go.

Unless it was some dumb*ss that didn’t care about their bosses hating them or someone that intended to quit, there weren’t many people that had the guts to stand against their bosses.

Even the minister knew that at most, they could mediate the situation from the side; they couldn’t force the old academician to do anything. Issues in academia weren’t that easy to solve, especially when it was at the academician level.

Honestly, Academician Pan thought for a bit and realized he was too naive.

He thought that the situation now was the same as ten years ago.

Back then, there weren’t many experts in a future engineering field like con nuclear fusion. There were even undergrads that could pass as a researcher. As for the funding side, the country obviously didn’t have that much money.

However, even though every step along the way was extremely difficult, with his help, everyone still gathered from all locations and invested in this industry.

Due to their efforts, ITER became the first international science engineering project that cooperated with China with an equal partnership.

Even though he was retired, he could still remember the excitement that was in their hearts. It was even more exciting than when Beijing was chosen as the host city for the Olympics.

After listening to Academician Pan’s explanation, Lu Zhou simply nodded and didn’t say anything else about this matter.

“It’s fine. I thought about the possibility of this happening. If Southwestern doesn’t want to do it, we won’t force them. We can do our own thing.”

If he went to Beijing, he had 80% of making this deal.

However, his time was precious; he didn’t want to waste time fighting against his own people.

Also, even though he wasn’t interested in power and authority, he still knew that academia was never a pristine place.

Even so, there was one thing that was clear in his mind—results were always more convincing.

When Academician Pan heard Lu Zhou, he sighed in relief. In fact, he was somewhat gratified.

Even though he wasn’t happy with Old Zhou’s cooperative attitude, he knew in his mind that he should look at the bigger picture.

If he really decided to start fighting, it would hurt both parties. Whether it was Old Zhou who was removed from his position of power or Lu Zhou who decided to leave, both would harm the future of China’s controllable nuclear fusion project.

“You’re right,” Academician Pan nodded and said. “Southwestern is not looking good, but I will find another way.”

Lu Zhou thought for a bit and said, “I remember there’s a research team at Yuhua University that has around 30 people. They’ve been engaged in stellarator research for many years, and some of their engineers have been trained by The Australian National University. It might be better to send them to Germany.”

Academician Pan frowned and said, “You’re talking about Professor Gong’s team? I’m afraid they can’t spare any talents. Besides, even Yuhua University’s controllable nuclear fusion funding is from the China International Nuclear Fusion Energy Program Execution Center.”

Even though Zhou Chengfu didn’t care for the stellarator, he didn’t refuse all stellarator related projects.

After all, even though he didn’t agree with the stellarator route, the stellarator wasn’t his enemy.

However, if Yuhua University cooperated with Lu Zhou, then their future funding might become a problem.

“Then just invite all of them.” Lu Zhou thought for a bit and said, “It’s not like they’re receiving a lot of attention. I’ll handle all of their future funding.”

Academician Pan smiled and shook his head at this over-the-top idea.

“Okay then, I’ll go tomorrow.”

Lu Zhou nodded and said, “Thanks… But this time, I’ll go there instead.”