Chapter 514: Restart the Experiment!

This was probably the most tiring flight Lu Zhou had ever taken.

It was also the longest.

Lu Zhou carried his suitcase as he walked down the airstair. He looked tired as he pinched his eyebrows and felt his entire body was discombobulated.

He thought about it carefully and realized this was the first time in his life that he was ever confessed to.

And it’s by my own student…

I guess being handsome is really a curse?

Wang Peng saw how exhausted Lu Zhou was, so he paused for a second and immediately took Lu Zhou’s suitcase.

“Are you jet-lagged?”

Lu Zhou yawned and casually said, “I am, I didn’t sleep on the plane at all…”

Wang Peng was astonished, and he looked at Lu Zhou.

“Didn’t sleep? What did you do during the dozen-hour long flight?”

Being able to stay awake during a dozen-hour long flight was a nutty achievement in and of itself.

“I just thought about some stuff… regardless…” Lu Zhou diverted the conversation and coughed before he said, “Just take me to Zhongshan International. I just want to sleep right now.”

Wang Peng nodded and said, “Okay… Do you need me to hold you?”

Lu Zhou: “… That’s not necessary.”

…

After Lu Zhou returned to China, he immediately threw his attention into the controllable nuclear fusion project.

The professors used Lu Zhou’s previous thesis on the stellarator plasma turbulence model as a reference. The computer science department and physics department of Jin Ling University finally finished writing the code for the plasma control scheme.

And almost at the same time, the construction of the supercomputer was also completed.

The superconductive coil and the main computer control scheme was written. Now there was only one thing left for him to do.

Which was to conduct the experiment.

After some discussion in a meeting, Lu Zhou finalized the next experiment plan. He also assigned tasks to various research units. The time of the experiment was finally decided to be on August 20th.

Even though Lu Zhou didn’t plan on doing any dangerous experiments, he still decided to report to the Jin Ling city government.

However, he didn’t expect that this ordinary experiment would be taken so seriously.

August 20th, under the Purple Mountain, outside of STAR Stellarator Research Institute.

Lu Zhou looked at the armored vehicle and helicopter parked outside of the institute entrance. He coughed and spoke to Regiment Commander Dai.

“Is this really necessary, it’s not a nuclear experiment.”

Regiment Commander Dai smiled and said, “Please don’t be nervous, Professor Lu, we’re doing this just in case. The military general even called me, and he said that if there is an accident, the equipment can be left behind, but the people must come out alive.”

If the accident you imagined really happens, it’s not like we can escape with the help of a helicopter…

The neutron beam of fusion reactions was different from the fission reaction of gamma rays. From the perspective of the neutron beam, armor was the same as cardboard, the only thing that would help was to dive underwater… However, it might not make that big of a difference.

Lu Zhou explained in a serious manner, “I have to clarify that controllable nuclear fusion is safe. It’s completely different from nuclear weapons.”

Regiment Commander Dai still had a smile on his face as he said, “I know. We’re doing this just in case.”

Lu Zhou: “…”

Since Regiment Commander Dai was so persistent, Lu Zhou let him be.

An armored truck and helicopter didn’t take up much parking space anyway.

After Lu Zhou and Regiment Commander Dai passed through the security check, they followed the guards and went into the laboratory that was under the mountain.

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The engineers and researchers were already here, and they were working in their respective workstations.

Other than that, Lu Zhou saw a man and a woman dressed in casual wear.

The young woman’s eyes lit up when she saw Lu Zhou, and she immediately walked over to him.

“Professor Lu, hello, I am Wu Qingqing from Jinling Daily, and this is my assistant Zhang An.”

The young man, who was holding a camera, nodded and smiled brightly. “Professor Lu, hello!”

Lu Zhou frowned. He didn’t look at these two. Instead, he looked at Sheng Xianfu and asked, “Why did you invite reporters?”

Sheng Xianfu was helpless, and he said, “I didn’t invite them, they were waiting at the entrance in the morning… I thought you invited them.”

Wu Qingqing saw that Lu Zhou didn’t seem like he was happy that they were here, so she immediately explained, “Professor Sheng had nothing to do with this. Jin Ling city government invited us to do a live interview… If we are interfering with your research, we can leave.”

Lu Zhou sighed and said, “Forget about it. Since you’re already here, if you want to stay, you can stay. But after the experiment begins, I hope you guys can remain quiet. Don’t say anything, don’t walk around, and don’t you dare take a phone call. Also, if you want to take any photos, take them now.”

Many Chinese and international theoretical physics and plasma research institutes liked to promote themselves using the media. CERN was a prime example of this. Even when they weren’t conducting any experiments, they would still hold a press conference every couple of days or so.

However, Lu Zhou didn’t have this habit. In his opinion, other than the final experiment result, all of the in-progress results were worthy of celebration, but they weren’t worthy of publication.

After all, theoretically, he could produce as many tiny in-progress results as he wanted.

Wu Qingqing smiled and said, “I understand! Oh yeah, before the experiment begins, can I interview you?”

Lu Zhou thought for a bit and said, “If it doesn’t take too long.”

“Professor Lu, please rest assured, it’s only a few simple questions, it won’t affect your work.” Wu Qingqing smiled brightly and opened her notebook as she said, “Many people turn their eyes when they hear the word ‘nuclear’. What I want to ask you is that, is controllable nuclear fusion really as safe as the experts say? Or rather, what will happen if there is a nuclear leak in the STAR machine?”

When Lu Zhou heard this outsider’s question, he smiled.

“Have you seen a hydrogen bomb explode?”

Wu Qingqing paused for a second and said, “… I’ve seen it in movies.”

Lu Zhou said, “If an accident happens, you’ll probably see a flash of light or you might not see it at all. Then the temperature from the explosion will turn every inch of your body into gas, but I promise this process won’t feel painful at all.”

Seeing that the two young people were nauseous, Lu Zhou chuckled.

“Just kidding.”

“Hahaha…” Wu Qingqing snorted and said, “Professor Lu, you’re such a comedian.”

Do all scientists make jokes like this?

Honestly, it’s not funny at all.

Lu Zhou spoke in a calm voice, “Relax, there’s a fundamental difference in fusion and fission reactions. The experiment today is only regarding plasma confinement, it won’t actually involve any fusion reactions.”

When Wu Qingqing heard that there wasn’t going to be any fusion reaction today, she quickly asked, “What is the difference between plasma confinement experiments and fusion reaction experiments?”

Lu Zhou: “The difference is that the nuclear fuel we use is hydrogen, not its isotope; deuterium.”

While they were speaking, the engineers had completed the final preparations for the experiment.

Lu Zhou stopped messing around and gestured the two reporters to quietly step aside. He signaled the staff to turn off their mobile phones and cameras. He then looked at Sheng Xianfu.

“Is it ready?”

Sheng Xianfu solemnly nodded and said, “It’s ready.”

Lu Zhou nodded and looked at the time on his silver watch.

It’s two minutes until 3 pm.

Everything was in place.

He looked through the floor-to-ceiling windows and looked at the steel behemoth in the middle of the laboratory.

Lu Zhou spoke in a steady and serious voice.

“Then begin the experiment!”