On the day the experiment began, thick dark clouds were over the town of Princeton High Town, as if a heavy rain was brewing.

Stepping on the point to come to the PPPL laboratory, Lu Zhou, walking in the corridor, suddenly felt that this road was a little unfamiliar.

It's as if you're not on your way to the lab, but on your way to the delivery room of the hospital.

After thinking about it carefully, Lu Zhou felt that there seemed to be nothing wrong with describing it like this.

For this project, or just for such an illusory possibility, the engineers and researchers of the entire "He-3" project team have been struggling for countless days and nights.

Including himself, it is no longer known how much energy has been poured into this project.

It is no exaggeration to say that the "He-3 atomic probe" technology is his child.

Walking along the corridor to the door of the control room, Lu Zhou pushed the door and walked inside.

The layout of the room was chaotic, the wires were messily entangled, sorted and tied with several plastic ropes, especially the computer used to control the electromagnetic field of the atomic gun, and the motherboard and wires were exposed.

After all, it's something that was put together in a hurry.

The engineers here can only make sure that there are no glitches, and they can't guarantee that the people who come here will applaud in amazement.

Glancing around at the people in the control room, Lu Zhou quickly saw Professor Lazersson.

However, in addition to Professor Lazersson, there was a strange man standing next to him.

Noticing Lu Zhou walking towards him, the man stretched out his right hand expressionlessly.

"Hello, Mr. Lu Zhou."

Lu Zhou was also discovered, and Professor Lazersson introduced him to his immediate boss with great eyes.

"This is the director of the PPPL laboratory, Professor Terry Brog."

Looking at this man in surprise, Lu Zhou held his hand and shook it.

"Hello."

About this Terry Brog, Lu Zhou has heard of it.

Probably last year, Professor Stuart Prager, the former director of PPPL, voluntarily resigned and quit because of the failure of the NSTX-U equipment, which caused a loss of $438 million to the US Department of Energy.

After taking over, the first thing he did was to clean up the mess left by his predecessor and strengthen the management of scientific research funds.

Those projects that seemed impractical were decisively chopped down, and if the "He-3" project team did not show enough potential, the knife would probably fall on them as well......

Thinking of this, Lu Zhou suddenly vaguely guessed why this guy came.

Looking at Lu Zhou, Professor Brogg cleared his throat and said expressionlessly.

"First of all, congratulations on making it this far."

Lu Zhou: "Thank you. ”

"Don't rush to thank me, I didn't help, and what I'm going to say next is not a good thing," after a pause, Professor Brogge continued with a blank face, "If this experiment still fails, I hope to be able to suspend the project, the PPPL researchers are not your personal employees, and we can't waste time on projects that don't have potential." ”

Lu Zhou's eyebrows furrowed slightly: "Even if I am willing to bear the expenses?" ”

Staring at Lu Zhou, Professor Brogg said unmoved, "That's right. ”

I saw that there was something wrong with the atmosphere between the two.

Sensing this, Professor Lazersson coughed lightly, hurriedly came up to play the round, and pulled Lu Zhou aside.

Looking at Professor Lazersson, Lu Zhou frowned and asked, "What exactly does he mean?" ”

"Perhaps......" Professor Lazersson said hesitantly, in an uncertain tone, "he's eyeing the four million dollars in his research account......"

I don't want to speculate about my boss like that, but it's clear that it is.

"Four million?" Lu Zhou was slightly stunned, but his focus was a little different from that of Professor Lazersson, "Why is there still four million left?" ”

Hearing this, Professor Lazersson almost choked on his breath.

Four million left?

How can you still be a little dissatisfied with your tone?

"Ten million is the price I casually quoted, in fact, Brookhaven National Laboratory has a good relationship with us, and they can't find a more suitable buyer for the obsolete old equipment except us. Counting the money in the original account, we only spent a total of more than $7 million......"

Speaking of this, Professor Lazersson's eyes were a little evasive, "The problem is not here, but the remaining funds in our research account. You know, while our days seem to be comfortable, it's hard to see the prospect of commercialization in the short term for controlled fusion, a technology that invests in the future, and the Congressional Budget Committee has been looking for trouble for us......"

"What does this have to do with me." Lu Zhou said with a headache.

"Of course, it matters, if we cut our project, the money can be diverted to more potential projects." ”

Lu Zhou was slightly stunned, and couldn't help but groan in his heart.

"Can it still be like this?"

"Who would have thought you would be able to send money so quickly," Professor Lazersson dodged and looked to the side, coughing lightly, "If we had signed an agreement to make it clear what the donated funds were to be used for, things might have been more favorable to us...... But there is no point in saying that now, we just need to succeed. ”

Naturally, no one can touch this fund in the scientific research account of the "He-3" project team, but as long as the project team itself is cut. This is not moral, but it is part of procedural justice.

But as Professor Lazersson had said, there was no point in discussing this at this point.

If their project doesn't come to fruition, Professor Brogge will find a way to cut the project, even if he doesn't have the $4 million research fund balance.

After all, there are many more promising projects going on in the PPPL lab, and it is impossible to waste scientific resources on a project that has no potential, even if it does not have to bear the cost of the project.

As the person in charge here, he has to think about the big picture.

So, for the "He-3" project team, they need a victory to prove themselves!

……

With Lu Zhou's arrival, and after a brief meeting, Professor Lazersson announced the official start of the experiment.

Working in their respective positions, everyone held their breath.

For fear of disturbing the plasma in the vacuum chamber, as well as the helium-3 particles that were about to be emitted.

When everything was ready, Professor Lazersson didn't speak, just cast his gaze at Lu Zhou.

Lu Zhou also didn't speak, just silently gave a thumbs up.

Knowing what he meant, Professor Lazersson took a deep breath and reached out to press the button.

All the work has been done.

The rest ......

All that's left is prayer.

The liquid helium passing through the gate gradually soaked the wire, and the conductor in the ultra-low temperature environment gradually approached the critical temperature of superconductivity.

The moment the temperature of the magnetic track reaches the critical temperature of superconductivity, the current through the superconducting coil begins to rise sharply, preparing the muzzle velocity of the helium-3 atoms circling in the orbit.

At the moment when the No. 1 signal light is on, the speed of the helium-3 atoms is increased to the limit, and at the same time, the "atomic gun" has completed its loading.

Everything is like a bullet loaded, crisp and clean.

Professor Lazersson cast his gaze at Lu Zhou.

In the silent exchange, Lu Zhou nodded.

This time, it's him.

Taking a deep breath, Lu Zhou walked to the computer and pressed the second and final button.

As if pulling the trigger, the helium-3 atoms moving on the outside of the orbit suddenly detached from the acceleration orbit and moved to the launch orbit tangent to the acceleration orbit.

There was no sound.

I can't see anything.

However, at the moment when the atomic gun fired helium-3, the helium-3 atom that was accelerated to the limit was like a bullet out of the chamber, carrying a huge amount of energy, and crashed into the scorching plasma.

The electromagnetic wave signal collected on the detector caused layers of jitter ripples.

Everything happened in a moment, but it was as long as a century.

At this moment, whether it was Lu Zhou, Professor Lazersson and other researchers in the laboratory, or Professor Brog, the director of the PPPL laboratory, their breathing paused for half a second.

It was at the same moment that the helium-3 nucleus, which had penetrated the plasma, quietly crashed into the target material......

The faint fluctuation was quickly captured by the probe behind the target material, and the impact data was fed back to the computer screen in the laboratory.

Time seems to freeze in this second.

And the next second, the laboratory erupted in boiling cheers.

Professor Lazersson threw his hat into the air, waving his fists in cheer with excitement befitting his age.

"We succeeded! We did it! ”