The end of the month is getting closer.

Finally, all the contradictions are also on the verge of breaking point.

The next closed-door meeting of the ITER Board of Directors will soon be held in Saint-Paulet-Durandz, France, where the U.S. side will once again challenge Chinese representatives on issues related to the STAR Institute and intellectual property.

If nothing else, this may be the last time the ITER Council will discuss this issue.

Because all indications are that the outcome of this meeting will determine the stay of Huaguo in the ITER organization.

As for the compromise made by the Chinese side, the outside world has basically not had any expectations.

There are even unnamed ITER employees who have been interviewed by the media, which may be the trigger for the ITER organization to fall apart.

This may sound like an exaggeration.

But in fact, this possibility is not impossible.

As we all know, IITER has a total of seven main participating countries, namely Europe, the United States, Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, and India. And almost every participating country, with the exception of ITER, has its own domestic controlled nuclear fusion project.

It has almost become the consensus of all countries to establish their own technological advantages in controlled fusion research.

It is not difficult to predict that in the case of ITER, which is an international public project, countries will pass the buck to each other.

This can be seen from the fact that the ITER project is underfunded every year.

Obviously, no one thought that this bloated, barely patchwork giant ship could go far.

What's more, the captain at the helm is still European.

The sudden attack on intellectual property rights by the US side can be said to have put the contradiction on the table.

The light of fusion, which was finally ignited, was like a candle in the wind, crumbling in the cold night.

However, no matter how the international format changes, for scholars engaged in research in this field, the experiments that should be done still need to be done.

At the same time that Lu Zhou received the good news from Daya Bay, an experiment on magnetic confinement time was also going on in the Spiral Stone 7-X Laboratory in Germany.

"37 minutes and 6 seconds," Kerwin continued, looking at the timing on the computer screen, "and that's probably the best time this month." ”

Although there is still a terrifying gap of one hour from the STAR device, at least they are now able to steadily achieve more than half an hour of magnetic confinement time.

Professor Millerke asked, "Is it possible to conduct an ignition experiment?" ”

Professor Kreber shook his head: "The irradiation problem still can't be solved. ”

Professor Millerk: "Is there any progress?" ”

"Progress?" The expression on Professor Kreber's face became even more bitter, "The only progress is probably that we have a vague feeling that the alloy route may not work. The swelling effect of metal materials in the environment of neutron irradiation is too obvious, and it is difficult to change this status quo no matter how much we try...... Unless we can constrain neutrons? But it sounds too magical. ”

The latest technology now uses a molybdenum and zirconium alloy, which is quite effective against the swelling effect of neutron irradiation, but alloys doped with molybdenum are much more difficult to weld than austenitic steels.

And not only that, no matter how small the amount of molybdenum doped, the radioactivity of its transmutation products will always be an unstable factor.

Millec thought for a moment, and then suddenly said, "If the alloy can't work, what about non-metallic materials?" ”

Kirwin shrugged helplessly: "There are many non-metallic materials, but the question is do you have a good suggestion?" ”

This is not the first time that this idea has been proposed in the field of controlled fusion research, and it has even been mentioned in the last century. But the problem is that there has not been much progress in research in this area.

Thinking of this, Kirwin couldn't help but fall into deep thought.

If it was Lu Zhou, what choice would he make?

However, Kerrwin, who was thinking about this question, had no clue at all.

Thinking of this, he sighed.

It would be nice to collaborate with the STAR Research Institute on stellar simulator research......

If his teammate is Professor Lu, he is confident that he will shorten the time for commercialization of controlled fusion by at least two decades.

And once this technology is completed, the entire human civilization will benefit from it.

But as it stands......

This is obviously not possible.

……

Outside the lab, Helms, sitting in the lounge, sipped his coffee leisurely, his eyes drifting to his watch from time to time.

A few months ago, he was just an ordinary mid-level CIA official, but he was appreciated at the top because of an evaluation report on controlled fusion research.

He is now the CIA-appointed intelligence officer on controlled fusion, with full responsibility for the collection of important intelligence in the relevant field, and has certain decision-making power in some matters.

This time, he came to Germany to learn about the latest progress in stellarite research at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, and to meet with senior officials of the German Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy.

The response to the Chinese problem has been effective, at least on the surface, and research on controlled fusion in China has come to a halt.

The successive strikes of the STAR-1 and HL-2A, the interruption of cooperation between the EAST plant and General Atomics, one cannot help but wonder how far they can go on this subject without the "help" of the international community.

In any case, now is the time to take advantage of the victory,

Of course, although on the surface the plan went well, he would never do anything stupid to belittle his opponent.

At least the name Lu Zhou is an unstable factor that he can't let go.

Judging from the limited information, the cause of the failure of the two devices is inseparable from the name of this person.

At this moment, sitting across from him was Lyman, the CIA's intelligence commissioner in Germany.

Unlike the usual undercover agents, his identity is public and registered with the German Ministry of Defense. The main ones were sitting in the office drinking coffee, or exchanging information with German intelligence.

He coordinated Helms' meeting with senior officials of the German Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy.

When the two were chatting, they happened to talk about the name Lu Zhou.

Although the focus of Lyman's work was not here, he raised his eyebrows with interest.

“…… So how many teachers do you think this Professor Lu is worth? ”

Helms: "If you really knew him, you wouldn't ask such stupid questions. His value is not calculated by a few divisions, but should be calculated in Silicon Valley or Seattle. ”

Not paying attention to Helms's ridicule, Lyman said with a smile: "When did Silicon Valley and Seattle become units of measurement?" ”

Helms: "Silicon Valley and Seattle are not, but the underlying economic value behind them is. If a person can create a GDP of 10 billion or even more than 100 billion, I think he has that potential. ”

Lehmann: "Can a Nobel laureate create a GDP of 100 billion?" Is this the currency of Zimbabwe or Venezuela? ”

"Dollars, of course, and only conservative estimates. The more I studied his material, the more certain I was of my inference," Helms said, putting down his coffee, "but neither the White House nor the C.I.A. paid enough attention to the name, and I think it's quite dangerous." ”

Lyman leaned back in his chair: "Maybe you can write a detailed report and send it to the White House to remind the showy president." ”

Helms: "Actually, I'm doing that. ”

While he was talking, a group of people came to the door.

The leader is none other than Norbert, Secretary General of the German Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy.

Standing up, Helms smiled and held out his right hand.

"Hello, Mr. Norbert, it's a pleasure for us to meet again."

"Hello, Mr. Helms," he shook his right hand from Helms, Norbert didn't say much and got straight to the point, "You probably didn't fly here from the United States to have coffee with me, just talk about something." ”

"Here's the thing," Helms said with a smile as he withdrew his right hand and gathered his thoughts for a moment, "Our Congress has reassessed the Controlled Fusion program and restarted an investment budgeted at about $2 billion to build a new stellarator experiment at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California." For German companies, this would mean at least a billion dollars in orders, as well as thousands, if not tens of thousands, of jobs, which I am sure will be of interest to you. ”

"Oh?" Norbert's eyebrows were raised in interest, but there was no more expression, "Although I am interested in this topic, why is it that someone from the CIA came to consult with us." ”

What he didn't understand even more was why the CIA people were revealing this news to themselves.

"Because the specific bidding plan will probably come out next month. If you are interested in this project, I have a small proposal. ”

Norbert said quietly: "What proposal?" ”

"The closed-door meeting of the ITER Board of Directors at the end of the month," Helms said with a smile on his face as he looked at Norbert's expression, "and we think it's time to get Huaguo out." ”

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(Recommend a very interesting system flow "System Founder", a new book of conscience~)