Scholar's Advanced Technological System
chapter-594

Chapter 594: To Go or Not to Go?

Miniaturization of controllable fusion?

WTF?

Feng Shuqing nearly dropped the phone in his hand.

The demonstration reactor was just recently released, and he’s already thinking about making a miniature version of it?

Even though he wasn’t in the nuclear fusion field, he was still a student from Shuimu University. Not to mention, he had worked at the Ministry of Science and Technology for many years and was also responsible for the restructuring of the STAR demonstration reactor project team. He had a certain understanding of the nuclear fusion research.

Lu Zhou noticed that the phone went silent. He paused for a second before asking, “Is there a problem?”

“Nothing… Just send the name list to my work email.” Feng Shuqing hesitated for a bit before saying, “Miniaturization of controllable fusion… Isn’t it a bit early to do this? I think a second-generation controllable fusion is more reliable.”

Scientific research was difficult.

Even though he knew Lu Zhou was nutty, he still couldn’t help but warn Lu Zhou.

Lu Zhou immediately knew what he was thinking about, but he was too lazy to explain in detail, so he briefly explained, “Nuclear batteries are also considered to be a small fusion reactor, but there’s quite a difference between nuclear batteries and a real controllable fusion reactor. If you don’t understand the difference, you can think of it as the fission reactor and a radioisotope battery. I’m well aware of my research capabilities, so you don’t have to worry about it.”

His reply was quite impolite.

However, since Lu Zhou spoke in such a confident manner, Feng Shuqing felt a lot more comfortable.

There were many scholars in the Ministry of Science and Technology, and they spoke in roughly the same manner. They were just too lazy to explain things in detail to laymen.

However, one thing for sure was that there were two possible scenarios for these scholars. There was a 20% chance that they would be stuck in a research pit, and the other 80% was the chance of success.

Feng Shuqing felt like Lu Zhou wasn’t the type of person to be stuck in a research pit.

Therefore, it had to be the latter…

Lu Zhou didn’t really care about Secretary Feng’s opinions.

The energy was the main problem of the Hall-effect thruster. If Lu Zohu didn’t want to reduce the thrust power, the only option was to increase the energy.

After Lu Zhou hung up the call, he made a name list on his computer and sent it to Feng Shuqing’s email.

After that, he quit his browser and opened a blank Word document. He sat in front of his computer while contemplating for a while. He then placed his hands on the keyboard and began to type.

The staff problem was easy to solve; he just had to transfer researchers and engineers from the STAR-2 project team.

The demonstration reactor project trained a large number of experts in plasma physics and controllable fusion. All he had to do was to look through the STAR-2 demonstration reactor project’s staff list, and he would easily find anyone that he would need.

With help from these researchers, his research on the fusion battery would become much more feasible.

Of course, since controllable fusion was now a sensitive technology, he had to report this to the government.

Even though fusion batteries were completely different from fusion reactors, there was a lot of overlapping technology.

Especially if he decided to go the route of inertial confinement fusion. It was very likely that he would use laser ignition. Not only could the laser ignition be used for plasma research, but it could also be used for nuclear testing.

Due to its involvement in many sensitive areas, Lu Zhou couldn’t conduct this research without cooperation from the state.

However, getting cooperation from the state was an easy thing for him.

He looked at the title on the screen and smirked.

[Application Prospects and Technical Feasibility of Controllable Fusion Miniaturization Technology in the Aerospace Field]

He believed that once he handed in this thesis proposal, he would definitely be able to establish this project…

…

Haizhou.

Demonstration reactor site.

Sheng Xianfu was sitting in his office, filling out forms at his desk.

Since the STAR-2 demonstration reactor project was successfully completed and the commendation conference was over, his life had been quite enjoyable, to say the least.

Not only did the success of the demonstration ignition give him a shiny medal, but it also gave him respect and status.

According to the restructuring arrangements of the project team, the STAR Institute would probably be merged with the East Asia Energy Company, and Secretary Feng, who was responsible for the restructuring work, gave him two options.

One was to go into the company, which was, to stay in the newly established East Asia Energy as the chief engineer and vice president of the technology department.

The other option was to return to the Southwestern Institute of Physics, where he would serve as the director and had full control of the institute.

Sheng Xianfu thought about this for a long time.

Due to the future development prospects of East Asia Energy, the company would definitely have higher career potential. Once he received enough qualifications, he could transfer to the parent company and become the vice president of the whole company. His level would be equivalent to oil giants.

Going to the Southwestern Institute of Physics and becoming the director would give him short term power and status, but the development space was much smaller. Even if he became an academician in the future, it wouldn’t be better than to stay in the corporate world.

If this were an average person making this decision, most of them would choose the former.

However, after some contemplating, Sheng Xianfu chose the latter.

The reason was simple.

Compared to working in a corporate environment, he much preferred to work in a research institute. Being a scholar wasn’t his career, it was his life.

Also, back then, he quit his job at the Southwestern Institute of Physics to work on the STAR-2 project, and a lot of people gave him dirty looks because of this.

Even though no one was insulting him in front of him, he was still well aware of this. The choice that he made in the past was infamous among his ex-colleagues.

If he returned now as the director, it would probably make a lot of people shut their mouths.

When Sheng Xianfu thought about the scene, he couldn’t help but smirk.

It was true, he wanted to brag.

After all, bragging was part of being a human being.

Even though he was still sitting in this office, his mind was thousands of kilometers away, all the way in Rongcheng.

Suddenly, he heard knocking sounds from his office door, and this interrupted his train of thought.

Sheng Xianfu put down the pen in his hand and looked at the door.

“Come in.”

The office door opened, and a stranger walked in.

Judging from this guy’s posture and movement, he didn’t look like a researcher. Instead, he looked more like one of the soldiers who were guarding the site.

Sheng Xianfu looked at the stranger and paused for a second. He then asked, “Who are you?”

The man made a brief self-introduction.

“I’m from the State Administration for National Defense.”

From the State Administration for National Defense?

Sheng Xianfu paused for a second and said, “Do you need anything from me?”

The man said, “Professor Lu is looking for you.”

Sheng Xianfu: “Is there a project?”

“Yes.”

Sheng Xianfu was baffled at this short-sentence speaking guy. He smiled and said, “Can you tell me what the project is?”

The man shook his head and said, “The research project is confidential. I cannot disclose any specific content. You just need to tell me if you’re going or not.”

“So I have a choice?”

“Of course.”

Sheng Xianfu went into deep thought.

On one hand, he could serve as the director of the Southwestern Institute of Physics. On the other hand, he could work for Professor Lu in scientific research… He didn’t even know what the specific project was.

Should I go or not?

He was in a dilemma…