385 The Invisible Bullet (3/3)

Chapter 385 Invisible Bullets (33)

On the day the experiment started, there were thick dark clouds over the upper town of Princeton, as if a heavy rain was brewing.

Stepping on the dot to the PPPL laboratory, Lu Zhou, who was walking in the corridor, suddenly felt that this road was a little strange.

It was as if I was not heading to the laboratory, but on my way to the delivery room of the hospital. .

After thinking about it carefully, Lu Zhou felt that there was nothing wrong with describing it this way.

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

Including himself, he no longer knows how much energy has been devoted to this project.

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

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

The layout of the room is very messy, the wires are messily intertwined and tied together with several plastic ropes, especially the computer used to control the electromagnetic field of the atomic gun, the motherboard and wires are exposed outside.

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

The engineers here can only ensure that there are no malfunctions, not that the people who come here will applaud in awe.

Looking around at the people in the control room, Lu Zhou quickly saw Professor Lazelsson.

However, besides Professor Lazersson, there was a strange man standing beside him.

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

"Hello, Mr. Lu Zhou."

He also found Lu Zhou, and Professor Razelsson introduced his immediate boss to him with a wink.

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

Looking at this man unexpectedly, Lu Zhou shook his hand.

"Hello."

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

Probably last year, Professor Stuart Prager, the former director of PPPL, caused a loss of 438 million US dollars to the US Department of Energy due to the failure of NSTX-U equipment. He voluntarily resigned and quit. He succeeded the director of PPPL Laboratory and the head of Fusion Energy Science (FES), carrying the banner of future energy.

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

Those seemingly impractical projects were cut off decisively. If the "He-3" project team did not show enough potential, the knife would probably fall on them too...

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

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

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

Lu Zhou: "Thank you."

"Don't thank me in a hurry, I didn't help, and what I'm going to say next is not a good thing." After a pause, Professor Brog continued blankly, "If this experiment still fails If so, I hope the project can be suspended, PPPL researchers are not your personal employees, we can't waste time on projects with no potential."

Lu Zhou frowned slightly: "Even if I am willing to bear the expenses?"

Staring at Lu Zhou, Professor Brog said unmoved: "That's right."

Seeing that there was something wrong with the atmosphere between the two.

Noticing this, Professor Lazelson coughed lightly, hurried up to smooth things over, and pulled Lu Zhou aside.

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

"Maybe..." Professor Lazelson hesitated, and said in an uncertain tone, "He is eyeing the four million dollars in the scientific research account..."

I don't want to speculate about my boss like that, but it's clearly the case.

"Four million?" Lu Zhou was slightly taken aback, but his focus was somewhat different from that of Professor Razelson. "Why are there still four million left?"

Hearing this sentence, Professor Razelson almost choked on his breath.

Four million left?

Why do you feel dissatisfied with your tone?

"10 million is the price I quoted casually. In fact, Brookhaven National Laboratory has a good relationship with us. They can't find a more suitable buyer for the obsolete old equipment other than us. Counting the original The money in the account, we only spent a total of more than seven million dollars..."

Speaking of this, Professor Lazelson's eyes dodged a little, "The problem is not here, but the remaining funds in our scientific research account. You know, although our life seems to be very comfortable, but the controllable core Fusion, a technology that invests in the future, is difficult to see the prospect of commercialization in the short term, and the Budget Committee of Congress has been looking for trouble for us..."

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

Professor Lazersson said solemnly: "Of course it does. If our project is cut off, the funds can be transferred to projects with more potential."

Lu Zhou froze for a moment, and couldn't help but groan in his heart.

"Can it still be like this?"

"Who would have thought that you can send money so fast?" Professor Lazelson looked aside and coughed lightly, "If we had signed an agreement at that time, stipulating clearly the purpose of the donated funds, the situation might have changed. We're better off... But it's pointless to say that now, as long as we succeed."

Naturally, no one can move this funding in the scientific research account of the "He-3" project team, but as long as the project team itself is cut off, it will be fine. Although it is unethical to do so, it is also part of procedural justice.

However, as Professor Lazersson said, it is meaningless to discuss this now.

If their project has been unable to produce results, even if there is no balance of the four million dollars in research funding, Professor Brogg will find a way to cut the project.

After all, there are many projects with more potential in the PPPL laboratory, and it is impossible to waste scientific research resources on a project with no potential, even if you don't have to bear the funds for this project.

As the person in charge here, he must consider the problem from the overall perspective.

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

...

With the arrival of Lu Zhou, after a brief meeting, Professor Lazelsson announced the official start of the experiment.

Working at their respective posts, all held their breath.

For fear of disturbing the plasma in the vacuum chamber and the helium-3 particles that are about to be launched.

When everything was ready, Professor Lazersson did not speak, but cast his gaze at Lu Zhou.

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

Knowing what he meant, Professor Lazelson took a deep breath, reached out and pressed the button.

All the work has been done.

leftover……

There is only prayer left.

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 superconducting critical temperature, the current passing through the superconducting coil begins to rise sharply, which prepares the initial velocity for the helium 3 atoms hovering in the track.

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

Everything is like a bullet loaded, simply and neatly.

Professor Lazersson cast his eyes on Lu Zhou.

In the silent communication, Lu Zhou nodded.

This time, it was him.

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

As if the trigger was pulled, the helium-3 atoms moving outside the orbit suddenly broke away from the acceleration orbit and moved to the launch orbit tangent to the acceleration orbit.

There is no sound.

Can't see anything either.

However, at the moment when the atomic gun fired helium 3, the helium 3 atom accelerated to the limit, like a bullet out of the chamber, slammed into the scorching plasma with huge energy.

The electromagnetic wave signal collected by the detector has layers of jittering ripples.

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

At this moment, whether it was Lu Zhou, Professor Lazelsson and other researchers in the laboratory, or the director of the PPPL laboratory, Professor Brogge, all of them stopped breathing for half a second.

It was also at the same moment that the helium-3 nucleus that penetrated the plasma silently hit the target material...

The weak fluctuations were quickly captured by the probe behind the target material, and the impact data was fed back to the laboratory computer screen.

Time seemed to freeze at this second.

In the next second, cheers erupted in the laboratory.

Professor Lazersson threw his hat into the sky violently, cheered with excitement that did not match his age, and waved his fists.

"We made it! We made it!"