Chapter 380: False Celebration
Although the General Fusion Company in Maple Leaf Country bears the name "General", it actually has no connection with the General Purpose Company in Country M.
In fact, it is not just General Fusion. Apart from normal business dealings, there is no affiliation or brotherhood among the five major general companies in country M (electrical, power, automobile, mill, insurance).
Including China, there is actually a general technology, and it is a Y company.
But everyone is playing their own game in their own fields.
When General Fusion first started, it was just a privately funded project of CEO Isaiah Duke.
Later, after some operations from Duke, they finally received a total investment of US$32 million.
One-third of that comes from funding from the Maple Leaf Nation’s federal government, and two-thirds comes from Amazon and Duke himself.
To be honest, Duke is quite capable if he can attract more than 30 million U.S. dollars of investment with just a PPT and demonstration animation.
But just wanting to do nuclear fusion with this little money is still a bit of a dream, so I can only do research while looking for money.
In fact, funding is only an issue that needs to be considered later.
The biggest trouble they faced at the beginning was doubts from the outside world.
Some experts, led by Professor Vogt, a physicist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, have always had considerable opinions on the magnetized target route for universal fusion.
They continue to put pressure on the media and the government through various channels, believing that the reaction process of magnetized target fusion is very dangerous.
"The thing they built is a hydrogen bomb. Once it explodes, the consequences will be disastrous!"
This kind of remarks soon led to panicked people to hold demonstrations and protests against the "crazy research" of general fusion.
Even though General Fusion has repeatedly emphasized that the LM-26 experiment will start with a few micrograms of nuclear fuel and that the entire experiment is absolutely safe and controllable, no one will listen at all.
After all, most people may not know what controlled nuclear fusion is, but when it comes to nuclear bombs, everyone is shocked by it.
So the Maple Leaf Government was forced to move them from Vancouver to Nunavut.
The latitude and natural environment of that damn place in Nunavut are basically the same as those of the Siberian Plateau. Not only is it inaccessible and inaccessible, but it's also freezing cold.
Under such difficult conditions, it is indeed not easy for General Fusion to survive until now...
"This Kang Chi is simply our savior!"
When Duke watched the video shown to him by technical director Byrne, he immediately felt that this incident would bring unprecedented opportunities to General Fusion.
He excitedly put on his big cotton-padded jacket, packed his luggage and came to Wen Gehua, hoping to get further support from the Maple Leaf Country's Ministry of Energy.
"You should know Kang Chi's academic status in China better than anyone else. Now he is China's chief nuclear fusion engineer. Even he is optimistic about the magnetized target route and wants China to forcefully adjust its technical route. It is enough to show the great potential of the magnetized target technology route! ”
"Since we moved to Kogluktuk, the progress of the project has been delayed. No one wants to work in that ghost place. Our costs are constantly soaring..."
"If this continues, let alone completing the project as planned, it's hard to say whether we can survive next month. If you don't want all the early investment to go to waste, I think continuing to increase your chips is the best option at the moment."
However, faced with Duke’s ‘coercion and inducement’, Hadley from the Energy Bureau just smiled faintly:
"Sorry, we can't easily decide the investment direction just because a Chinese person said a few words..."
Duke's expression suddenly changed slightly after hearing this.
"You don't believe him?"
"Yes, he just used words and made Country M spend more than a billion dollars to pick up the hot potato of SSC. We don't want to make the same mistake again."
"..."
Duke was immediately anxious and didn't know what to do.
From his perspective, he must be very optimistic about the magnetized target route.
Otherwise, it would be impossible to invest all of my belongings in universal fusion.
Therefore, after watching Kang Chi’s video, he finally had the feeling that ‘I am not alone in my path’ and ‘this is the right path’.
But he ignored it, because Kang Chi once played tricks on Lao M, which led to the "collapse of international credibility", and everyone was afraid of being deceived by him again...
This was actually one of Cai Yaobin's purposes in letting Kang Chi deceive Lao Mei.
With the lesson learned from that time, even if the research direction Kang Chi is engaged in is exposed, the other party will be hesitant and dare not follow up easily.
Duke tried again for a long time, but Hadley still couldn't make any progress. Duke was so angry that he couldn't help but said angrily: "In the words of the Chinese, you are not eating because of choking! I guarantee you will regret it!"
"Maybe." Hadley sighed, "Actually, from my personal point of view, I certainly hope that my previous investment will pay off."
"But this is not something I can decide on my own. Maybe you should pray that that day comes early. There will definitely be a lot of people rushing to invest in you."
"You don't have to wait for that day." Duke said with a straight face, "When I go to Country M now, there will definitely be a lot of people rushing to invest."
"Then I can only wish you good luck."
…
In the next few days, Duke did go to Country M for a trip, but except for Amazon, the old shareholder of General Fusion, other companies were not interested at all.
It is mainly because of the ups and downs of NIF that the entire United States is very pessimistic about the prospects of the controlled nuclear fusion industry.
Looking back on the road to NIF's ignition, there are only two words to describe it:
Failure and doubt.
According to a report in Nature, the NIF project has been questioned because of its huge cost, serious over-progress and expenditure, and little effect.
The entire project has been repeatedly frustrated and faced survival crises many times.
At the beginning, NIF was a military project used to study hydrogen bombs. The entire project started in 1997 and was completed in 2009, taking a full 12 years.
In the year before its completion, Lawrence Livermore Laboratory proposed the LIFE plan based on changes in the situation, claiming to transform the laser fusion being developed by NIF into a practical commercial power plant.
They originally planned to complete the ignition in 2012, but unfortunately, due to design defects, the laser focus was not accurate and the time was not synchronized, and the ignition failed.
The key is that the deviation is still very large, and it is difficult to correct.
This not only severely dampened the enthusiasm of the United States for the research and development of controlled nuclear fusion, but also slowed down the entire international controlled nuclear fusion research.
Later, everyone knew their true colors.
Data fabrication, word games, confusion, and various shameless fraudulent funding behaviors were criticized countless times by major academic journals.
If NIF was not the only seedling of controlled nuclear fusion research in the United States, it would have been shut down long ago.
The national team has such performance, let alone commercial fusion companies.
Although Amazon also re-evaluated its investment in General Fusion because of Kang Chi's words, it was only willing to add 5 million US dollars.
It was just like sending beggars.
In fact, Amazon originally planned to give up General Fusion, but Kang Chi's words made them decide to extend the life of General Fusion,
At least, to survive this year first...
Seeing Duke go out excitedly and come back with a sad face, Byrne didn't need to guess that he must have been frustrated again.
Byrne was used to this and didn't feel very disappointed.
"Since they are all blind, how about we seek cooperation with China?" He suddenly made a suggestion, "Maybe we can test Kang Chi's true attitude towards magnetized target fusion."
Cooperate with China?
Duke was stunned,
but soon, his eyes lit up...