“…… Four flaming horses, carrying the flames, galloped in the air, from east to west, rising in the morning and evening in the evening, making the light shine on the world. ”

Sitting in the stretch car yawning and listening to the tone like singing, Lu Zhou, who withdrew his gaze from the car window, glanced at Minister Novak, who was sitting next to him.

"What are you talking about?"

This Mao Zi smiled, so kind that people couldn't tell that he was the head of the Russian Ministry of Energy, but like an enthusiastic tour guide, he explained to Lu Zhou in a humorous tone.

"Homer's epic! Description of Helios...... And the nuclear power plant we are about to arrive! ”

As he spoke, his tone was filled with emotion.

"The son of Helios once set the earth on fire in order to bring the light closer to the earth, turning Libi/Ya into a desert and burning the skin of the inhabitants of Ethiopia to black, and Homer two or three thousand years ago probably would not have imagined that people would not only have done great things that the gods could accomplish, but even surpassed the gods and found a gentle way to release the energy of the sun."

Lu Zhou: "...... How is the version you are talking about a little different from what I've heard? ”

Minister Novak said with a smile: "It's not surprising, there are many versions of this kind of oral compilation, not to mention that future generations will go through a certain amount of artistic processing when sorting it out, if you are interested, we can find an opportunity to have a good chat, it just so happens that I also have some research in this area." ”

Lu Zhou politely refused: "Thank you, but I'm not particularly interested in myths and legends." ”

For him, taking a day out to deal with things that have nothing to do with academics is already the limit of what he can accept.

Especially at this juncture when the IMU conference is about to begin.

"Well, I understand, not everyone has the talent to be a poet......" Shrugging his shoulders helplessly, Minister Novak looked out the window and looked at the towering fence not far away, "we have arrived." ”

The Helios nuclear power plant sits on the shores of the Baltic Sea, surrounded by a high wall and, like the fusion power plant in Haizhou, is guarded by Russian troops.

On the stele in front of the main entrance of the wall, Lu Zhou saw three trademarks, two of which were the China General Nuclear Power Construction Group, which was responsible for the construction of the Xihe reactor, and Dongya Power, which was responsible for supplying the reactor core, and the other was the real owner of the fusion power station, Rosatom.

As an oligarch in the field of nuclear power in Russia, Rosatom controls almost all production links in the entire Russian industrial chain from top to bottom, and even the vast majority of uranium mines in Siberia.

Partnering with such a company is not only an active choice for BEAPOWER, but also an option supported by Russian officials.

Under the contract signed between EAP and Rosatom, EAP will send engineers to the Helios nuclear power plant to provide technical services for 20 years, while selling the core to Rosatom at an expensive price.

These technical services include maintenance and upgrades to the core control system, including inspections of the safety status of the core, in short, every effort is made to ensure that the core is functioning properly.

At the same time, in the past two decades, BEEPCO will also take 13% of the profits generated by the cores provided by BEPCO.

Although this kind of cooperation that sells you things and makes money with your things has a bit of an unequal treaty flavor, who wants to have only one company in the world now?

At a time when the European Union and North America were still vacillating, Russia signed the agreement without saying a word, and it is because of this that they have successfully become the first overseas core project customer of East Asia Power.

And now, the core from Huaguo has finally been delivered here.

In order to welcome the historic moment of core ignition, not only the Russian energy minister visited here in person, but also made a special trip to cooperate with Lu Zhou's itinerary and adjusted the ignition time to the beginning of August.

In fact, if it weren't for waiting for Lu Zhou, they would have been able to light the fire a week ago.

At the door of the Helios Fusion Power Station, an old man with gray hair stood there, and when he saw Lu Zhou walking down from the car, his eyes suddenly showed a glint of joy and greeted him with a smile.

"Welcome, Professor Lu! We meet again. ”

"Hello, Academician Vasily."

Holding the old man's outstretched hands and shaking them, Lu Zhou smiled kindly, and then looked at another middle-aged man with a serious face standing next to him.

"Who is this?"

"Lermontov," he took the initiative to stretch out his right hand, not quite like the enthusiastic academician Vasily, the middle-aged man with a serious face did not seem to be very interested in him, but said briefly, "one of the people in charge here. ”

Not caring about the person in charge's attitude towards him, Lu Zhou nodded to him in a friendly manner, and then continued to look at the door.

At this moment, he suddenly saw an unexpected figure.

"Academician Wang? Why are you here? ”

Chief Engineer of Nuclear Industry Group, Academician Wang Zengguang!

One of the veterans in the nuclear power field who ignited the fusion fire with him in Haizhou!

Ignoring the old men of the previous era, such as Pan Changhong and Academician Zhou Chengfu, plus Academician Li Jiangang of the Institute of Physical Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which has a relatively low sense of existence, the three of them are basically the three giants in the field of China's nuclear industry.

Because Lu Zhou did not publish engineering articles, did not accept students, and even resigned from his position, Mr. Wang's influence in the nuclear industry may be a little greater than him.

This time Lu Zhou was really surprised, he really didn't expect that Academician Wang would also come.

"After all, it's the first overseas project of our nuclear fusion project, so I can't ignore it," Wang Zengguang smiled, squeezed his eyebrows at the surprised Lu Zhou, and continued, "Let's go, the people from Rosatom have been waiting for us for a long time, don't you see that our Mr. Lermontov is already impatient?" Let's stop standing at the door, come in and talk. ”

The group didn't stay at the door for long.

Even without Academician Wang's urging, Minister Novak had no intention of letting Lu Zhou stand at the door and continue to greet him.

He couldn't wait for the upcoming ignition ceremony.

On the way to the control tower of the fusion power station, Lu Zhou learned from small talk that as a representative sent by the nuclear industry group, Academician Wang arrived much earlier than him, and even arrived as early as a week.

The ignition was supposed to start a week ago, but it was postponed for various reasons.

Although this has nothing to do with the Chinese side, mainly the Russian side's own arrangement, many technicians and management personnel of Rosatom have complained about it.

After all, ignition a week later means that the electricity is turned on a week later, and a week later means that their capital chain has to bear the pressure of an extra week.

If the ignition is postponed for safety or other technical reasons, it is just a little uncomfortable to adjust the ignition date by a whole week just to wait for a Chinese flight and a minister's political show.

But no matter what, this moment has finally arrived.

At this moment, there was a group of people standing in the black tower of the command tower.

The person standing at the head was naturally Minister Novak, and most of the people standing next to him were senior officials of the Russian Ministry of Energy, as well as core technical personnel of several nuclear power companies.

Camera lenses lined up around the command room, and reporters with long guns and short guns in their hands made the already not very spacious command room even more crowded.

However, no one cared about these details, staring at the screen and buttons on the console in front of them, and almost all the Russians present held their breath.

All the work was ready a week in advance.

Now it's just a matter of pressing the last button!

Under everyone's gaze, Minister Novak, who was standing in front of the console, tried to calm his heartbeat, watching the button in front of him rub his index finger and thumb repeatedly.

Taking a final deep breath, he looked away from the console, glanced around at the reporters with cameras in their hands, and the Rosatom engineers, and spoke in a solemn voice.

"It's a great moment!"

"It is not only a testimony to the fact that the Russian people have finally ushered in an unquenchable fire, but also to our friendship with the Chinese people...... May it last as long as the sun, and may our world be at peace forever because of eternal energy. ”

With that, under the gaze of all eyes, he pressed the button.

And then......

Doesn't seem to be responding?

Staring at the irradiation data and plasma temperature on the console, Lu Zhou frowned slightly, not knowing if it was his illusion, he always felt that this was a little different from the situation when he pressed the button in Haizhou.

Academician Wang and Academician Vasily obviously saw this, and their expressions became solemn.

However, the reporters standing next to him, and Minister Novak himself, who pressed the button, did not seem to notice anything wrong, and even let out cheers.

However, at this moment, the door of the command room was suddenly pushed open, and an engineer wearing a hard hat walked quickly to the side of Minister Novak, and said in a trembling voice with an ugly face.

"Mr. Minister!"

He still had a happy expression on his face, but after seeing the engineer's face, he realized that something might not be quite right, and his face suddenly fell.

However, he barely managed to keep his composure, and asked with a dignified expression on his face.

“…… What happened? ”

"Something seems to be wrong with the core."

There was a sudden silence in the command tower.

The reporters who were taking pictures stopped.

The expression on Minister Novak's face froze for a moment.

And after coming back to his senses, the cold sweat on his forehead came out.

"What the hell is going on?! What does it mean that something is wrong with the core? ”

The hardhat-wearing engineer swallowed and spat at the mouth, continuing in a trembling voice.

"Our core ......"

"It doesn't seem to be lit."