Chapter 751: An Incredible Goal

The news of the Materials Research Institute’s first ignition remained hot and continued to spread throughout the controlled nuclear fusion field over time.

The official media ran a special report, highly praising the achievements of Q1-NTST.

On Wednesday, the institute’s first visitors arrived—not from any research institution, but from An Haofeng’s team, the primary official in charge of science and technology in Xia Nation.

After the entire visit ended and everyone returned to rest, An Haofeng pulled Xu Qingzhou aside for tea in his office.

“Please have some tea.”

Xu Qingzhou poured tea for the elder, knowing An Haofeng had something else to say.

“I’ve read the technical reports from the experts—the data is flawless, and the higher-ups are placing great importance on the development of Qiankun No. 1. This visit, beyond affirming and supporting your achievements, is to represent the ministry and learn about your future plans.”

An Haofeng got straight to the point.

Previously, the institute had already submitted to the Ministry of Science and Technology the complete monitoring curves of ion current and temperature sustained for 1000 seconds, along with data from all subsystems.

The man before him was not only a 24-year-old youth, but also a world-renowned mathematician and Nobel laureate.

In the 14th and 15th Five-Year Plans, the state shifted its strategic focus in battery technology from solid-state batteries to lithium-sulfur batteries—this young man had changed national policy.

“We expect to reach the Lawson ignition threshold within two months, and achieve net energy gain within one year.”

Xu Qingzhou did not conceal it; he smiled and said.

“Two months to Lawson ignition threshold? One year to net energy gain?!”

An Haofeng froze for several seconds, wondering if he’d misheard; he slowly said, “Professor Xu, although I am not an expert in controlled nuclear fusion, I am fully aware of the difficulty of these two goals. Are you certain they can be achieved in such a short time?”

From any perspective, it sounded like fantasy.

After decades of development in controlled nuclear fusion, only three devices have clearly reached the Lawson ignition threshold—namely, a triple product of 3×10 keV·s/m.

The recent breakthroughs came from HL-3, Germany’s Wendelstein 7-X stellarator, and the U.S. National Ignition Facility (NIF).

The first two only reached the Lawson ignition threshold; the latter claimed net energy gain, but sustained it for an extremely brief duration—essentially a crippled version.

“I am no prophet and cannot guarantee success. But given a comprehensive assessment, with Qiankun No. 1’s current technology, achieving these two goals in a short time is difficult—but not impossible.”

Over these past days, Xu Qingzhou used data from the first ignition to build several models for simulating upcoming experiments; the results were quite promising.

Although they had shared some of the first ignition data with the outside world, the core equipment parameters remained in their own hands, so no one knew the true state of their device.

An Haofeng asked gravely, “How confident are you?”

“About 60 percent.”

Xu Qingzhou smiled, offering a conservative estimate.

“It seems you have great confidence in Qiankun No. 1’s performance,” An Haofeng said involuntarily.

If anyone else had told him this, he would have scoffed and thought them insane—but the words of the man before him demanded serious consideration.

Xu Qingzhou smiled and sipped his tea.

In truth, in his own mind, he was at least 90 percent certain—Qiankun No. 1 was designed by his own hands, and he knew its limits better than anyone.

It could essentially satisfy all experimental conditions required for a demonstration reactor.

Of course, while theoretically true, the actual experimental process would still encounter many uncontrollable variables.