Chapter 516 - 505 I Agreed_1

"The energy level of 250 TeV is not enough, 300 TeV, we must accelerate protons to an energy of 300 TeV. Since we’ve decided to build a large accelerator, it’s only meaningful if we can crack the secrets of hadrons."

Inside the Union Mining Headquarters, Ye Changsi waved several pages of stapled report, and everyone present also had a copy in front of them.

It was a report that described a hypothesis about the mechanism of the weak force in nuclear forces and its transformation into a practical tool.

The report suggested that only a super accelerator capable of accelerating protons to an energy of 300 TeV (tera electron volts) could assist weak force research and bring substantial practical significance.

Ye Changsi and Cheng Nankai believed that once the weak force was mastered, it would be possible to create a new type of molecular structure locked by nuclear forces, extremely inert and frighteningly strong in nature, with many unexpected physical properties, bringing theoretical breakthroughs to materials science from the ground up.

One of the envisioned applications was as the shell of space elevators or deep space spacecraft, to withstand unpredictable micro-meteorites and radiation storms, which was why they managed to convince the base to allocate 10 billion in funds to support the particle accelerator project.

This series of reasons left the scientists present dumbfounded, but the domestic researchers could understand; after all, New Yuan gave the impression of being unscrupulous in pursuit of space, constantly developing side businesses to the point of selling space planes to fund its own space exploration, so this reason was somewhat acceptable.

Experts from the UK, such as Penrose, were as if they had seen a ghost, two privately funded scientists actually convincing their boss to spend so much money on what seemed like throwing money into a pit...no, supporting the advancement of human scientific endeavors!

Penrose almost blurted out "internationalist spirit," but as odd as it was, he was the first to come around and began to clap furiously.

Regardless, the investment was great news; if there were a few more such generous sponsors, the funding could almost be fully raised—he had already discussed with peers from China and knew that the construction costs there were very low, and the RMB was basically on par with the euro, so 10 billion was indeed a significant amount.

As for the so-called "Weak Force Material," he was not in a good position to comment, as what Ye and Cheng talked about was all based on theory and unmastered weak force control technology. Theoretically, it was very promising, but weren’t they also fooling the government into building accelerators by offering something intangible? So it was a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

However, Wu Yunfeng, who had just sat down, expressed surprise and some doubts, and said to Li Shi beside him:

"300 TeV, a 100 km won’t be enough, it might even need a 200 km ring accelerator, with investment possibly over 70 billion, calculating a ten-year cycle, that’s 7 billion a year."

Li Shi, on the other hand, was persuaded by what Ye Changsi had said and responded with an expression that said "you don’t understand":

"We must do it, we’re definitely going to do it. It’s not like we need all that money in the beginning. If Lin the philanthropist is really willing to pay, the initial three years’ 10 billion will be enough to get started; at the very least, we can complete the project’s preliminary research and preparations for equipment and construction. Also, related new projects can get underway;

If the private enterprise is investing 10 billion, the nation surely can’t contribute less than this amount. We just need to build a shell first, and then we can take our time grinding it out over a dozen years or so. They definitely won’t let a project that’s already started fall apart midway.

Think about it, after three years, the economy will have improved and policies may have changed too."

Wu Yunfeng stared wide-eyed and was left speechless by Li’s words—who said Li had never studied in America? How had he learned all their tricks?

There were many smart people present, and after seeing Ye Changsi take the lead, Rolf Heuer also stood up and started spewing nonsense:

"That’s right, according to the summary of LHC experiments, only by accelerating the proton beam to 100 TeV is there a real chance to unveil the secrets of nucleons. That’s why we proposed the 300 TeV hypothesis, but for safety and to extend the life of the accelerator, a target of 300 TeV is very reasonable."

After speaking, he glanced around at his UK scholar colleagues, and after a brief moment of silent eye contact, the others also nodded their heads like mad, indicating that was indeed the case.

Academician She, who came to watch the proceedings and was preparing to write a summary report for the higher-ups, said nothing.

Experts from the domestic High Energy Physics Institute and the Nuclear Science Institute were also exchanging glances, and finally, their gazes unanimously converged on Frank Yang at the main seat.

Under the watchful eyes of the audience, Frank Yang cleared his throat, picked up the microphone from the table, glanced left and right, and then looked straight ahead.

"I believe that the development of fundamental science in our country has reached a bottleneck and is in great need of reliance on high-energy accelerators to further improve. Therefore," he continued, "I support the rapid initiation of research and development for a peta-electron-volt energy level proton accelerator."

After he finished speaking, Frank Yang put down the microphone and with a look conveyed his unspoken words to Ye Changsi, who was standing next to the whiteboard: Are you satisfied now?

The latter dragged Academician She who was next to him, shaking him vigorously.

"Did you get that down? Frank Yang says we should get on with the accelerator... No, wait, stop him later and have Hua Xin Agency do a brief interview, send it out immediately!"

Academician She remained silent.

"Director Ye, I never realized before that New Yuan was so deeply committed to fundamental physics."

Ye Changsi did not speak either. If the Yu Qian Formula could not achieve theoretical consistency and had to be proven by experiment, then as soon as the formula was released domestically, China would undoubtedly put forth every effort to forge ahead with the accelerator. Where would be the need for Lin Ju to make sacrifices, and to resort to using hastily concocted weak force material to bluff.

However, the outcome was unexpectedly good. Ye Changsi and the domestic experts actually had similar ideas: a monk from abroad may recite the scriptures better.

If these foreign monks were indeed capable, the best outcome would be seeing the accelerator completed by the mid-2020s. With this piece in place, controlled nuclear fusion would be within reach, and then the pace of development at the base would be unprecedentedly accelerated.

...

Vienna.

Since the day before yesterday, leaders from five parties have gathered here to discuss a new round of amendments to the Outer Space Treaty, with over a hundred journalists waiting outside the venue for news.

What, why are only five signatory states discussing amending an Outer Space Treaty endorsed by over a hundred countries?

Of course, the opinions of other signatories are being considered. Any amendments will still require a consultation with other signatory states at the United Nations before being passed, ensuring that the entire process is democratic.

The conference has reached its third day, and around four o’clock in the afternoon, negotiation teams from the various parties began to leave the venue for their hotels to rest, just as they had done the days before.

The disappointed journalists returned once again without news, but suddenly, a United Nations official came out of the conference centre and casually pointed to one of the reporters who was slow in packing up his things.

Two hours later, a piece of news came out from a local Vienna newspaper:

"The Outer Space Treaty is slated to redefine the deployment of nuclear weapons in space, distinguishing between engineering blasting devices and weapon-type nuclear bombs. Engineering blasting devices may not be subject to the restrictions of the Outer Space Treaty."