Siheyuan: I eat melons while doing scientific research

Chapter 1340 I personally disagree (4k)

Laser and laser communication are cutting-edge technologies both domestically and internationally. In terms of the technology itself, there is no difference between those who started earlier and those who started later; everyone is on the same starting line. In fact, because of Gao Zhendong, we have even started ahead for a while.

However, in terms of the overall technological environment and level, absorbing some external knowledge is not a bad thing. These days, it's not uncommon to see people who get up early but arrive late.

At the same time, Zhenxing Electronics Technology needs a clear source of technology that can be explained to the countries of the Oceania Convention, which is very important for Zhenxing Electronics Technology.

"If everything's alright at home, that would be great. I'll take care of it right away," Lou Shouxing said with a smile.

Gao Zhendong nodded: "Okay, then I won't worry about it. Just let us know if anything is needed."

Lou Shouxing nodded first, then looked distressed: "As for 'timely,' it's really hard to say. Communication between the two sides is basically regulated. John Bull, not to mention us, even the Citizens are kept very close watch. Some things can be timely, but some things are really not guaranteed."

Gao Zhendong also knew about this, just like how he had to call Lou Shouxing back from Hong Kong Island because of the Children's Day gift package.

However, there is a solution to this problem.

Gao Zhendong took out something that wasn't too small from his bag: "Since you've gotten down to business, here you go. Learn how to use it."

That was a satellite communication terminal.

Lou Shouxing stared blankly at the high-tech contraption in front of him, utterly bewildered: "What is this?"

Gao Zhendong handed him an explanation: "Here, take a look. Basically, you can contact us within a day and receive a reply."

In satellite communications, the National Defense Industry Committee and related units have gone all out. If the quality is not good enough, they will make up for it with quantity, or rather, quantity is also a kind of quality.

By launching more satellites and rationally scheduling ephemeris data, the maximum communication interval was reduced to within 24 hours.

Lou Shouxing took the instruction manual, glanced at it, and was overjoyed.

"Holy crap!! This thing is great! With this, I can really notify my family in time, and most importantly, I don't have to worry about safety at all."

Although there are limitations on satellite revisit time, that short revisit time is not much different from real-time communication for their needs. After all, what Lou Shouxing and the other side need to communicate about are all major issues, and the timing of these messages is generally not a big deal.

As for how Lou Shouxing hid this communication terminal on Hong Kong Island, there's even less to worry about. Some things can be hidden here, like radios. It wouldn't be a problem for Lou Shouxing to keep a smaller satellite terminal there either.

This thing was specially approved by the National Defense Industry Commission. Unlike decades later when satellite messages and even satellite phones became commonplace, these days, if you weren't of a high enough rank or your job wasn't suitable, you couldn't even dream of getting one.

What Lou Shouxing did certainly qualifies for this, after all, he is temporarily isolated overseas, and sometimes the things he does are very important, so it is normal to receive special treatment.

Gao Zhendong smiled and said, "This is mainly for your learning. The number on this is specifically for communicating with you, and it's staffed 24 hours a day. Their main task now is to help you learn how to use this. As for after you've learned how, you don't need to take it back yourself. When you arrive in Macau, someone will naturally deliver it to you."

Although Lou Shouxing has access to the satellite terminal, not all phone numbers are available to him. In other words, aside from the comrades managing the satellite communications center, no one else can obtain all the numbers. A special team has been assigned to manage the terminal communications of personnel like him, essentially acting as a firewall to isolate these special individuals from the internal satellite communications structure. This benefits everyone, including Lou Shouxing himself.

Lou Shouxing looked somewhat disappointed: "Huh? You're taking it back after I've learned it? I can only get it back when we get back to Macau?" He looked exactly like a child whose beloved toy had been confiscated.

Gao Zhendong laughed: "This is also for your and your sister-in-law's safety."

"Come on, come on~~~~~~" Lou Shouhang was like a child who had received a new toy, forgetting everything else and eagerly playing with it.

Back in Beijing, he seemed to have let go of all the pressure in his heart and began to show signs of becoming more like a child.

Gao Zhendong didn't rush to say anything else to him. It would be good to let him relax a bit. Returning to Beijing was not easy, and he wouldn't be staying for just a day or two.

Gao Zhendong left the study, leaving Lou Shouxing, who was tinkering with the satellite communication terminal with great interest.
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Lou Shouxing was busy playing with his new toy. It takes longer to learn how to use it completely, especially for someone like Lou Shouxing who doesn't have any safety pressures, doesn't need to hide, and doesn't need to time his actions.

Because he can thoroughly, comprehensively, and personally witness the entire communication process of the satellite communication terminal, the time he spends will be considerable—due to the satellite revisit time.

While Lou Shouxing was busy playing with his new toys, Gao Zhendong left Lou Xiao'e and the two children at his father-in-law's house to keep the elderly and He Wu company, while he returned to his courtyard house to go to work and attend classes as usual.

Right now, he was sitting in the office of the leader of the National Defense Industry Committee, and there were only the two of them in the office.

The leader of the National Defense Industry Committee said with a serious expression: "Zhendong, although I know there won't be any problems here, according to regulations, I still have to tell you that you cannot mention any of the words we said today to any third party under any circumstances, including everyone else, understand?"

Gao Zhendong's expression remained unchanged: "Yes, I understand." The things he was dealing with were increasingly intertwined with this level of secrecy, which was normal. It was just that his superior had specifically given him instructions today, and Gao Zhendong could roughly guess the direction they were heading.

The leader nodded and smiled: "Alright, we've gone through the procedures, now that we've covered the formalities, let's get down to business. Take a look at this..."

He handed a document to Gao Zhendong.

Gao Zhendong took it and was shocked when he saw the cover.

—Regarding the construction of graphite-based hot and cold neutrons… Gao Zhendong didn’t need to read the whole thing to know what it was; these words combined could only mean one thing.

The matter eventually came to light, though he didn't know when or how soon. He only knew from publicly available information that the decision to make this decision began in 65. A fast neutron breeder reactor, a reactor that uses U-238 to produce Pu-239.

"Boss, this... I think it's appropriate?" Gao Zhendong said.

"It's appropriate, what's inappropriate about it? You've dealt with similar things before." The leader gave him a "don't pretend" look and continued, "In terms of U, you've made outstanding contributions, and you've also mentioned similar reactors, if I remember correctly?"

Gao Zhendong laughed and said, "I was just saying it offhand..."

The leader gave him a few perfunctory remarks: "You... being able to say it so easily means you've already done your research. Besides, your status, abilities, and rank are all at the point where you should be officially involved in these kinds of jobs; otherwise, your potential in this area might be wasted. Let's see, and then we'll talk."

Gao Zhendong's casual remark at the time was taken seriously by the leadership. After discussing it with relevant colleagues, they discovered that those in the nuclear industry had also had similar ideas, and things suddenly accelerated. What Gao Zhendong sees today is the result of that acceleration.

Since things had come to this point, Gao Zhendong stopped pretending and said, "Let him watch."

When he saw the place name "Wulongkou," he was certain that the inertia of history still existed in this matter; time may have changed, but the events themselves had not changed much.

The reactor was located in a town under the jurisdiction of Wulongkou in Shuangqing City. The name Wulongkou comes from the fact that it is the confluence of the Longjiang River and another tributary. The name was derived from taking one character from each of the two rivers.

Gao Zhendong remembers this place so vividly because he had been there in his past life. The site was later shut down, declassified, and eventually became a tourist attraction. The allure of a reactor capable of producing Pu-239 to a military enthusiast like Gao Zhendong at the time is self-evident.

So, the moment he heard about this tourist attraction, he begged his father to take him there. Fortunately, Guizhou Province wasn't far from Wulongkou, and his request was fulfilled without him getting a beating from his father.

It was precisely because Gao Zhendong knew about this place that he wasn't particularly interested in reactors that produced Pu-239. However, it should be noted that this reactor was not a breeder reactor, but a light water reactor for producing Pu-239. Gao Zhendong estimated that in the decision-making process for this reactor, power generation was secondary; the primary consideration was its ability to produce Pu-239.

As Gao Zhendong flipped through the materials, his mind raced, trying to figure out how to express his opinion. Since he had been asked, his opinion would have some influence, and he felt immense pressure on his shoulders.

Because he was well aware of the outcome of the project—it was completely halted in the mid-80s, and the hundreds of millions of yuan invested ultimately yielded no results. The name of the factory, which was originally chosen to provide cover—XX Chemical Plant—seemed to be a prophecy, becoming its final fate.

The personnel and structure that were prepared and invested in the construction and operation of this project eventually underwent a difficult transformation and became a fertilizer production plant.

Gao Zhendong didn't know the other reasons, but the young man at the time knew one very obvious reason—the construction was too difficult!
The entire project can be described as hollowing out a mountain and then filling it with half a mountain of concrete. Putting aside any other technical issues, the sheer scale of the project is incredibly daunting and difficult.

Carving out caves that are hundreds of meters long, tens of meters wide, tens of meters high, or even tens of meters high in solid rocky mountains was extremely difficult for us in the 60s and 70s. Moreover, these caves were not just one or two, but a whole bunch of them.

This is quite different from building a Third Front factory in a karst cave in Guizhou. In a karst cave, one can adapt to local conditions, but this rocky mountain does not have that capability. In fact, this location was chosen precisely because the mountain is solid and sturdy enough.

Seeing that Gao Zhendong had looked at it enough, the leader smiled and said, "What are your thoughts? Don't hold back, speak freely."

Gao Zhendong thought for a moment, gritted his teeth, and decided that he had to say what needed to be said. Otherwise, what had he been doing all these years? He could have just lived a comfortable life by relying on the system's daily extraction limit of 5kg.
He thought for a long time, organizing his thoughts, opinions, and arguments in his mind, before finally speaking with some difficulty.

"My personal opinion is that I do not approve of the construction of this project, or at least I do not approve of this construction plan."

Gao Zhendong's words surprised the leader and were somewhat unexpected.

In his memory, Gao Zhendong would at least wholeheartedly support such projects, if not vehemently. This "disapproval" was somewhat unlike Gao Zhendong's usual demeanor.

"Is it that he doesn't approve of this construction plan, or that he doesn't approve of this project?" But the leader knew very well that whatever Gao Zhendong said, his starting point was absolutely sound, and his reasons were absolutely valid. What he had to do was listen to Gao Zhendong's opinion as a consideration for broader discussion and decision-making.

"Both are true. If the project must be built, then I do not agree with this plan."

Gao Zhendong's thinking was relatively simple: if losses were inevitable, then at least the losses should be minimized. Or, to put it another way, if they were going to do it, they should do it as quickly as possible; the longer they dragged it out, the more unpredictable things would become.

"Hmm... then tell me why you don't agree with this plan?" At least the plan is clear, there's a basis for discussion, making it easier to get into the flow. As for why you don't agree with the project, that can be discussed later.

Gao Zhendong nodded and said six words: "Too expensive! Too long to complete!"

"Too expensive... well, that goes without saying, everyone knows that. What do you mean by a long construction period? What if tens of thousands of people are involved in this project?"

It would be a lie to say that such a large project didn't cost any money.

Gao Zhendong shook his head: "Even tens of thousands of people can't avoid the problem of a long construction period. This plan means that at the beginning, the work area is only so big. No matter how many people there are, the construction period will not be short. Leader, you have commanded troops before. You should know that when the troops are in a narrow pass and cannot deploy, the advantage of troop strength cannot be brought into play."

From a design perspective, there are only a few roads that can be dug into a mountain. When the area hasn't been expanded and the working surface isn't large enough, having more people won't help.

"Hmm... But from an engineering construction perspective, this kind of time investment is necessary. If the plan itself is excellent enough, it shouldn't be used as a reason to reject it." Although the leader isn't a construction engineer, he still has a deep understanding of the concept of necessary construction time.

Gao Zhendong couldn't come up with a reason like "prolonged delays may lead to changes," so he could only focus on what he had just said.

"Boss, I understand what you just said, but you probably don't expect how much money and time this will cost."

(End of this chapter)