Chapter 1703 The final struggle
On that day, at least 5 million people around the world watched CCTV's live broadcast directly or indirectly.
When the XS-1 space reactor was successfully started and output 145kW of power, it seemed as if mankind had stood at the doorstep of the era of deep space exploration and had taken out the key.
According to estimates, if the "Beacon" space station is successfully completed and begins to play a relay role, the difficulty of humans traveling to Mars will be reduced by about half, and the difficulty of traveling to the moon will be reduced to one-third of the previous level.
More importantly, the existence of the orbital base greatly broadens the time window for the Earth-Mars transfer orbit, making the idea of frequently launching rockets to build a lasting Martian colony base truly possible.
However, the real "nuclear bomb" that will detonate global public opinion is still to come.
After confirming that the XS-1 was in stable operation and the first wave of enthusiastic cheers in the command and control hall subsided, Hu Shouzhi, deputy commander-in-chief of the "Beacon" project, walked steadily to a small podium set up at the back of the hall in accordance with the scheduled procedure.
Afterwards, he gave a brief summary and outlook report to all the staff, invited guests and countless cameras on site.
In his report, he first affirmed the significance of the successful launch of XS-1, then emphasized that the construction of the "Beacon" relay base is a "long-term, sustainable systematic project." China will uphold the principles of open cooperation and steady progress to gradually complete the construction goals of Phases I, II, and III as planned.
This was all expected, and sounded like a fairly unremarkable conclusion.
But then he changed the subject and added seemingly casually:
"…After the successful launch and startup of the XS-1 space nuclear reactor, the project team will first conduct a series of high-power space power application experiments, focusing on accumulating actual operating data and experience with high-efficiency magnetohydrodynamic power generation technology in space environments…"
"These valuable experimental data will lay a solid technical foundation for my country's next step in building a ground-based gigawatt (GW)-class fusion power demonstration reactor and developing a second-generation, more efficient and compact space fusion energy system..."
"..."
This turn came too suddenly and the content it contained was too shocking.
So much so that most people couldn't even react to what was happening in the first place.
It was not until the end of the live broadcast that the whole world realized that—
What is a “Gigawatt-class commercial fusion power demonstration reactor”?
What is "second-generation space fusion nuclear power source"?
what?
The ten-year plan that Helion Energy has drawn up only sets the power at the 100-megawatt level.
Are you an order of magnitude higher than others?
And it sounds like construction is about to begin?
what happened?
You should know that as early as more than half a year ago, China officially announced that its HL-2A tokamak device had achieved a steady-state high-confinement mode operation lasting more than one hour.
However, there has been no public follow-up action since then, and only some seemingly plausible unofficial rumors have been leaked.
Therefore, there have always been people who question the authenticity of that test.
However, Hu Shouzhi's statement, made on such a formal occasion and broadcast live to the world, casually proposed the "gigawatt-class fusion demonstration reactor" as the next step and directly linked it to the XS-1 technology that had just been verified in space. This was tantamount to an unquestionable declaration to the world in the most authoritative way:
China's controlled nuclear fusion technology is not only real, but has also surpassed the simple laboratory verification stage and officially entered the engineering construction stage leading to commercial energy applications!
Its technological maturity and advancement speed far exceed the outside world's wildest imagination.
Compared with the deep space exploration program, which has ambitious goals but seems a bit far away from ordinary people, the breakthrough in controlled nuclear fusion technology is a fundamental change that directly concerns the global energy structure, geopolitics, economic structure and even the development model of human civilization.
The impact it brings is more direct, closer to everyone's life perception, and more subversive.
The global media and public opinion were almost stunned by the successive and increasingly powerful news coming out of China.
After the live broadcast of Fox News in the United States, a senior technology commentator even made an inappropriate statement on the show:
"I must admit that the speed at which the Chinese are developing and deploying new technologies is completely beyond the scope of rational analysis. For some time now, I've felt like... like I'm watching an advanced civilization stunt their skills for our entire human civilization... This is certainly admirable, but also unsettling."
Although Hu Shouzhi's speech was not made at a special press conference and the specific details revealed were very few, it was sufficient due to its unquestionable authority.
Almost instantly, the focus of global media attention shifted from the "Beacon" space station and deep space exploration to China's fusion demonstration reactor plan.
Various analyses, interpretations, and speculations swept across all news platforms and social networks like a tsunami.
Among them, the most incisive and straightforward analysis was by Al Jazeera.
The article points out incisively that the significance of China's planned gigawatt-class fusion demonstration reactor lies far more than just providing "clean, unlimited, and cheap" electricity.
More importantly, if it succeeds, it will fundamentally undermine the world's current energy supply and demand system based on fossil energy, and the core of the current international financial order is the binding of oil and the US dollar.
The practical application of fusion energy will inevitably directly shake or even remove this cornerstone, thereby triggering a redistribution of global power and wealth.
Its far-reaching impact may even "completely rewrite the underlying logic of human social and economic operations since the Industrial Revolution."
This report, especially its sharp assertion about "subverting the petrodollar structure", was like a precise fuse, instantly igniting long-buried doubts in the global financial market about the sustainability of the US dollar system.
Panic began to spread and international financial markets experienced significant fluctuations.
This undoubtedly hits the core of US strategy.
Just a few hours after Al Jazeera's report went viral, Washington quickly responded with an extremely tough counterattack.
The White House, the Department of Energy, Congress...
Several heavyweights took turns to come forward and issued a series of emergency statements.
These statements were harshly worded, unanimously accusing China of "deliberately undermining the stability of the global energy market and impacting the existing international financial order by leaking unverified and highly inflammatory information on future weaponized technology," and that this was an "extremely irresponsible and unacceptable provocative act" and a serious challenge to the "rules-based international system."
Among them, the statement made by the head of the Federal Reserve was the most eye-catching.
In an interview, he almost lost his composure and publicly stated:
"To ensure the stability and security of the global financial system, the Federal Reserve is seriously considering and has initiated relevant legal and technical assessments to remove major Chinese financial institutions from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) system. Specific measures and an implementation timetable are expected to be released within the next week."
As soon as this statement came out, the whole world was in an uproar.
Kicking a country's major financial institutions out of the settlement system is considered the "nuclear option" in the financial field.
If this is implemented against China, the world's second largest economy and a core country in the global supply chain, it will undoubtedly mean a complete division of the global financial and trade system, and no one can predict the consequences.
At this moment, almost everyone is clearly aware that after successive setbacks in technological competition and geopolitical games, Washington has been forced into a corner.
Now, facing the possible devastating impact of fusion energy, the United States is preparing to play its last and most extreme card.
This may be the ultimate blow for the lunatic fringe.
Or maybe it's just a last-ditch struggle out of despair.
The eye of the storm in the global landscape suddenly converged on the financial battlefield, a battlefield without gunpowder but equally cruel.
