"Metallic hydrogen application projects will be launched on a large scale, and the synthesis route has not yet been announced."
"International public opinion reacted fiercely. Superconducting technology should not be exclusive?"
“The EAST project is open to all countries, why is the metal hydrogen technology still not made public?”
Just as Chen Nian expected, after the metallic hydrogen application project was officially launched, the standard of public opinion immediately changed, and it quickly gained recognition from a large number of forces.
——
Think about it, room-temperature superconductivity, to a certain extent, is even more significant than nuclear fusion, which is regarded by most people as the savior of civilization.
If such technology was in the hands of a small country, would you dare not make it public?
First prepare a two-hundred-page paper and send it to the top journal, explaining the preparation method step by step. If half of the data is unclear, just wait to be asked by the WPC one by one, "Why don't you wear a hat?"
But now, the technology is in the hands of the second largest rogue, and it is unwilling to disclose it, so there is really nothing you can do.
beat?
With a hammer, you can steal something from a small country. That's because you can guarantee absolute destruction.
But when gangsters fight gangsters, the best result is to destroy each other. What good does it do to ourselves?
Sanctions, cutting off confessions?
You have to have a goal, and if you make random moves, you will suffer the consequences.
So basically, tough tactics won't work.
But you can't force it. You can't handle it if you complain a few times, right?
After all, some things are so loud that even Mr. Huang Shiren still has to take a look at whether the people below are eating.
——
But the strange thing about this matter is that China seems to have anticipated these possible situations.
If we don’t give you metallic hydrogen, we will always let you participate in nuclear fusion, right?
All theoretical results of plasma control are made public. If you have the ability, you can go back and make a tokamak yourself, and no one will stop you.
And there are signs that after the results of the first wall of materials are released in the later period, China also plans to release them publicly.
Generally speaking, the current situation is that everyone has to beg for food under the EAST project, or to put it more bluntly, everyone is counting on the Spark Team to provide food for them. You say you are hungry, but you don’t want to be full. .It seems like something is about to be done.
Crying is one method, but at the same time, some people have begun to try more "radical" methods.
In a spacious conference room in Moscow, four middle-aged men in suits and ties were sitting in the office. There was nothing on the desk, as if they were just sitting together and chatting after a boring routine meeting.
But in fact, their topic is not about women, families or children's education, but Russia's largest export project in the past two decades.
Export projects to China.
Among these four people, three are from Gazprom, the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Natural Resources Management, while the other is the largest middleman between China and Russia, Marokov.
In the past few years, he has promoted a series of projects including fourth-generation aircraft, strategic bombers, etc. The success of these projects has benefited Russia a lot. The military, which had almost despaired of new weapons, got the bombers they had longed for. And several research institutes also got the engine technology they wanted.
Therefore, as an undisputed project, Marokov's status has also risen. Now he has jumped from a "less important" businessman to the diplomatic system. There are even rumors that he may become the next Minister of Foreign Affairs.
And his presence in this conversation actually represents the importance of this project.
"Based on the current results of negotiations with China, we have been able to preliminarily determine the other party's intentions."
"The other party's request is to build two east-west natural gas transmission pipelines in the Far East and Siberia respectively to transport 11 billion cubic meters of natural gas to China every year."
"In addition to being used for energy purposes, these natural gases will also be provided to their newly constructed hydrogen production plants for the production of liquid hydrogen and subsequent metallic hydrogen products."
"The contract period is initially set at 30 years, and the total contract value is approximately US$180 billion."
Having said this, Marokov raised his hand and stopped the head of the Energy Bureau who wanted to interrupt, and then continued:
"Yes, this contract amount is relatively low compared to normal business practices."
"But we all know that the meaning of this contract is definitely not just as simple as 'making money'."
"Metallic hydrogen is the most important technological product of this century and even since mankind entered industrial society. It will inevitably lead the direction of mankind in the next few hundred years."
"According to China's attitude, we are likely to be forced to be under the other party's 'technical monopoly' for a long time in the future, but if we can reach cooperation with the other party in terms of raw materials, we will be able to pull it off to a certain extent. Close the gap with the other party.”
"So this is a business that we have to do, and we should do it with gratitude, so to speak."
"After all, we are not the only country that has proposed a natural gas supply plan."
"Including the United States, Australia, and Canada, they have all proposed plans to exchange natural gas resources for technology."
"What's even more exaggerated is Qatar - they even proposed to sign a purchase contract for large natural gas carriers with China first, and then sign a natural gas export contract."
"That is, if we only send one copy of the money, they send two copies."
"The reason why I want to do this is to buy a ticket for my country and board the big ship of China before the flood of metallic hydrogen and nuclear fusion submerges the land of traditional fossil energy."
"If they can make such a decision, I think we have nothing to hesitate about."
"Here, I don't want to talk to you about the so-called price issue. There is only one core issue we face: Can we provide enough natural gas to China before those big ships are floating on the sea?"
After hearing his words, the other three people present fell silent.
After a long time, Stanislav, the head of the Energy Bureau, said:
"I definitely can't answer this question."
"I can only say that several large natural gas fields in Siberia have been prepared. If necessary, we can dispatch them immediately. It is not difficult to meet the other party's requirement of 11 billion cubic meters."
"But in fact, you also know that production is not the key to the problem. How to build these two huge natural gas pipelines is the most difficult thing."
"With our current infrastructure capabilities, it is almost impossible to complete such a giant project."
"Don't worry."
After hearing his words, Marokov waved his hand and said:
"Huaxia Hui will be mainly responsible for the construction work of this project. We will jointly fund the establishment of the China-Russia Natural Gas Pipeline Company with them and subcontract the specific construction work of the project to Huaxia Energy."
"The main construction force of China Energy Construction comes from multiple state-owned construction companies. They have rich experience in this area and almost do not need our intervention at all."
"Then why are we still discussing this?"
Stanislav asked inexplicably.
Huaxia has people and efforts, and they are responsible for all the design and construction work. So what exactly does Marokov mean by "guaranteeing the progress of the project"?
“Because we’re paying for the construction work.”
"Are you kidding me?!"
At this point, even Vladimir, the representative of Gazprom, who had been waiting and watching, could not sit still.
The absurdity of this thing is like...
Someone bought a piece of bread worth 5 rubles, but as the owner of the shop, he charged him two rubles, and then spent 10 rubles to call a taxi to take the customer back home.
Is this business?
This is purely for charity!
No, I didn’t do this even for charity.
Because philanthropy can at least gain a good name, but what does Russia gain from this deal?
An illusory future expectation?
Seeing his expression, Marokov shook his head helplessly.
Although in the past few years, due to the subtle influence of China, some changes have indeed taken place in these "superiors", but in the final analysis, these corpse vegetarians still have not made any progress in "foresight".
I'm kidding?
Is there any room for joking on such a momentous issue?
So, he opened his mouth and said:
"I didn't mean any fun."
"In fact, China has already come up with preliminary plans. According to the first version of the budget estimate, the construction cost of the eastern pipeline is approximately US$60 billion, and the cost of the western pipeline is US$75 billion."
"But we need to prioritize the pipeline that is built, and in fact it is only the eastern route."
“After the eastern pipeline is completed and starts delivering natural gas to China, the series of technical assistance they promised will begin to be fulfilled.”
"Let me put it bluntly: Once the pipeline is completed, we will be able to obtain metallic hydrogen, and it will be more than 60% of the share second only to China's own needs."
"I think you should be able to judge what kind of concept this is."
The impact of this condition made Vladimir shut up immediately.
Even though he doesn't understand materials science at all or how metallic hydrogen is made, he fully understands how much advantage this thing can bring to a country once it is mass-produced on a large scale.
Not to mention anything else, just those few metallic hydrogen missiles have made many countries panic?
Not to mention the various more advanced aerospace technologies that may be realized in the future.
Even if it cannot be used immediately in the civilian field, the sudden increase in military strength can continue the country's glory for decades.
"How much can I get?"
he asked instead.
"I don't know, we haven't talked about specific conditions in this regard."
"However, we can make some credible inferences."
"According to China's current plan, they will build more than four large-scale metallic hydrogen plants within two years, and the annual output of each plant will reach more than 120,000 tons."
"In other words, based on the hydrogen production efficiency of the steam reforming method, these four plants consume approximately 2.4 billion cubic meters of natural gas every year."
"As for energy use, China needs to consume about 3 to 5 billion cubic meters of natural gas imported from us every year."
"Of the 11 billion cubic meters of supply that we have negotiated, at least 6 billion cubic meters of natural gas will be used to make metallic hydrogen."
"It can be inferred that after completion, the other party's average annual metallic hydrogen production will reach at least 300,000 tons - and taking into account the efficiency and scale of electrolytic hydrogen production and coal hydrogen production, this amount will probably reach about 800,000 tons."
"In their development plans, the field of strong electricity that requires huge amounts of metallic hydrogen does not have a high priority. The amount of metallic hydrogen they actually need to use will not be too high."
"Just tell me the result."
Vladimir asked impatiently.
He was already a little impatient with Marokov's seemingly reasonable inference.
What's the use of saying this? Even if your inference is completely correct, so what?
How much you can get depends on the mood of the Chinese people?
Marokov paused and gave an answer that made everyone's eyes light up.
"At least 50,000 tons can be obtained."
enough!
Although this scale is simply a drop in the bucket for large-scale civilian use, it is more than enough for some special fields.
We can't do it with strong electricity, and we can't do it with magnetic levitation, so let's do weak electricity first!
Or, simply focus on the military industry first, build a few fourth-generation cores, build a few electric supersonic aircraft, and build a few reusable spacecraft.
Thinking of this, Vladimir immediately looked at the other two people around him.
"What are your suggestions?"
he asked.
The representative of the natural gas group nodded immediately - these are national resources anyway, and the group does not need to bear the responsibility for profits and losses. All he needs to do is nod.
The Ministry of Natural Resources Management was just a formality and of course had no objections.
So, with the unanimous vote, the four people in the office laughed knowingly at the same time.
It was as if they had just accomplished the unthinkable.
"This project seems like a loss, but in fact, we have already made too much money."
Vladimir said with emotion.
"Yes, being able to take the lead in new materials is a result that no amount of economic benefits can get back."
"The Yankees have really made many wrong steps. If they knew that China could make such great progress, would they have pressed harder on China a few years ago?"
"Of course not, but Marokov deserves a lot of credit for us being able to reach this point."
The three of them looked at Marokov at the same time.
Yes, if he had not given correct advice many times, I am afraid that the story would have been completely rewritten after the AL-31FN engine and the relationship between the two parties fell into a delicate situation.
At this time, Marokov was also filled with emotion.
These eight years have been like a strange journey, and he doesn't even know how he got to this point.
Maybe, this can be regarded as a certain degree of national destiny.
A specific consensus was reached, and Marokov had nothing more to talk about, but just as he was about to stand up, there was a knock on the office door.
Then, his assistant came over and said with an ugly face:
"We may be beaten to the punch by Qatar."
"They made extremely exaggerated terms. Mr. Marokov, see for yourself."
(End of chapter)
