Zhao Yi was just one of the academicians attending the eting, but once he had expressed his stance, everyone in the venue knew that the tone for the large collider project was more or less set.
The physics departnt of the Science Academy fell silent.
Zhang Hongzhi’s face was full of dissatisfaction, but he did not continue speaking because it was aningless.
Zhao Yi’s aning was very clear, which was to say that the collider project could be built, but it must be at the right ti, not now when things are being rushed. So people certainly have opposing views, believing that the collider project could at least enter the ’feasibility’ stage. Normally, for a national key project, the feasibility study would take several years, and by the ti it concludes, it will be the ’right ti’.
There were quite a few people at the scene with similar ideas, but they still did not speak out, because Zhao Yi’s words included related issues about feasibility. He said, "I don’t even know what experints are needed to verify the theory."
Could a large collider definitely et the needs?
There are many types of colliders, after all. What kind of collider, what kind of large-scale physical experint could suffice?
This is uncertain.
Zhao Yi’s attitude indicated that he definitely would not participate in the feasibility study, which ant the large collider project could not enter the feasibility stage, because Zhao Yi was one of the world’s top theoretical physicists and the true NO.1 in the country. Without NO.1 participating, the senior leadership would not possibly approve, asking, "Why not Academician Zhao,"—could they just directly answer "Academician Zhao disagrees"?
If the top theoretical physicists disagree, what is there for a bunch of ordinary physicists to validate?
How could they gain confidence?
In the large collider project, everyone knew that Zhao Yi had decision-making power, and his opinion was even more crucial than that of Zhan Gang, the head of the technology departnt. On such a major investnt project, Zhan Gang could not make a decision on his own, while Zhao Yi’s opinion was enough to decide the outco.
Everyone fell silent.
The venue sank into a tacit peace, and Zhan Gang, watching the attendees, also fell into thought.
As the head of the technology departnt, Zhan Gang could not rely be a ’judge’ in the decision-making process for such a major project. He had his own judgnt and thoughts, but he could not make a decision individually. He had to refer to the opinions of related scholars, but scholars could only offer opinions within the academic realm, their insights and perspectives were inevitably limited.
The senior leadership considered things more comprehensively.
The large collider was a project requiring significant investnt, but it was not the Science Academy’s physics departnt or any other physical research institution that initially proposed its construction; it was people outside the academic circle.
Because of great power competition.
With the continuous developnt of the dostic economy and the ever-expanding global influence, great power competition had to be taken into account, and the competition involved factors from all sides.
Scientific research is naturally one aspect of this competition.
The main countries against which the dostic competition is benchmarked are Europe and M Country. Europe already had a large particle collider and continued to invest in the collider, adding four billion dollars to the budget last year to enhance its performance for larger-scale experints.
M Country was also studying the restart of the collider project. The news from the Departnt of Energy also indicated that they were preparing to build an electron-ion collider to study fundantal microscopic physical problems within the atom.
What about dostically?
When the two main competitors were both investing in collider projects, from a competitive standpoint, there was also a need to build a collider, even if it might be proven a failure in the future.
This is competition!
If it is proved that building a collider is very aningful, it will be too late to start investing in the construction.
Competition is a factor that must be considered.
Another factor is the issue of investnt capital. The collider project requires a large investnt because many consumables need rare tals, and many technologies, materials, and equipnt need to be imported. A rough estimate of the initial investnt would have to use ’ten billion’ as the unit.
However, the dostic economic condition is not the sa as before, and it grows every year. As long as the collider project does not cause an economic burden, it’s manageable.
The new collider project should refer to the positron-electron collider. Back then, the cost of the capital’s positron-electron collider accounted for less than 0.036% of the dostic GDP. The new collider project must be the sa. Considering the ’ten billion’ as the unit of cost, construction is definitely not happening now.
"When the GDP reaches the level of one hundred trillion, the collider project will not burden the economy."
This was Zhan Gang’s judgnt.
Currently, the dostic GDP is around one hundred trillion U.S. dollars, which is approximately seventy trillion yuan, still a certain gap from one hundred billion, but as long as the economy grows normally, in seven, eight, or at most ten years, GDP will surely exceed one hundred trillion yuan. At that ti, the large collider project will not cause any economic burden.
...
The eting ended.
The discussion about the large collider project also did not reach a definitive conclusion, but the lack of certainty itself was a result, and most attendees knew that it was just a matter of ti before the project would proceed.
Those who supported building the large collider hoped that the ti would be as soon as possible, while those who did not wanted to continue delaying it.
Many people would also discuss it privately.
Zhao Yi’s remarks at the eting were passed around, and the next day when he attended the military-industrial conference, he was surrounded by a horde of academicians and professors.
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