Fusion

Stable-operation fusion reactors generate energy the same way the sun does, and are therefore also called "artificial suns." Because fusion fuel consists of deuterium and tritium, hydrogen isotopes extracted from seawater, fusion energy is effectively inexhaustible; controllable fusion is thus humanity's ideal route to clean, safe energy in the future. China's controlled fusion research began in the 1950s and is now listed as one of the nation's "Ninth Five-Year" Big Science Projects; China has also joined ITER, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor project involving the EU, the United States, Russia, India, South Korea, and Japan—a large international collaboration second only to the International Space Station. This novel is modeled on the extraordinary course of scientists at China's Southwestern Institute of Physics as they built the fusion enterprise under difficult conditions, and is devoted to celebrating the splendor and tragedy of the once-shadowy "Third Front" projects. With controlled fusion research as its "near view" and the early post-Cultural Revolution era, when the country's every undertaking awaited revival, as its "far view," the work follows the destinies of several families and young couples across three parts and a span of thirty-six years to portray the arduous journey of China's scientific elite in developing the country's fusion device. The author depicts a series of characters: Pan Yuxiang, the devoted old-generation scientist; Kang Junshan, the young intellectual who pursues his career despite family and personal ties; Xie Ruoyuan, the woman engineer who returns to the fold after years of confusion; and Pan Yashu and Li Xintian, the steadfast husband-and-wife team, among others.