Chapter 293: An Ordinary Scientist (7)

Nobuhiro’s colleagues had already arrived at the building site for the solar power plant in the mountains west of Koriyama. All of them were experts in architecture or solar energy. They were not only Nobuhiro’s advisors, but also members of the team working on this project of building an anti-nuclear protest facility.

“I look forward to working with you,” Young-Joon said as he reached out to shake their hands.

Solar power plants were not an unfamiliar concept. In Korea, there were quite a few small solar power plants in rural areas, including Jeonnam. However, it was a very small scale. It was not a national business model, but rather a financial investment by smart elders. They invested about one hundred million won to generate a small amount of electricity for ten households and sold it to Kepco.

There have been many of these small, investment-type solar power plants in Japan, but A-GenBio’s solar cells were going to be something completely different.

Nobuhiro, an economist, was confident in the business model. The mountainous land west of Koriyama had a gentle slope of less than twenty-five degrees, with direct road access to the surrounding countryside. The forests that covered this area were also easy to cut down.

“Our existing solar panels were able to generate about one hundred kilowatts of power on six hundred

pyung

of land. With A-GenBio’s solar cells, it’s exactly twelve times that,” Nobuhiro said.

“Plus, the light weight and the ease of installation, dismantling, and transportation cut down on maintenance costs considerably,” chimed in another professor.

“The Japanese government has imposed a lot of regulations on solar power generation, such as a land-use change fee of forty percent of the public land value, and a development profit share of thirty percent of the increase in land value.”

“We’ve managed to get a few business permits because we’re installing it for research purposes, but the profitability regulations on the tax side are still a hurdle. However, even taking that into account, we’re going to show solar power plants can surpass nuclear power.”

It was nice seeing old professors be as passionate as young, curious students.

Young-Joon discussed with them the number of solar panels to be installed and the transportation plan.

“The land has already been prepared, so once the solar cells arrive, it should take less than a day to install them,” he said

“We’re not doing this for profit, but to show the excellence of the solar power plant, so it doesn’t matter if the solar cells are more expensive,” Nobuhiro said. “I know that you give a small discount to retailers and electricity companies, but please give us the original price without any discounts.”

“Sure.”

After discussing the business overview with the professors, Young-Joon asked, “There’s been talk of a nuclear power plant exploding in the Tohoku region, right? Can I go take a look?”

*

“What is this?”

Kim Young-Hoon, the CEO of A-GenBio was baffled when he saw a report sent to him from A-GenBio’s management.

“Masumoto, the CEO of TEPCO, wants to undergo the clinical trial for the aging treatment that A-GenBio is developing?”

“Apparently,” replied the manager who had sent him the report.

“Is there a technology being developed at our company that I don’t know about?” Kim Young-Hoon said as he scratched his head.

“Besides that, is it even possible to cure aging? And is aging something that is treated? Do I not know about this because I didn’t study medicine? How did this report come to be?”

“It doesn’t seem like he got the information through normal means either. At first, he asked for a meeting with Mr. Ryu to discuss something personally, but the secretary’s office cut him off.”

“Of course. It’s not like they’re the White House or something. Even the largest power company in Asia is nothing compared to A-GenBio. We don’t even know who their CEO is, so how can we arrange a meeting with Mr. RYu for no reason?” Kim Young-Hoon said. “Anyway, so their CEO is saying he somehow found out that we’re developing a technology to treat aging, and he wants to participate in the clinical trial?”

“Yes. The secretary said that since she doesn’t know all the details of the research and development, she’ll have to get back to you through management.”

“Good.”

“Shall we arrange a meeting?”

“No. Honestly, I’m surprised the person who contacted us is someone as high up as the head of a Japanese power company, but the idea of participating in a clinical trial for something as absurd as anti-aging treatment, a technology I, the CEO, don’t know about, is insane.”

“So you’re not going to arrange a meeting?”

Kim Young-Hoon thought for a moment. Although he reacted as if he had never heard of it before, there was something bothering him.

Unlike Young-Joon, who was more of a scientist than an entrepreneur, Kim Young-Hoon, the seasoned businessman, was always on the lookout for rumors. As such, he had already caught onto the rumor about Isaiah circulating in the regenerative medicine community. He didn’t know what happened exactly, but something must have happened at Harris’ hideout or at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

And the treatment Young-Joon was working on didn’t go through the normal channels. If it was an FDA-approved clinical trial, there should have been a record of it in A-GenBio, but all that was on file was Isaiah’s consent form.

This may become Young-Joon’s weakness.

“Mr. Ryu is a busy man, and we can’t afford to waste a brain as valuable as his on things like this. Let’s handle it on my end and just report it to him,” Kim Young-Hoon said.

“Alright. Then, I’ll provide a response that we don’t have any aging cure research going on.”

“Yes, thank you.”

Kim Young-Hoon sat back in his chair and pondered the odd feeling. It was strange. He could understand if it came from an American medical school or a giant company like Apple, but from TEPCO? Geographically, it was on the opposite side of the United States, and business-wise, it was far removed from the medical field, making it seem like they would be the last place to hear rumors about Isaiah.

Where did Masumoto get that kind of information?

‘Mr. Ryu should know about this.’

Kim Young-Hoon wrote to Young-Joon.

*

The Tohoku Nuclear Power Plant was off-limits to outsiders, but an exception was made for the University of Tokyo’s prestigious electrical engineering professors. They were allowed to visit, and so were Young-Joon and Rosaline.

“Is the child here also visiting?” asked the head of nuclear protection.

“Yes, this is my daughter. I’ll be taking her around,” Young-Joon said.

“Please write your name and contact information on the access card and change into your protective clothing.”

Young-Joon and the professors followed the staff’s instructions, put on the protective suit, and went into the nuclear plant.

“You’ll need to plug the measuring device into your left pocket.”

Young-Joon took the small device he was handed and plugged it into a pocket on his left chest pocket.

“Let me show you around.”

The head of nuclear protection led the professors and Young-Joon around.

The professors all assumed that there was a reason why Young-Joon wanted to see the plant, but all he was doing was quietly observing the inside of the plant without doing anything special.

The passageways where workers walked through were kept at low radiation levels. After passing the nuclear fuel storage tanks, the reactor containment vessel appeared.

“Is this full of radiation?” Young-Joon asked.

“Not necessarily. There are workers who come in and out of there. There are places inside that are as safe as this walkway, but there are also places where you can be exposed to high levels of radiation, so not just anyone can go in there,” said the head of nuclear protection. “The workers are only authorized to go in only when they need to, since there’s real nuclear fuel running in there.”

“...”

Young-Joon obviously couldn’t go in, and he didn’t even ask. About a thousand cells flew out of Rosaline’s skin as she walked inside the power plant holding Young-Joon’s hand. They had already entered the containment vessel.

‘Isn’t it a sealed space? How did you get in?’

Young-Joon talked to Rosaline in his head.

—I entered through the cooling water passage.

‘How is it?’

—I’ll take a look.

“Let’s go,” Young-Joon said to the professors.

The professors were all wondering what the point of this tour was, as they were just looking around the outside, but Young-Joon was getting a lot of information in real time.

Rosaline, who could see the molecular structure of all living things at the atomic level, used her high magnification view to observe the reactor.

—I can’t go inside to the core. The radiation won’t do any damage to me, but heat is dangerous.

Rosaline sent him a message.

—I can only look at the reactor from the outside to protect the membranes of my cells within my fitness tolerance.

‘It’s okay, just don’t overdo it and check as much as you can see in cell form.’

Instead of reading his email, Young-Joon synchronized his vision with Rosaline to look at the reactor. The deepest part of the Tohoku Nuclear Power Plant, the reactor core. It was where nuclear fission occurred, composed of nuclear fuel and a moderator, with coolant flowing through it. The immense thermal energy generated by nuclear fission boiled the water, and the massive amount of steam produced drove the turbines to generate electricity.

—It’s fine.

Rosaline sent a message.

—Did you say the ground sunk by a meter? It doesn’t seem like a big deal. Everything’s running fine.

‘Really?’

—But it’s not something that exists in the natural world, so I can’t see through it like I can see inside a cell, although I can understand how it works by looking at the overall structure.

Rosaline went on.

—But even considering that, I think it’s fine.

‘That’s a relief.’

Rosaline began to pull out the cells that had been observing the reactor. It was at that moment.

—Wait.

A small, sharp crack caught Rosaline’s eye.

—There’s a very small crack in the pressurizer...

‘The pressurizer?’

In a nuclear reactor, a pressurizer was a device that kept the inside of the reactor at one hundred fifty atmospheres of pressure. Temperatures could reach up to two thousand degrees in an instant, and it was normal for the coolant—water—to boil.

If all the coolant boiled off, the cooling pump pipes could burst and the reactor could be destroyed. As such, it was important to keep the coolant as a liquid, and the way to do that was to increase the pressure. Even things like LPG gas cylinders were pressurized to liquefy the gas in transportation. It was the same principle.

“Wait a minute.”

Young-Joon stopped in his tracks.

“Did you also check the inside of the reactor after the earthquake, sir?” Young-Joon asked.

“Of course,” replied the head of nuclear protection.

“The sound of the water flowing into the coolant pump seems a bit off. Could you please check the pump or the pressurizer?”

The head of nuclear protection frowned. Young-Joon could tell there was a problem with the pressurizer by the sound of the water flowing?

“I know it sounds a bit ridiculous, but I’ve heard that pressurizers fail quite often in power plants. If it’s not too difficult, couldn’t you double-check it?” Young-Joon asked.

*

After taking a closer look at the pressurizers and pumps in the reactor, the head of nuclear protection reported directly to the nuclear plant director. The plant director then reported to the headquarters’ facility safety management team. The manager of facility safety management reported this information to Masumoto.

“It’s been recommended by an employee at the Tohoku Reactor One that it should be shut down.”

“Who?” Masumoto asked.

“The head of nuclear protection.”

“He’s not even an engineer, right? Is this confirmed?”

“The opinion of the resident engineer at the plant is that there is a possibility of a pressurizer breakage, so it should be shut down immediately and inspected thoroughly.”

“...”

Masumoto pondered for a moment. TEPCO had already inspected the Tohoku plant and declared that it was fine. Less than a week had passed since then.

“People have pride...”

Halting operations at the Tohoku nuclear plant right now would only fuel the anti-nuclear movement spreading around Fukushima. Activists would claim victory and intensify their attacks on the Fukushima contaminated water treatment issue. Prime Minister Atabe could only do so much to hold them off.

“Send technicians to recheck everything. But we cannot shut down the nuclear plant. Conduct the inspection quietly so it doesn’t attract media attention,” Masumoto said.