By the time Lu Zhou returned to the hotel, Minister Novak was standing in the server room of the Saint Petersburg branch of the Russian Unified Energy System, silently watching the technicians sweating over their computers.
Standing beside Minister Novak was Oleg, the manager of the Unified Power Company's Saint Petersburg branch. The pale, middle-aged man had a thick beard and a somewhat portly figure. Somehow, he made an Armani suit look like an inflated balloon.
He had been rambling on beside the minister for the past two hours.
"Minister, I can swear to you that our power grid has always operated perfectly. There are absolutely no problems! Since this morning, the engineers in our department have been standing ready at their posts, preparing to receive power from the Helios Fusion Power Plant. But we haven't detected any voltage changes at the plant's power connection-"
Completely unmoved by this explanation, Minister Novak spoke with a stern, expressionless face.
"I will verify for myself whether there are any problems."
"I deeply regret your decision. It shows a lack of trust in our work."
"Shut up."
"Yes, Minister." Seeing the impatience on Minister Novak's face, Oleg muttered his reply and quickly shut his mouth.
In fact, neither Rosatom nor the Russian Ministry of Energy had anticipated anything like this. The Russian Unified Energy System, which operated the power grid in the European region, had not expected it either.
During the acceptance inspection, East Asia Power had not been the only party to sign the liability agreement. Staff from the Unified Power Company had also inspected the site. Only after confirming that there were no safety issues had they approved the Helios project's request to connect to the grid and begin generating power.
After hearing that the Helios Fusion Power Plant's core could