Chapter 145 Installation and Debugging
On the seventh morning after the Divertor arrived at the base, the installation work officially began.
Inside the massive circular installation workshop, a dozen or so people surrounded the Vacuum Chamber of the tokamak-3.
The Divertor was gently lifted by a specialized spreader, suspended directly above the opening at the bottom of the Vacuum Chamber, like a heart waiting to return to its place.
Chen Xueming stood on the scaffolding, holding a walkie-talkie, his eyes fixed intently on the behemoth slowly descending.
He had showered and changed into clean work clothes, but the exhaustion on his face had not yet fully faded.
"Slow down a little," he said into the walkie-talkie, "lower the left side by another two millimeters... Good, stop."
The crane operator operated carefully, and the Divertor descended slowly at a speed almost imperceptible to the naked eye.
The two-meter distance took a full twenty minutes to cover.
The moment the Divertor fully entered the Vacuum Chamber and sat in its predetermined position, Chen Xueming felt his heart skip a beat.
"Positioning confirmed," he took a deep breath, "start the locking mechanism."
Four workers operated simultaneously, firmly locking the Divertor to the interface at the bottom of the Vacuum Chamber.
With a soft click, it was locked into place.
Chen Xueming climbed down from the scaffolding, his legs feeling a bit weak.
Lin Mo gave him a hand.
"Teacher Chen, it's stable."
Chen Xueming nodded, his voice a bit raspy: "It's stable."
Next was connecting the cooling system and the diagnostic lines.
The inside of the Divertor had thousands of cooling channels that needed to be connected one by one to the external water-cooling system.
Each channel interface was custom-made; an error of more than 0.1 millimeters would cause a leak.
Li Xiao was in charge of this part.
She took three technicians and crawled into the narrow space at the bottom of the Vacuum Chamber, staying there for four hours.
When she came out, she was drenched in sweat, her work clothes soaked and clinging to her body, but her eyes were bright.
"Manager Lin, all connections are complete. Pressure testing, no leaks for twenty minutes."
Lin Mo patted her shoulder: "Go rest for a while, drink some water."
Li Xiao shook her head: "I won't rest, I'm waiting to watch the debugging."
At 2:00 PM, everything was ready.
In the control room, everyone was at their stations.
Lin Mo sat in front of the main control console, facing a dozen screens with dense streams of data scrolling constantly.
Chen Xueming stood behind him, his eyes fixed on the temperature monitoring screen of the Divertor.
Li Xiao sat nearby, her fingers hovering over the keyboard, ready to input commands at any moment.
Zhao Gang stood at the doorway, unsure whether to enter or retreat, finally finding a corner to stand in, not daring to even breathe loudly.
Fang Lin was there too.
She sat in the back row, holding a tablet, recording every change in the data in real-time.
"Report on all systems," Lin Mo's voice was calm, but his hand gripping the mouse tightened slightly.
"Magnet System is normal," Chen Xueming said.
"Cooling system is normal," Li Xiao said.
"Vacuum system is normal," another technician reported.
"Diagnostic System is normal."
Lin Mo took a deep breath: "First comprehensive debugging of the Divertor, begin. Step one, circulate cooling water."
Li Xiao pressed the Enter key.
On the screen, the icon for the Divertor cooling system began to flash.
Data showed that cooling water was entering the Divertor at a rate of ten liters per second, flowing through those thousands of precision cooling channels.
Thirty seconds later, the system popped up a prompt: "Cooling system pressure stable, flow rate normal, no leaks."
Lin Mo nodded: "Step two, turn on auxiliary heating, simulate thermal load. Target temperature: 500 degrees."
Chen Xueming pressed the button in front of him.
The heating elements inside the Divertor began to work.
On the screen, the temperature data rose slowly: 100 degrees, 200 degrees, 300 degrees...
Everyone held their breath.
500 degrees reached.
"Hold for ten minutes," Lin Mo said.
Ten minutes felt as long as ten hours.
Li Xiao stared at the temperature curve, not daring to blink.
Chen Xueming's palms were full of sweat.
Zhao Gang clenched his fists in the corner until they cracked.
Ten minutes up.
"Temperature stable, fluctuation range ±2 degrees," Li Xiao's voice trembled slightly, "Cooling system working normally, heat removal meets design expectations."
A soft sigh of relief echoed in the control room.
But Lin Mo didn't stop.
"Step three, increase thermal load to 1000 degrees."
Chen Xueming paused: "Manager Lin, isn't that too fast? The design debugging process is a step-by-step increase..."
Lin Mo shook his head: "The Divertor's limit is 2000 degrees. 1000 degrees is just the midpoint; according to its design margin, it should be fine. I want to see its response curve."
Chen Xueming was silent for a second, then nodded: "Alright."
1000 degrees.
The temperature curve rose again.
This time, the speed of the rise was faster than before.
Everyone's eyes were fixed on that red line.
800 degrees.
900 degrees.
1000 degrees.
"Hold," Lin Mo said.
On the screen, the various parameters of the Divertor began to jump.
The cooling water outlet temperature rose by 8 degrees, still within the design range.
The material thermal stress index rose slightly, but did not trigger an alarm.
Five minutes.
Ten minutes.
"Manager Lin," Li Xiao suddenly spoke up, "The temperature of one cooling channel is 3 degrees higher than the others."
Lin Mo's gaze immediately swept over.
On the screen, indeed, one channel's outlet temperature was 3 degrees higher than the others.
Although still within the safe range, a deviation did exist.
"Analyze the cause," Lin Mo said.
Li Xiao typed rapidly on the keyboard, calling up the detailed data for that channel.
Dozens of parameters scrolled on the screen, finally settling on one line: "Cooling water flow rate: 2.1% lower than the design value."
"Flow rate is low," Li Xiao said, "It might be a slight blockage at the inlet of that channel, or burrs on the inner wall of the pipe."
Lin Mo frowned.
A 2.1% deviation wasn't huge, but it wasn't normal either.
Chen Xueming walked over and stared at the data set for a long time.
"Manager Lin," he said, "I suggest we pause and check that channel."
Lin Mo was silent for a few seconds, then nodded: "Agreed. Stop heating, cool down."
Cooling down took another hour.
When the Divertor temperature dropped to room temperature, Chen Xueming personally crawled into the bottom of the Vacuum Chamber and used an endoscope to check the abnormal cooling channel.
The endoscope probe slowly entered the channel, and an image of the inner wall of the pipe appeared on the screen.
The smooth metal surface gleamed with a dark red luster under the light.
It wasn't until they probed deep inside that they found the problem.
A small metal burr, whether left over from processing or caused by a bump during transportation, was stuck right at the bend of the channel, affecting the water flow speed.
Chen Xueming breathed a sigh of relief.
"Can it be fixed?" Lin Mo asked over the communicator.
"Yes," Chen Xueming said, "Just use a micro-grinding head, reach in and grind it off. But be careful, you can't damage the pipe wall."
Two hours later, the burr was cleared.
After another pressure test, the flow rate of that channel returned to normal.
At 9:00 PM, the debugging restarted.
This time, Lin Mo did not skip any levels.
1000 degrees, 1200 degrees, 1500 degrees, 1800 degrees, 2000 degrees—every step followed the procedure strictly, and every step was maintained for a sufficiently long, stable time.
2000 degrees reached.
The temperature inside the Divertor was high enough to melt steel, but protected by the precisely designed cooling system, the materials remained stable.
On the screen, the various parameters jumped slowly, all within the design range.
"Hold for thirty minutes," Lin Mo said.
Thirty minutes.
No one spoke in the control room, only the low hum of the equipment running.
Everyone's eyes were fixed on the screen in front of them, not daring to breathe.
The tenth minute, everything normal.
The twentieth minute, everything normal.
The twenty-ninth minute—
On the screen, all parameters suddenly jumped at once, then quickly stabilized.
Li Xiao was so startled she almost stood up, but after looking closely, she let out a long breath: "The automatic adjustment mechanism triggered. The cooling system automatically adjusted the flow rate based on temperature changes. Now all parameters are re-balanced, even more stable than before."
Lin Mo stared at the screen, watching those curves slowly stabilizing, the sweat in his palms finally drying.
The thirtieth minute reached.
"Divertor comprehensive debugging," Lin Mo's voice was a bit raspy, "all passed."
Silence for a second.
Then, a thunderous cheer erupted in the control room.
Zhao Gang was the first to rush up and hug Lin Mo: "Manager Lin! It's a success!"
Li Xiao jumped up, high-fived Chen Xueming, and feeling that wasn't enough, gave him a forceful hug.
Chen Xueming felt a bit embarrassed by the hug, but the smile on his face couldn't be hidden.
Fang Lin walked over from the back row, looking at those green "Normal" indicators on the screen, the corners of her mouth slightly lifted.
"Lin Mo," she said, "there is one last step left."
Lin Mo looked at her and nodded.
Yes.
One last step left.
Ignition.
That night, the Canteen served extra food.
Zhao Gang took out two bottles of his treasured "good wine" and poured a small cup for everyone.
Chen Xueming took a sip, grimacing from the spiciness, but smiled and took another sip.
Li Xiao didn't drink alcohol, holding her beverage to clink glasses with everyone.
Lin Mo sat in the corner, watching this group of people, suddenly feeling a sense of fulfillment.
The Divertor, the problem that had held them up for over two months, was finally solved.
From design to processing, from on-site monitoring to transportation, from installation to debugging—every step had been difficult, but they had made it through every step.
He raised his glass to everyone: "Come, a toast to everyone."
Glasses clinked together, making a crisp sound.
Outside the window, the night in the Gobi Desert was deep, with stars filling the sky.
And that device, which would soon light up the Artificial Sun, was already waiting quietly in the darkness.