Chapter 181 Power Surge
Three minutes after the successful ignition, the cheers in the control room had just died down.
Lin Mo was still standing in front of the main console, staring at the stable data. 120 million degrees, 5.3 Tesla, 12 megawatts—every item was telling him that the device was operating normally.
But he knew that the real test had yet to come.
Ignition was one thing; power generation was another.
Only when the output power exceeded the input power could the Artificial Sun be considered a true success.
Just then, a monitor suddenly exclaimed:
"The output power is starting to rise!"
Everyone's gaze turned to that screen simultaneously.
On the screen, the previously static power curve began to slowly rise.
0.1 megawatts, 0.2 megawatts, 0.3 megawatts...
Chen Xueming rushed over in a single stride, staring at that curve without daring to blink.
"What is the heating power?" he asked.
Another technician immediately replied: "Input power is 12 megawatts, stable and unchanged."
Chen Xueming's heart skipped a beat.
Output power rising, input power unchanged—he knew better than anyone what this meant.
0.5 megawatts, 0.6 megawatts, 0.7 megawatts...
The control room was deathly silent.
Everyone held their breath, staring at that curve.
0.8 megawatts, 0.9 megawatts, 1.0 megawatts—
On the screen, the power curve gave a slight jolt and then continued to rise.
1.1 megawatts, 1.2 megawatts, 1.3 megawatts...
Chen Xueming's voice trembled slightly:
"The output power... has exceeded the input power."
The control room went silent for three seconds.
Then, earth-shaking cheers erupted.
"1.0! It's broken through!"
"Net energy gain! It's really been achieved!"
"My god! We did it!"
Li Xiao jumped up, hugging the technician beside her, crying and laughing at the same time. Chen Xueming stood there, tears streaming down his face, but he was smiling, smiling very intensely. Zhao Gang rushed in at some point, grabbing Lin Mo in a bear hug, and the two of them nearly fell over.
Lin Mo was held by him, but his eyes were fixed on the curve on the screen that was still rising.
1.5 megawatts, 1.8 megawatts, 2.0 megawatts...
It was still rising.
He gently pushed Zhao Gang away, walked to the main console, pressed a few keys, and brought up more detailed data.
On the screen, lines of numbers were jumping:
Input power: 12.0 megawatts
Output power: 2.3 megawatts
Energy gain factor: 0.19
It hadn't reached 1 yet.
But the trend was rising.
And it was rising very quickly.
"Continue monitoring," Lin Mo said in a calm voice, though everyone could hear the excitement beneath that calm, "Report once every ten seconds."
"Yes!"
Ten seconds later.
"Output power 3.1 megawatts! Gain factor 0.26!"
Twenty seconds later.
"4.2 megawatts! 0.35!"
Thirty seconds later.
"5.5 megawatts! 0.46!"
The atmosphere in the control room became increasingly heated. Every time a report was made, someone would cheer. Every time someone cheered, someone else would shed tears.
Chen Xueming stood next to Lin Mo, his hands trembling.
"Old Lin," his voice was so hoarse it was almost unintelligible, "we really did it."
Lin Mo looked at him and smiled:
"It's not over yet. Let it keep running."
One minute.
"Output power 8.7 megawatts! Gain factor 0.73!"
One minute and thirty seconds.
"11.2 megawatts! 0.93!"
Everyone stopped breathing.
11.2 megawatts, only 0.8 megawatts away from the input power.
That curve was still rising, at a speed visible to the naked eye.
One minute and forty seconds.
"11.8 megawatts! 0.98!"
One minute and forty-five seconds.
"11.9 megawatts! 0.99!"
One minute and forty-eight seconds.
On the screen, the curve gave a slight jolt—
12.0 megawatts.
Output power, equal to input power.
The control room was so quiet that you could hear heartbeats.
Then, the curve continued to rise.
12.1 megawatts, 12.2 megawatts, 12.3 megawatts...
The gain factor, exceeded 1.
Chen Xueming was the first to react.
He turned around abruptly and grabbed Lin Mo in a hug:
"Old Lin! It exceeded it! It really exceeded it!"
Lin Mo was held so tightly he couldn't breathe, but this time, he didn't push him away.
He hugged Chen Xueming back, and the two of them cried and laughed in the control room.
Li Xiao rushed over, and the three of them hugged in a huddle. Zhao Gang also rushed over, and the four grown men hugged together, crying like children.
Fang Lin stood in the corner, smiling, and as she smiled, tears also streamed down.
She picked up her tablet and sent a message to her superiors:
"Output power exceeds input power. Energy gain factor has broken through 1. A first in human history."
Send.
Then she looked up, watching those people hugging and crying together.
Outside the window, the tokamak-3 was operating stably.
That Artificial Sun was emitting light brighter than the sun itself.
The observation area five hundred meters away.
Twenty-three international experts all stood up, staring at the huge screen, no one speaking.
On the screen, the power curve had already exceeded the input power and was still rising.
12.5 megawatts, 12.8 megawatts, 13.0 megawatts...
The French expert covered his mouth, tears welling up in his eyes.
The Germany expert stood there, motionless, like a statue.
The Japanese expert put his hands together, head bowed in silence.
Smith stood at the very front, staring at that curve, watching for a very, very long time.
Then he said softly:
"A new era for humanity has begun."
Beijing, in a residential building.
Wang Zhenguo stared at the television screen, his hands trembling.
On the screen, the power curve had already surged to 13.5 megawatts, and a line of text appeared beside it:
"tokamak-3 achieves net energy gain; humanity obtains net energy from Nuclear Fusion for the first time."
He looked at that line of text, looking for a very, very long time.
Then he picked up that yellowed photograph, addressing the blurred faces, and said softly:
"Old friends, we... won."
Gobi Desert, in the control room.
The power curve finally stabilized.
Output power: 15.2 megawatts
Gain factor: 1.27
Lin Mo stared at that number, silent for a long time.
Then he turned around and looked at the group of people behind him.
Chen Xueming, Li Xiao, Zhao Gang, Fang Lin, and those unnamed technicians, engineers, and support staff.
Everyone was looking at him, their eyes filled with tears, smiles, and an indescribable complexity.
Lin Mo took a deep breath, wanting to say something, but couldn't say anything at all.
In the end, he just raised his hand and waved gently at everyone.
Then he turned around and looked out the window.
The tokamak-3 was operating stably.
That Artificial Sun was, on the Gobi Desert, illuminating the entire world.