Chapter 99 Initial Results

The forty-seventh experiment.

Chen Xueming stood before the control console, his eyes fixed intently on the curve on the screen. Li Xiao's fingers hovered over the keyboard, ready to record any anomalies at any moment. Zhang Zhe stood guard by the separation chamber, clutching a walkie-talkie in his hand.

Lin Mo stood behind them, watching quietly.

It had been two months.

From the arrival of the magnets, the modification of the device, and the tuning of parameters to this forty-seventh experiment. There had been countless failures in between—uneven magnetic fields, turbulent airflow, low collection efficiency, background noise interference...

After every failure, Chen Xueming would squat by the device, staring blankly at the data before saying, "Again."

Today was a bit different.

On the screen, that curve began to rise slowly.

"Sample injection is stable." Li Xiao's voice was a bit tight. "Magnetic field strength 2.3T, airflow speed 0.6 meters per second, temperature maintained at 25 degrees Celsius."

Chen Xueming didn't speak, his eyes staring unblinkingly at the curve.

Inside the separation chamber, the Deuterium Gas mixture flowed through the magnetic field region. Theoretically, there is a minute difference in the deflection radii of deuterium and tritium in a magnetic field; after a sufficiently long path, they can be separated.

Theory was just theory.

In reality, they were still using non-radioactive simulants—Deuterium Gas and another gas of similar mass. Real tritium is radioactive, and they could only apply to use it after the principle verification passed.

The curve continued to rise.

"Concentration difference detected at the separation chamber outlet." Li Xiao's voice rose an octave. "The concentration of the component with the larger Deflection Radius is... twelve percent higher than at the inlet."

Chen Xueming's hand trembled slightly.

Twelve percent.

It wasn't high. It was far from the ninety percent or more required for industrial application.

But this was the first time they had truly separated.

"Continue." His voice was a bit raspy.

The experiment continued for another twenty minutes.

The final data aggregated on the screen—separation efficiency of 14.3 percent.

Chen Xueming stared at that number, motionless.

Li Xiao and Zhang Zhe also stared, not daring to breathe loudly.

After a long time, Chen Xueming suddenly smiled.

It wasn't a bitter smile, but the kind of smile that rippled out from the heart, his eyes crinkling into slits and the wrinkles on his face smoothing out.

"It's a success," he said.

Li Xiao was stunned for a moment. "Teacher Chen, it's only fourteen percent..."

"What's wrong with fourteen percent?" Chen Xueming turned his head to look at her. "Do you know what the efficiency was thirty years ago when I first did this experiment? Zero point five percent."

Li Xiao opened her mouth but found no words.

"Back then, I used the crudest equipment, coils I wound myself, and glass tubes I blew myself. It took three months of testing just to barely see a hint of separation." Chen Xueming stood up and walked to the separation chamber, reaching out to touch its silvery-white metal casing. "Now, two months, fourteen percent."

He turned around and looked at Lin Mo.

"Lin Mo, thank you for those simulation data. Without them, I'd still be a blind cat hunting for dead mice."

Lin Mo shook his head. "It was you who walked this path step by step."

Chen Xueming took a deep breath and glanced at the number on the screen again.

14.3 percent.

It wasn't high, but it was enough.

Enough to prove the principle was feasible.

Enough to let him know that the dream from thirty years ago wasn't just a dream.

"Li Xiao," he suddenly said, "note this down—the directions for the next step of optimization."

Li Xiao hurriedly grabbed her notebook.

"First, there's still room for improvement in magnetic field uniformity. The current shimming area is 1.6 meters; if we can reach 2 meters, the separation path will be longer, and efficiency can be raised to at least twenty percent or more."

Li Xiao recorded quickly.

"Second, the stability of the airflow speed. There were two fluctuations today; the pressure control of the injection system likely isn't refined enough. Zhang Zhe, keep an eye on this and see if we can add a Pressure-Stabilizing Valve."

Zhang Zhe nodded. "Understood."

"Third, temperature control. It was twenty-five degrees today, but the theoretical model shows that separation efficiency is higher at lower temperatures. We can try cooling it down in the next step to see if there's a breakthrough."

After Chen Xueming finished, he looked at Lin Mo.

"What do you think?"

Lin Mo thought for a moment, walked to the whiteboard, and picked up a marker.

"I'll add two points." He wrote as he spoke. "First, the magnetic field strength gradient. The current magnetic field is uniform, but if we make it a Gradient Field—strong at the inlet and weak at the outlet—it might improve the separation effect."

Chen Xueming's eyes lit up. "That makes sense."

"Second, Multi-stage Separation." Lin Mo continued writing. "Single-stage efficiency is only ten-odd percent, but by connecting three or four stages in series, the efficiency can be compounded. We can optimize the single stage first and then consider a multi-stage series scheme."

Chen Xueming looked at the words on the whiteboard and fell silent for a few seconds.

Then he turned his head to look at Li Xiao and Zhang Zhe.

"Did you hear that? There's still plenty of work to do."

Li Xiao smiled. "We heard you, Teacher Chen."

Zhang Zhe also smiled. "Heard you."

Chen Xueming looked at Lin Mo again.

"Lin Mo, can that system of yours run simulations for Multi-stage Separation?"

Lin Mo nodded.

"I can. Give me three days, and I'll run through the multi-stage schemes."

Chen Xueming patted his shoulder.

"Good."

Outside the window, the sun over the Gobi Desert had already risen to mid-air. Sunlight streamed through the window of the Prefabricated Building, casting a warm patch of light on the floor.

Chen Xueming stood in that patch of light, looking at the numbers on the screen, the corners of his mouth turned up the whole time.

Thirty years.

He was finally standing on this path again.

And this time, he wasn't alone.

In the evening, Captain Zhou brought over some late-night snacks.

"Professor Chen, I heard you were successful today?" He set down the lunch boxes, looking curious.

Chen Xueming waved his hand. "What success? It was only fourteen percent."

Captain Zhou didn't understand these things, but seeing the smile on Chen Xueming's face, he knew it was a good thing.

"Fourteen percent is also success," he said. "Take it slow; you'll get to a hundred percent eventually."

Chen Xueming was amused by him.

"Yes, take it slow."

Li Xiao opened a lunch box; it was a large pot of mutton soup, steaming hot.

"Captain Zhou, did you slaughter another sheep?"

Captain Zhou gave a chuckle. "I didn't slaughter one; I bought it from town. If I keep slaughtering them, there won't be enough sheep to eat."

Everyone laughed.

While eating, Chen Xueming suddenly set down his chopsticks.

"Lin Mo."

"Yes?"

"I have an idea."

Lin Mo looked at him.

Chen Xueming thought for a moment and said, "We've just started on the path of Tritium Extraction. But I'm thinking, maybe it's not just Tritium Extraction."

Lin Mo waited for him to continue.

"Lithium Extraction from Seawater uses Magnetic Field Separation, and Tritium Extraction uses Magnetic Field Separation as well. What about other isotopes? Uranium, plutonium, strontium, cesium—could the materials needed for the nuclear industry also use this principle?"

Lin Mo was silent for a few seconds, then slowly nodded.

"Theoretically, yes."

Chen Xueming's eyes lit up.

"Then this path of ours isn't just for preparing fuel for Nuclear Fusion. It's a universal platform for Isotope Separation."

Li Xiao, listening from the side, suddenly said, "Teacher Chen, you're planning to do all the work yourself."

Chen Xueming laughed.

"It's not that I want to do it; it's that this technology can do it."

He looked at the device outside the window, operating under the moonlight.

"Lithium Extraction from Seawater is just the beginning. There's much more that can be done later than we imagined."

Lin Mo also looked out the window.

He knew Chen Xueming was right.

Isotope Separation via magnetic fields is a principle that is far too fundamental and universal. Lithium, tritium, uranium, plutonium—as long as charged ions can be produced, they can be separated by a magnetic field.

And this device was that platform.

A platform that could extract lithium from seawater, tritium from lithium, and useful isotopes from nuclear waste.

He suddenly remembered the words from the system: From today onwards, every step you take is creating history.

Yes.

Every step was creating history.

It was just that this history was much larger than they had originally imagined.