Chapter 747: First Ignition, Record Achieved!

Pre-inspection complete; all pre-experiment preparations have been finalized. Ignition can proceed.

At this moment, in the control room, tension reached its peak; everyone involuntarily held their breath, waiting for Xu Qingzhou to give the order.

The only sounds in the control room were the low hums of operating equipment.

Xu Qingzhou scanned the hall; even Academician Ren looked profoundly grave, and the others were visibly tense.

Professor Zhao’s hands inside his sleeves seemed to tremble slightly.

It was no wonder everyone was like this.

Success or failure rested on this single attempt.

The world’s first negative-triangle plasma tokamak, and it must immediately reach 100 million degrees Celsius.

The Sun’s core temperature is only 15 million degrees Celsius—equivalent to the instantaneous heat released by igniting 1,000 gasoline pools the size of football fields. The plasma temperature is now 6.6 times higher: the heat of 6,600 such gasoline pools.

Replicating stellar energy on Earth.

Previously, they had simulated this countless times, and every system had been tested to optimal performance—but now, at the moment of ignition, even Xu Qingzhou, the veteran skeptic, felt his heart lodged in his throat.

Finally, Xu Qingzhou’s gaze settled on the screen, displaying the real-time feed from the vacuum chamber.

“All personnel—activate the negative-triangle configuration!”

Xu Qingzhou took a silent, deep breath; though his heart was tense, his expression remained unchanged, his voice calm as he issued each command precisely.

“Activate the negative-triangle configuration!”

At the controller, the operator spoke and pressed the start button, establishing a “magnetic cage” resistant to turbulence and high temperatures, to later inject energy into the stable magnetic confinement and initiate fusion.

“10, 9, 8”

Xu Qingzhou’s voice echoed through the command hall.

“3, 2, 1”

“Ignition!”

Xu Qingzhou personally pressed the switch.

In that instant, blue-white particle streams exploded within the vacuum chamber; the inner wall coating glowed dark red under extreme heat (Data 12), creating a stark contrast against the cold blue plasma.

In the control room, the quantum sensor network’s alert lights shifted from green to red, confirming an emergency fire signal.

Each team monitored their assigned data streams.

“Magnetic configuration locked! Negative-triangle curvature magnetic field line closure precision: 99.99%, real-time distortion rate ≤0.01%, sensors functioning normally!”

“Negative-triangle configuration suppresses turbulence at 90% efficiency; no rupture risk!”

“First-wall nano-channel tungsten film temperature uniform; thermal safety system operating normally!”

Everything proceeded exactly as rehearsed.

“.”

“0 seconds.”

“Fuel injection complete! Deuterium-tritium ice pellet density: 8.3×10^21 m⁻³ (target ≥5×10^21); neutral beam power: 70 MW standby.”

Xu Qingzhou watched the data feedback on the screen, his focus razor-sharp, silently thinking: “Ignition succeeded—this is a crucial step forward, but… the real test lies ahead. The equipment must withstand hundreds of millions of degrees within seconds.”

“8 seconds.”

“Critical billion-degree threshold breached: ion temperature 101 million °C, electron temperature 170 million °C—dual billion-degree achieved!”

“60 seconds!”

“Negative-triangle configuration sustained! Magnetic surface tearing index: 0.0001, self-sustained fuel consumption rate: 0.08 g/s.”

The monitor reported the equipment’s operational status at each time point.

Ren Nan, Zhao Shengwen, and others had long forgotten their tension, each fixed on their assigned panels, ready to respond to any emergency.

“.”

“1100 seconds!”

“Plasma temperature: 102 million °C; equipment in steady-state operation; mission objective achieved—request shutdown command!”

[sustainedfusion: 102 million C/1100s]

On the central screen, a gilded pop-up window appeared.