Chapter 35: Pure Water
Mentioning the word “equipment,” You Zhicheng’s expression became much more serious: “This is the most important.
Equipment production has a cycle. The equipment required by our laboratory demands extremely high performance and processing precision, making it impossible to produce in large quantities in a short time.
Even if we temporarily abandon those auxiliary equipment, such as the dormitory area and canteen area, focusing solely on the equipment itself, the required quantity of equipment is still extremely large.
Photomultiplier Tube, pure water purification cycle, circuitry, pipe, temperature control, supercomputer—even the steel plate for the water tank of the telescope main body needs to be specially customized—they must possess extremely high stability, otherwise the particles constituting them themselves will diffuse into the ultrapure water, greatly affecting detection precision and efficiency.”
“How many suppliers do you have? What is the cycle?”
“There are a total of 376 core components suppliers.
But don’t forget, they are primary suppliers. To produce the equipment we need, they also need to procure parts, raw materials, etc., from secondary suppliers.
The total number of suppliers involved in the entire chain is probably thousands.
The original supply cycle was to complete a total of 256 batches of equipment supply within 12 months, then install them gradually to build the telescope.”
Saying these numbers, a hint of despair appeared on You Zhicheng’s face: “Thousands of factories completing equipment production within ten days—impossible.”
Gu Changshan was also silent for a moment, but still noted these numbers in his notebook, then said: “Next item.”
“The next item is even more difficult: ultrapure water.
Ultrapure water is a core component of the neutrino telescope; it must maintain extreme purity.
Well, simply put, the design specification for our Sen Mountain Base requires a purity of approximately one impurity ion allowed per 300 million water molecules, and it must not be radioactive.
By comparison, in pure water sold on the market, even the purest, the impurity ratio is about one impurity ion per 3 million water molecules, and there is no requirement for radioactivity.
This is roughly equivalent to putting a pinch of salt in a swimming pool. But our telescope is equivalent to allowing only a pinch of salt in a lake.
For water of this purity, under normal design, we would need to build a dedicated factory here at the base to produce it. But…
This factory hasn’t even started construction yet. The original planning was to begin civil engineering in three months.”
Gu Changshan asked: “Can we find a way to transport it from elsewhere?”
You Zhicheng shook his head: “Pure water must be prepared on site. The reason is simple: the transportation process itself will contaminate the pure water.”
Gu Changshan didn’t ask further and made another note in his notebook.
“We will find a way.”
Closing his notebook, he stood up: “Starting now, the Sen Mountain Neutrino Telescope Base is temporarily under our control.”
“Yes, we guarantee full cooperation.”
……
Standing in the Sen Mountain Base, looking at the endless mountains under the slanting sun in the distance, a trace of emotion appeared on Lu Zhaoming’s face.
“It’s tough.”
He shook his head and sighed.
Of course, tough is not a reason not to do it. He just knew in his heart that even if they truly completed this seemingly impossible mission, it would have no meaning for this life.
“I only hope that the intelligence harvested from our struggle in this life can truly help the next life, so it won’t be in vain…”
The two turned around and boarded the nearby helicopter, roaring away.
This group came fast and left fast, but the atmosphere in the Sen Mountain Base sank into a solemn state due to these unexpected visitors.
“What do we do next? They didn’t give us any orders.”
You Zhicheng was silent for a moment, then sighed: “Do what we should do. Issue the notice: all vacations canceled, everyone must return to the base at the fastest speed.
Overtime tonight!”
The entire base fell into a frenzy of busyness.
Not even an hour had passed when You Zhicheng, who was checking drawings, was startled by an urgent knock on the door.
“Director You, go take a look quickly, outside, outside…”
You Zhicheng took the high-speed elevator and hurried from over 2000 meters underground to the ground, where he saw a shocking scene.
Dozens of heavy helicopters were hovering in the sky, all suspending some extremely heavy-looking objects.
Looking closely, they seemed to be parts of certain large machinery, such as heavy buckets, bulldozer blades, tracks, and the like.
Several helicopters had already landed in the square in front of the base’s surface building, where guards in camouflage uniforms were tense in assembly.
A fully assembled huge excavator was already parked nearby.
If it were just the dozens of helicopters in the sky, it wouldn’t be much.
What truly shocked him was the sky farther away.
He saw countless helicopters suspending various parts, equipment, large boxes, etc., almost in a line, flying toward their base.
Hundreds and thousands of helicopters gathered, like a bridge suspended in the sky.
They would drop the suspended items, or land to unload supplies from the belly, then fly away, immediately followed by other helicopters landing.
In just over ten minutes, the supplies on the base square had piled up into small mountains.
He saw hundreds of guards in camouflage, after the machinery was assembled, immediately driving them roaring toward outside the base.
The base was located in a gorge but occupied only a very small ground area; the surroundings were all vast expanses of weeds, forest, and rocks.
Amid the roar of machinery, large trees were directly pushed down and dragged away, rocks were directly blasted apart, bridges were built over small rivers, and weeds were cleared away.
Uneven land was replaced by leveled ground at a speed visible to the naked eye.
One after another dark green military tent was set up on these cleared open spaces, in neat rows like barracks.
Medical vehicles marked with red crosses, as well as refrigerated trucks, field kitchen trucks, etc., stopped in their designated positions as if pre-planned.
“Director, look over there…”
His colleague pointed in horror toward the farther direction.
You Zhicheng looked in the direction he pointed and saw, far below in the distance extending to Sen City dozens of kilometers away, hundreds of points connected in a line.
At each point, large crowds were busy with something.
Picking up the telescope, he saw countless steel beams already transported to the sites, workers appearing from nowhere rapidly erecting them. The tallest steel beam tower had already risen over ten meters high.
You Zhicheng broke out in cold sweat.
“Damn, war… is this war?”
