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The Vacuum Chamber at Cadarache
Lucia Moreau stood on the steel catwalk suspended thirty meters above the experimental fusion pit, watching the digital pressure monitor refuse to drop. At four in the morning, the vast cavern of the facility in southern France was deserted save for the hum of cryogenic compressors and the cold hiss of liquid helium circulating through superconducting coils. The reactor vessel needed to achieve an ultra-high vacuum before the magnetic confinement tests could begin, yet the reading had remained stubbornly fixed at ten to the minus four millibars for two hours.
"The vacuum seals ought to have seated completely once the chamber dropped below freezing," said Étienne, her shift partner, wiping condensation from his protective visor. "If the helium manifold sprung a leak, the spectrometer would flag it instantly."
"It hasn't flagged any trace gas," Lucia said, tapping the glass casing of the sensor.