Chapter 555 Uranium Centrifuge (First update, please subscribe)
As a country of immigrants, Nanyang has scientists and technicians from all over the world, including many Nobel Prize winners, except for some who passed through "paperclips" In addition to the scholars "invited" by the plan, there are also people like Johannes Stark who were listed as the "principal criminal" and were forced to flee to Nanyang. However, as a Nobel Prize winner, he did not need to remain anonymous. Nanyang officially The form gives it shelter. There are also many people who were banned from teaching by the Allies during the "denazification" and therefore lost their jobs as university professors.
It is precisely thanks to the arrival of these experts and scholars that Nanyang has been able to establish Asia's first-class higher education system in a short period of time, and in a short period of time, Nanyang has a place on the world scientific stage.
According to some European and American newspapers - the technological tree of the Third Reich has taken root in Southeast Asia and bears fruit. There are even caricatures linking Nanyang with the swastika.
However, no matter how ironic it is, it cannot change the fact that Nanyang needs this technological tree and needs it to take root and bear fruit in Nanyang.
And where are the roots?
There are universities in Nanyang. For tens of thousands of German scholars in Nanyang, universities are places with the strongest German flavor. German-style buildings can always comfort their homesickness. But that's it. Compared with homesickness, most of them have long regarded this place as their second hometown.
This is the case for Gilnot Zip, who is an assistant professor at Yongning University. Although he has not yet been naturalized, he has long regarded Yongning as his second hometown. As a physicist, he worked on radar and aircraft propellers during the war. But since two years ago, he has been involved in a confidential research-uranium centrifuge.
“In industry, a centrifuge is a very common machine. Its working principle is to use high-speed rotation to separate mixed substances. For example, to separate blood cells from plasma. Although this sounds It's incredible, but their principle is actually that simple. "
"The washing machine's dehydration drum is also a separator. The artificial gravity generated by its rotation can separate water (heavy) and clothes (light). A good washing machine spins about 15 times per second. The difference between U-235 and U-238 is very subtle. The centrifuge speed required to separate U-235 is about 100 times that of the washing machine, which is close to the speed. The speed of sound.”
To this day, Zipu still remembers how the project director Yuan Jialiu described the centrifuge when he joined the project. In fact, as physicists, they certainly know what a centrifuge is.
Of course we also know the difficulty of this work - the isotope of ordinary uranium is U-238, which has 146 neutrons and accounts for 99.3% of the natural uranium element. U-238 is slightly heavier than another isotope of uranium, U-235, which has three fewer neutrons than U-238.
The difference between the two is so small that it is difficult to "dump" U-238, which only weighs three neutrons.
“You can’t succeed!”
Thinking of others’ ridicule, Zipu, who was lying in front of the desk, shook his head. As a young man, although he didn't know how to succeed, he was determined to try his best to achieve the impossible.
Staring at the drawings on the drawing board, Zipp said to himself.
"Speed, the key is speed, it must be more than 1500 revolutions per second..., and this needs to overcome friction..."
In fact, the overall idea of the uranium centrifuge is very clear Yes, as early as two years ago, Yuan Jialiu proposed this idea: placing a high-speed roller in a space. Fill this space with gaseous uranium. A regularly varying magnetic field is used at the bottom of the drum. This motor is very similar to make the drum rotate at high speed, so that the heavier U-238 will float towards the wall of the drum, while the U-235 will gather in the middle. With slight heating at the bottom, these gaseous mixtures will have such an effect: U-238 will sink downwards, while U-235 will float upwards, so that the required isotopes can be collected.
Although the theory is out, the specific methods are not very clear. In order to achieve this goal, Zip's group must work hard to defeat the main enemy of the rotation process - friction. "Friction will slow down the speed, damage or even destroy the entire equipment, and these machines need to work flawlessly for many years...that is to say...must reduce physical support as much as possible?"
Tapping the pencil stick and staring at the centrifugal drum on the drawing, Zipp, as a physicist, is not an outsider in machinery. After all, he once participated in the development of aircraft engines. In fact, it was precisely because he was proficient in both physics and mechanics that he was selected to join this project team.
"Magnetism, you can use magnetism..."
Suddenly, Zipu's eyes lit up and he shouted excitedly.
“Yes, that’s right, pump out the air in the drum and use a magnetic bearing to fix the top of the drum, so that the necessary physical support can be reduced!”
Excited After shouting, Zipp leaned over the drawing board again and redrawn the drawings just like before.
Early the next morning, after completing the basic design, Zipu made a call. After the call was connected, he said to Yuan Jialiu on the other end of the phone.
"Professor, I have a new idea..."
Ten minutes later, a car arrived at the Physics Building of Yong'an University, and Zipp then got on the bus with the security guard. Regarding automobiles, in Nanyang, due to the limited number of scholars, it is impossible to gather everyone in the Atomic City to conduct closed research, so researchers often teach in universities and work in the Atomic City at the same time.
Scholars like Zipu who are responsible for the development of sub-projects usually don’t even need to go to Atomic City. But today was different. Soon he took a flight from a nearby military airport to the "Atomic City" located in the hinterland of the central rainforest of Borneo.
“...In order to overcome friction, physical support must be reduced as much as possible, which also means that any physical contact must be reduced as much as possible. Therefore, I designed the bottom of the roller On a needle-shaped magnetic bearing, this is the only physical contact point in the entire system, which reduces friction to a minimum compared to ordinary bearings. ”
While Zipu was introducing his design, Yuan Jialiu walked to the drawing and stared thoughtfully at the needle-shaped magnetic bearing on the drawing. After thinking for a moment, he looked at Zipu and said.
“This design of yours is great! Let’s work together to make it a reality!”
It seems like a simple sentence, but it actually requires more sweat. , in the following time, the designers spent several years constantly testing and modifying, and finally developed this complex device
(End of this chapter)