Chapter 536 Discussion of ‘Home’ (Part 2)
In the factory.
Hear these words from Wang Jiefu.
Qian Gaoyun, Yang Chengzong and others around him also nodded quickly, with approval on their faces.
After all, they are gathered here today not just to make friends and chat, but to have a special and important mission.
Yang Chengzong then recruited his assistant Ma Tong and asked him to take Qian Gaoyun and others to the dressing room in the corner to change into special protective clothing.
Of course.
These days' protective clothing is said to be "protective", but neither its effect nor its appearance are comparable to the radiation protective clothing of later generations.
In fact, let alone radiation protection suits, the "Dabai" in later generations of hospitals wore better ones than Yang Chengzong and others.
The protective clothing these days is actually a blue jumpsuit with the zipper at the back of the body, making it look like Super Mario.
The mask is made of ordinary transparent plastic. After people enter, they put a mask on their mouth to complete the standard process.
As for radiation protection performance
Put it this way.
This suit of clothing is made of mulberry silk and silver fiber blended fabric around the chest area, and then coated with a layer of barium sulfate.
Then
It’s gone.
That’s right, gone.
Moreover, the area covered by the fabric is very narrow, and if there is any fatty liver, it is estimated to be outside the protective area.
Therefore, the radiation protection performance of this kind of protective clothing is basically non-existent, only slightly better than psychological comfort. It is absolutely impossible to expect it to save lives.
Actually.
The real warning effect at the entire scene is not the clothing or sensing equipment, but
A birdcage.
There is a sparrow in the birdcage, and people are always on duty to observe its condition.
Once there is a problem with the sparrows in the cage, it means that the gas toxicity has exceeded a certain limit and must be evacuated urgently.
no way.
Such is the technological level of the times.
Ten minutes later.
After changing their clothes, Qian Gaoyun and others returned to Yang Chengzong.
The current season is still in summer, and it is still early August, the hottest period in summer.
In addition, the factory building is already extremely hot and stuffy.
Therefore, when Qian Gaoyun walked to Yang Chengzong, many areas of his protective clothing were already stuck to his body with sweat.
However, Qian Gaoyun didn't care about this situation at all. He raised his eyes and glanced around the situation behind the glass, and asked Yang Chengzong:
"Comrade Chengzong, how is the equipment debugging going?"
Yang Chengzong raised a palm-sized display screen in his hand that was connected to a certain device and said:
"73% of the original part has been injected. It will take about 10 minutes before the injection is completed, and the slowest will not exceed 15 minutes."
Qian Gaoyun nodded slightly.
As everyone knows.
Atomic bombs can use two explosives, uranium-235 and plutonium-239.
Among them, uranium-235 is more difficult, but its effectiveness and cost-effectiveness are higher than those of plutonium-239, and not even a little bit higher.
Everyone in future generations must know that the rabbits used uranium 235 in their first atomic bomb.
But actually.
Throughout the entire research process of the atomic bomb, the rabbits were not as decisive in the selection of raw materials as many people thought.
Even after the project started, there were some voices who believed that an emergency diversion could be considered to use plutonium-239 to prepare an atomic bomb.
If divided by a ratio.
As of now.
About 80% of the Rabbits' resources and determination are devoted to the development of uranium bombs, and the remaining 20% is used as a backup to prepare plutonium bombs.
For example, in February last year.
The Rabbits broke ground and built the country's first graphite-moderated light-water plutonium production reactor in the Qilian Mountains, code-named 02-B.
However, due to successive breakthroughs in the development of uranium bombs, this project did not officially begin to provide raw materials until the thermonuclear device experiment eight years later.
Of course.
That will be a long, long time later.
At this time, rabbits are still a little uncertain about the future.
One of the very important reasons is
Extracting enriched uranium is just too difficult. (Note: I wasn’t sure if this aspect could be written before and didn’t mention it. However, I reported it to the original unit and was told that it was declassified in 2007, so it can be written. Of course, I will blur some sensitive principles or even fabricate the data. Not recommended for imitation at home)
Mentioned earlier.
Natural uranium ore contains only 0.7% uranium 235, and the nuclear fuel of an atomic bomb requires a concentration of uranium 235 above 90%.
Therefore, if you want to develop an atomic bomb, you must increase the enrichment of uranium-235.
The most representative and systematic concentration method in this era is called gas diffusion method.
Its principle is very simple:
When the gas mixture to be separated passes through a device equipped with a diffusion membrane, lighter molecules have more chances of colliding with the diffusion membrane than heavier molecules, thereby achieving a certain degree of separation.
But the problem is
The mass difference between uranium-235 and uranium-238 is so small that they are too difficult to separate.
Even under ideal circumstances.
After one diffusion, the concentration is only increased by four thousandths, and the actual effect is even lower than this value.
Therefore, to obtain nuclear fuel with a uranium 235 enrichment of more than 90%, at least several thousand levels of diffusion processes are required.
Other than that.
There is still one core technology that needs to be broken through in the entire diffusion process, which is.
Fabrication of porous diffusion separation membranes.
This kind of separation membrane is made of metal that is resistant to corrosion by uranium hexafluoride. It has countless micropores for the air flow to pass through, and it needs to be uniform and dense.
As of now.
There are only three companies in the world that have mastered this technology: Haidian, Maoxiong and John Bull. Among them, John Bull still has Haidian's thigh.
In order to solve this technical barrier.
One year ago in May,
Rabbit established a team from the Institute of Atomic Energy of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, headed by Qian Gaoyun, codenamed "Vacuum Valve" to begin research on diffusion separation membranes.
This kind of diffusion separation membrane is divided into two categories: Type A and Type B according to the type.
Type A is in the form of a tube, type B is in the form of a sheet.
The separation efficiency and production cost of the former are much higher than that of the latter, but the manufacturing processes of the two are very similar.
That is to say, after mastering the production of type B, it is basically only a matter of time before the breakthrough of type A separation membrane.
Therefore, the rabbits made a decision when the "Vacuum Valve" group was established:
Conquer type B first, then type A.
By the way.
The B samples that Qian Gaoyun and the others took were all fragments left by the bear experts before they left, and some of the research equipment were also left behind by the bear before they left - not because of their kindness, but because Rabbit had already paid for it. Got money
Not long ago.
The 615 Institute under the Atomic Energy Research Laboratory has made breakthroughs in powder preparation and film casting liquid.
A few days later.
The separation membrane elements responsible for Yang Chengzong and others have also made progress.
Therefore, Qian Gaoyun immediately took Pei Lisheng and others to Factory 504 to prepare for the operation test and acceptance of Type B samples.
If the sample verification passes.
Then the rabbits' barriers to raw materials will be broken by more than half. To exaggerate, it can even be said to be smooth sailing. All they have to do is wait for the theoretical breakthrough from Factory 221.
At this moment.
On the edge of the glass.
Yang Chengzong still squinted one eye, pointed at the equipment inside the glass, and introduced:
"Director Qian, in order to ensure that this experiment is accurate enough, we will also start up the only imported gas diffusion machine in the factory during the process."
"This time its dual-mode compressor and cooler will be turned on, and there are a total of 1,100 supporting centrifuges. As for the total number of Class B samples, it is about 4,000, and the total cost exceeds 50,000 yuan."
"With the combination of several modules, a relatively standard uranium enrichment process can be simulated."
"As for the outside world, we have announced that we are going to carry out an oil refining operation. The comrades in Jincheng have already coordinated the relevant power resources, so there will not be any big problems in terms of safety."
Qian Gaoyun touched his chin, looked at the equipment inside the glass again, and asked:
"Comrade Chengzong, can the accuracy of the separation membrane elements be guaranteed to meet the standards?"
"Of course."
Yang Chengzong turned his head when he heard this, looked at Qian Gaoyun with his left eye with normal vision, and said with a smile:
"Director Qian, we have deciphered the digitizer equipment left by the Bear Man, and the accuracy and structure of the exchange membrane produced are the same as those of the Bear Man."
"However, although the fur of the stuffed bears is solid, the details are still not good enough."
"For example, the feedback device often shows low light, but the final digital display device is normal."
Qian Gaoyun nodded with satisfaction.
This acceptance test is a joint effort between the Second Ministry of Machinery, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Powder Research Laboratory of the Iron and Steel Research Institute of the Ministry of Metallurgy, and the New Materials Research Laboratory of the Central South Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. The investment in both human, material and financial resources is very high.
After all, in addition to 4,000 samples, the loss of power and equipment is also not a small amount.
Because the theoretical separation coefficient between uranium 235 and uranium 238 is about 1.0043, but in fact it is only about 1.003.
To separate uranium-235, a large number of diffusion separators need to be connected in series to gradually increase the enrichment of uranium.
For example, this experiment.
Yang Chengzong and others used more than 1,100 small separators to assist Mao Xiong's main gas diffusion machine, and the coverage area also included more than ten external factories.
The total investment in electricity and equipment is about 100,000, including the sample cost, which is more than 150,000 Chinese coins!
This funding is a figure squeezed out by the superior department or the entire country through tight belts, and it cannot be lost in any case.
Ten minutes later.
Didi Didi——
A prompt came from the display screen on Yang Chengzong's hand - this meant that the injection of uranium nitrate concentrate was complete.
The next step is to carry out multiple rounds of reactions with uranium nitrate, and finally generate uranium hexafluoride gas and send it to the centrifuge.
The lighter uranium 235 isotope is separated from the heavier uranium 238 isotope through equipment such as diffusion separation membranes under high-speed selection.
In order to achieve the purpose of "concentration".
Before Qian Gaoyun arrived at the factory, Yang Chengzong and others started project preparation work, and many links had already been prepared.
Therefore, after the uranium nitrate injection was completed, they immediately started the experiment.
Boom boom boom——
With access to electricity.
The production line quickly started operating.
When later generations mentioned the enrichment of uranium for the first atomic bomb, they were often accompanied by black and white images of workers scooping up liquid with large spoons to reflect the harsh conditions at that time.
But actually.
Many of these photos are from the time when people were searching for uranium mines, and they are true rural-level purification.
What do you mean by actual gas exchanger
It is somewhat similar to the water tower of later generations, black, thick, long and hard.
Its entrance is at the top of the equipment, and from top to bottom there are magnetic centering mechanisms, rotating containers, vertical thrust bearings, etc.
The same goes for other devices.
That is to say, the painting style may be relatively original, but it is far less ‘purely handmade’.
soon.
Uranium nitrate first reacted with ammonia in the first mixer-like device to form ammonium diuranate.
Immediately afterwards.
Another operator began to add hydrogen, and a new substance was obtained through the reduction reaction:
Uranium dioxide.
It is also known as yellow cake.
at the same time.
A female employee next to Yang Chengzong glanced at the indicator and quickly reported a number:
"Report, the concentration of yellow cake has reached 25%!"
Yang Chengzong nodded and gave the next instructions:
"Very good, let's introduce hydrofluoric acid."
"Yes!"
Less than half a minute later.
Uranium dioxide reacts with hydrofluoric acid to form uranium tetrafluoride, which in turn undergoes an oxidation reaction with fluorine.
Finally produced
Ultra-high purity uranium hexafluoride gas.
That is.
Uranium enrichment core material.
The reason why uranium hexafluoride is selected as the material for uranium enrichment is mainly because fluorine is very interesting.
Fluorine only exists in one nuclide in nature, namely F19, with an abundance close to 100%.
Its isotope F18 only has a half-life of about 100 minutes. Therefore, the difference in the relative molecular mass of various uranium hexafluoride molecules can be entirely attributed to the difference in the relative atomic mass of various uranium nuclides.
At the same time, what is more interesting is that the triple point of uranium hexafluoride is 64°C, the pressure is slightly higher than the atmospheric pressure, and it is easy to vaporize.
Therefore, both centrifuges and gas diffusion methods like to use it.
Then quickly.
Uranium hexafluoride gas entered the inner cavity from the upper end of the gas exchanger, and the parallel centrifuge began to rotate at a speed that would make the book 404.
Uranium hexafluoride gases containing more U235 are lighter, so they are forced through the membrane more quickly, thus becoming "enriched."
And here we are.
This is the moment when Class B porous diffusion separation membranes begin to show themselves.
See this situation.
Yang Chengzong and Qian Gaoyun simultaneously turned their attention to a display screen in the room.
This is also the only digital display screen over 15 inches in the house, or in other words, owned by Factory 504.
As per normal conditions.
At this time, the digital display should show a minimum uranium 235 abundance of 41.4% and a maximum of 52.6%, which is the purity.
In general.
The enrichment of uranium used in civilian nuclear power plant fuel is 3%-5%, while weapons-grade uranium must be above 80%. Practical nuclear bombs generally have an enrichment of over 90%.
Although Yang Chengzong and others invested a lot this time, it is still a simulation after all, and it is impossible to allin all the centrifuges.
Therefore, according to the project team’s previous calculations, the uranium-235 abundance range should be between 41.4% and 52.6%.
All of a sudden.
Everyone in the room locked their eyes on the display screen at the same time.
In the huge factory building, there was only a lot of equipment humming.
The refining of uranium-235 is indeed very difficult, but today's entire process starts from the key point of uranium nitrate.
Therefore, no matter how difficult the process is in theory, the display screen should have some numerical changes.
However, five minutes have passed, and the abundance on the screen is still
0.95%.
See this number.
Qian Gaoyun suddenly had a bad premonition in his heart.
However, considering that Wang Jiefu and Yang Chengzong put a lot of effort into today's experiment, and five minutes really doesn't explain much.
Therefore, Qian Gaoyun continued to wait.
Eight minutes.
Twelve minutes
Fifteen minutes
When the time came to twenty minutes, the abundance value was astonishingly
1.01%.
"."
Ten minutes ago, the only sound left at the scene was the gasps of everyone. Until now, the factory building was as silent as a morgue.
A moment later passed.
Qian Gaoyun's ears suddenly heard Yang Chengzong's loud shout without warning:
"Stop!"
Qian Gaoyun took advantage of the situation and took a look.
I only see this moment.
An unhealthy blush had already appeared on Yang Chengzong's face, and he growled slightly at the operator of the power connector:
"Zheng Lei, what are you doing in a daze? Shut down! I said shut down! Shut down, did you hear that?!"
Zheng Lei, who is in charge of the power connector, is a young man with a strong campus atmosphere. He seems to have just graduated.
At this time, he seemed to be frightened by Yang Chengzong's roar, and he stayed in a daze without making any movement.
See this situation.
Yang Chengzong made a gesture and wanted to rush over, but as soon as he made a move, he was caught by Qian Gaoyun:
"Comrade Chengzong, please calm down!"
Finished.
Qian Gaoyun quickly waved her palms to the young man next to the power connector twice, telling him to quickly turn off the power supply - after all, if the power supply runs for one more second now, a lot of power is wasted.
The young man came to his senses and hurriedly turned off the power supply.
Phew——
Without the power support of the power supply, the equipment in the factory soon stopped roaring.
Yang Chengzong stopped struggling after being pulled by Qian Gaoyun, and his chest heaved violently.
At the same time, the direction in which his only sighted left eye was looking was changed from the power connector to...
Main gas diffuser within glass.
There is no doubt about it.
The display readings were far lower than their previous calculations expected, so the entire verification had failed.
There were no problems in the preparation process from uranium nitrate to uranium hexafluoride before, so the only abnormal link is obviously
The diffusion separation membrane located in the gas diffuser and developed by Yang Chengzong and others.
Or to be more precise.
Only if there is a problem with the diffusion separation membrane can this situation occur.
In fact.
Yang Chengzong is not alone in realizing this.
After all, almost all of the people present today are practitioners in related fields. Even the factory director Wang Jiefu has a high degree of industrial literacy.
So for a while.
Everyone's mood became extremely heavy.
This is hundreds of thousands of dollars
Even if the power is turned off in a relatively timely manner, the cost of nearly 100,000 yuan will definitely not be lost after taking into account the power consumption and other material investment.
More importantly.
This failure to verify the diffusion separation membrane will directly affect the progress of nuclear weapons research and development - and it is not the general concept of "progress".
Not an exaggeration.
This failure may even trigger a secondary discussion between uranium 235 and plutonium 239, and even shake the allocation of certain resources!
However, Qian Gaoyun was a person who had seen big scenes after all, and his rich experience allowed him to maintain a certain degree of calmness at this time.
I saw him looking at Yang Chengzong first.
After feeling that the other party would not make any more gaffes, he let go of his hand and said to him solemnly:
"Comrade Chengzong, have you calmed down? If you have calmed down, I have something to talk to you about."
Yang Chengzong was silent for a moment and nodded slightly.
When Qian Gaoyun saw this, he couldn't help but feel relieved.
He was most worried that Yang Chengzong was still in self-isolation at this time, which would make it difficult to deal with many subsequent matters.
After all, Yang Chengzong is the top expert in the field of separation membranes. The combined capabilities of everyone present in the field of separation membranes may not be as good as Yang Chengzong alone.
Then Qian Gaoyun took a deep breath and said seriously:
"First of all, Comrade Chengzong, I will not comfort you by saying that this matter has nothing to do with you, nor will I say on behalf of the organization that I will not hold you accountable."
"But before assigning responsibilities, there is one more important thing, and that is to first find out the reason for the failure of this verification."
"After all."
Speaking of which.
Qian Gaoyun paused for a moment before continuing:
"Don't you feel that this failure is too unusual?"
Hearing Qian Gaoyun's words, Yang Chengzong, who had always lowered his head, was suddenly stunned.
After a while.
His pupils shrank slightly, and his breathing rate increased a few points.
Just now, all his energy was focused on the "result" of the experiment's failure, so much so that he ignored another situation.
That is.
This experiment failed too completely, right?
To know.
If the superiors dare to spend such a large sum of money to carry out such a high-linkage experiment, it is obviously impossible to only listen to one's own words or that of others.
The above must have done detailed sample and process analysis, and only organized this verification if they felt there was a certain success rate.
Even if the level of enriched uranium does not reach the lowest level of 41.4%, it should be more than 20%, more than 10% or even 78%.
In any case, it cannot be as low as 1%.
This is like a confrontation between two ancient armies whose strength seems to be about the same. Pre-war analysis shows that A has a greater chance of winning, but the result is mostly a narrow victory.
For example, 60% self-destruction and annihilation of all enemy troops.
Even if it is a relatively optimistic judgment, the self-loss estimate should be 30% or 40%.
As a result, when the two armies officially started fighting, Army A completely destroyed Army B at the cost of 1% of its own casualties.
Then there is obviously a big problem with this battle.
At least the conventional reasons such as morale and formation are difficult to explain, and having a Gundam is more or less the same.
The current experiment is the same.
After all, there are not two Type B diffusion membranes in the gas diffuser this time, but more than four thousand.
Even if half of them have problems, the final uranium enrichment value will not be 1%.
Unless
All of these 4,000 Type B diffusion membranes were abnormal!
"But this is impossible"
Think of this.
Yang Chengzong couldn't help but frowned again and said to Qian Gaoyun:
"Director Qian, if more than 4,000 pieces of diffusion membranes cannot be used, then there must be something wrong with the structural anatomy."
"But our Type B diffusion film is a structure deciphered from Mao Xiong's digitizer equipment. Every time it is re-pressed to the digitizer, the display panel will always display normally."
"Not to mention that we have compared it with the sixteen old pieces left by Mao Xiong, and there is no such thing as anything!"
Talking and talking.
Yang Chengzong suddenly thought of something.
I quickly walked to a certain drawer and pulled out a hard film that looked like a later memory stick.
Then he took the film to another device similar to the Yuyue 5-liter oxygen concentrator, clamped the film on a groove, and began to study it on his own.
Upon seeing this, Qian Gaoyun couldn't help but look at Wang Jiefu, led the rest of the staff to Yang Chengzong, and asked him:
"Comrade Chengzong, what are you doing?"
Yang Chengzong's left eye was fixed on the digit tablet, his head motionless, and his right hand waved twice in the air, signaling not to disturb him.
See this situation.
How could Qian Gaoyun not guess that Yang Chengzong had discovered some problems?
So he also made a shushing gesture to everyone, gently pulled Wang Jiefu aside, pointed at the equipment and asked in a low voice:
"Director Wang, what kind of instrument is that?"
Wang Jiefu glanced at the equipment in front of Yang Chengzong and explained in a low voice:
"Director Qian, this is a metal digitizer left by the bear expert. It is mainly used to detect the structure of the gas exchange membrane."
"Various parameters of the diffusion film are entered into the entire equipment. Many of the micro-scale processes exceed our existing preparation capabilities, so it is the only one in China."
"As long as the diffusion film sample is clamped on the groove, and with the assistance of several metal powders for analysis, the digitizer can show whether the diffusion film meets the requirements."
The microscale mentioned by Wang Jiefu is actually nano-level technology. This field actually exists in a large number of industries and nature.
For example, in the double-slit interference experiment conducted by Everett in 1954, the gap was at the standard nanometer level.
It's just that at this time, even the international community does not have a detailed understanding of this scale, so it can only be called "microscale".
Then Qian Gaoyun thought for a while and asked Wang Jiefu:
"Director Wang, didn't the bear expert take the bear back with him when he left?"
Wang Jiefu shook his head and explained:
"This is the equipment we purchased from Mao Xiong - you heard me right, it is a purchase, not an aid."
"So the furry bear experts naturally couldn't take it away, but they burned the operation manual when they left. It took Lao Yang and the others more than half a year to decipher the entire device."
Qian Gaoyun said thoughtfully:
"That's it."
He remembered that Yang Chengzong had also talked about digitizer deciphering just before the experiment, and also mentioned that Mao Xiong's equipment often had some minor problems, which was obviously referring to this instrument.
And at the same time Wang Jiefu and Qian Gaoyun were whispering.
Certain parameters are also displayed on the digitizer operated by Yang Chengzong:
"11500GPD"
“400ft”
"Network 28mil"
After a while.
Yang Chengzong's brows furrowed even more tightly:
“It’s strange that there is still no problem”
Upon seeing this, Yang Chengzong couldn't help but fold his left hand across his chest, press the elbow of his right hand on the palm of his hand, and put his fingers on his chin in a contemplative manner:
“Everything turned out to be normal in the end, and there was nothing wrong with the metal powder and membrane fluid, but everything went wrong with the gas exchange membranes.”
Talking and talking.
Yang Chengzong suddenly caught a glimpse of the faint green light on the metal digitizer from the corner of his eye.
Suddenly.
He suddenly thought of something and stood frozen at the scene as if struck by lightning.
"Impossible"
After a while.
Yang Chengzong turned his head mechanically and looked at Qian Gaoyun with a very scary look.
He strode aside without saying a word and took back some blue powder and a glass of liquid with his gloves.
Then Yang Chengzong put the blue powder into the liquid and stirred it for a while, then used a small brush to apply it on the outer layer of the hard film, and then placed it on the metal digitizer.
Just listen to a click.
The device powers on again.
More than a minute later.
The digitizer started displaying data again.
But this time Yang Chengzong just took a few glances.
The whole person jumped up on the spot, shouting with splitting eyes:
"I#yourgrandpa! We were all deceived by those furry bear experts!"
"Those turtles modified the digitizer, and the production parameters we deciphered are all wrong!" Note:
Thanks to the three leaders, Yixiaowan, Strong Sea Monster, and Obeliska, for their rewards!
9,000 words are presented, please give me monthly votes for double the period! ! ! !
(End of chapter)