Bright Sword: Starting from the Improved Grenade

Jiayuguan City, the Gobi Desert, with yellow sand everywhere you look.

"Professor Zhao, Professor Zeng, although Jiayuguan is known as the Gobi Steel City, the climate here is suitable, and there is a Taolai River that can provide sufficient water resources, enough for thousands of people to live here!"

Zhao Tianyang led two professors to walk through the construction site that had already started, and introduced: "Here and there, about 1100 square kilometers will be designated as military restricted areas."

"We will directly send troops to build 18 factory areas and 4 living areas here."

"At the same time, a 38-kilometer railway line, a 78-kilometer asphalt road line and an airport will be built to transport supplies from outside."

"Of course, there is also the most important bomb test site."

Zhao Tianyang took out a telescope, handed it to the two men, and pointed it ten kilometers to the east.

"That's our explosion test site, covering an area of ​​34 square kilometers and a building area of ​​3270 square meters."

"Due to the different purposes and scales of the tests, the entire test site was cast in one piece of reinforced concrete."

"They are the machinery room, explosives room, nuclear weapons storage room, observation room, steel plate laboratory, waste landfill, etc."

"After the laboratory is built, it will be known as the Jiayuguan Mining Area, codenamed Factory 221, and will be guarded by a reinforced security force."

"All staff, until the task is completed, do not leave the factory area unless there is something special!"

"In terms of rank, only two or three leaders from the central government know about this and can come here."

"Except for me, anyone who inquires or enters here can be arrested and interrogated. At the critical moment, they can be shot directly!"

"Yeah, that's great!"

Professor Zeng nodded with satisfaction, and had no dissatisfaction at all with Zhao Tianyang's strict protection.

Before doing something big, the Chinese people believe in secrecy for success and disclosure for failure, not to mention the research on a weapon as lethal as nuclear weapons, which cannot be overprotected!

"Minister Zhao."

At this time, Professor Zhao, who had been silent, suddenly asked: "How much do you know about nuclear weapons?"

Hearing this, Zhao Tianyang looked at this man, who relied on disguising himself as a beggar and begging all the way to bring 50 mg of radium back to Southwest United University safely. He was also the first person to observe the "production and annihilation of electron-positron pairs", and smiled faintly.

"Nuclear weapons are weapons that use the huge energy released instantly by self-sustaining nuclear fission or fusion reactions to produce explosions and carry out large-scale destruction."

"Since 1938, German chemists O. Hahn and FW Strassmann discovered the fission of uranium nuclei."

"It was until Danish physicist N. Bohr and his collaborator JA Wheeler theoretically explained the nuclear fission reaction process and pointed out that the best nuclide that can cause this reaction is uranium-235."

"Countries with the ability to do so have begun researching nuclear energy."

"Among them was the Manhattan Project conducted by the United Kingdom and the United States, which mobilized more than 600,000 people and more than 2 billion US dollars to conduct research on nuclear weapons."

"Wait a moment!"

Professor Zhao interrupted Zhao Tianyang: "The United States can mobilize more than 600,000 people and more than 2 billion US dollars, so what do we have?"

"I'm here!"

Zhao Tianyang smiled confidently: "You may not believe this, but I have completed theoretical research on nuclear weapons."

"You only need to turn theory into reality, without spending a lot of manpower and resources on trial and error like the United States."

"what!"

Although Professor Zhao knew every word Zhao Tianyang said, why couldn't he understand it when they were put together?

This is nuclear physics, which is the most advanced technology in all countries to date.

Now tell him, how can a native Chinese who has only attended university and has never been abroad understand nuclear weapons?

Why didn't he believe it so much?

"I know you don't believe it!"

Zhao Tianyang took out a document from his pocket: "Take a look at this. I believe you two physics experts can understand this!"

Hearing this, Professor Zhao and Professor Zeng quickly came together and looked down at the document.

"Chain reaction, yellowcake, chemical extraction, centrifuge, high-purity uranium 235, gaseous diffusion method..."

As we all know, the principle of nuclear weapons is simply a "chain reaction". When uranium 235 absorbs low-energy neutrons, fission will occur, thereby releasing huge power.

During the fission process of uranium 235, two neutrons are released.

These two neutrons will be absorbed by other uranium 2, causing the fission of other uranium 235. This kind of transmission that affects the entire body is called a "chain reaction."

But the problem is that uranium 235 does not exist alone in nature; it is always present together with uranium 238.

Usually, the content of uranium 235 in uranium ore is only 0.7%, and the rest is all uranium 238.

Uranium 238 will absorb the neutrons released by uranium 235 and turn into uranium 239. Therefore, the main difficulty in making nuclear weapons is to separate uranium 235 and uranium 238.

To separate uranium 238 from uranium 235, one must use the difference in weight between the two.

First, uranium ore is made into the primary product "yellowcake" through mineral processing and extraction, which is equivalent to iron ore used in iron smelting.

Once yellowcake is obtained, gaseous uranium hexafluoride can be made through chemical extraction and leaching.

Then the uranium hexafluoride is put into the centrifuge. The uranium 235 that can undergo fission is relatively light, so heavier elements such as uranium 238 will be separated out by the centrifuge.

After multiple centrifugation separations, uranium 235 with a higher purity can be obtained.

Unlike the centrifugation method, the gas diffusion method utilizes the different movement speeds of elements with different molecular weights.

Uranium 235 is light and moves fast. Under certain conditions, uranium 235 in uranium hexafluoride will be the first to pass through the sieve holes of the separation membrane.

After multiple gas diffusions, high-purity uranium 235 can be obtained.

After a while, Professor Zhao and Professor Zeng, who had finished reading the information, looked dazed for a long time before they reacted.

Professor Zhao looked at Zhao Tianyang in disbelief: "How did you come to these conclusions?"

"How can this be?"

"Haha, nothing is impossible."

Zhao Tianyang smiled and said, "Just think of me as a hunk sent from heaven!"

"A hunk falling from the sky?"

The corners of Professor Zhao's mouth twitched.

"Minister Zhao, there are two methods for separating uranium 235. Which one should we focus on?"

Professor Zeng asked while holding the information.

"The gas diffusion method is the main one, and the centrifugal method is the auxiliary one. One is the present, and the other is the future."

Zhao Tianyang answered without hesitation.

"I will have the Germans deliver the machines to you. At the same time, I will also use the Yellow River to build large-scale hydroelectric power stations in Lanzhou, Zhongwei, and Yinchuan, and all of them will be supplied to Factory 221."

"it is good!"

Professor Zeng nodded: "I will write a letter and ask Professor Wu and others to come over!"

This time, Professor Zeng and his team came to inquire about the situation.

After all, it concerns the future of the country and their lives and property, so they can't easily trust it.

Now after seeing Zhao Tianyang’s preparations and the information he provided, they fully believed that as long as they had enough materials, they could build nuclear weapons within two years!