Daming 1805

Chapter 372 Gas Diffusion and Centrifuges
"I know everything about aircraft carriers and battleships..."

Zhu Zhongliang listened to Zhu Jingyuan's description, compared his understanding of the legacy of the ancestors, and had a basic judgment on the changing trend of the naval ship system, and then began to confirm another question:
"By the way, during the public discussion during the day, we talked about the technology related to electric furnace steelmaking, which can promote the maturity of aircraft turbine engines faster. So can we increase the speed of atomic weapon development?"

Zhu Jingyuan himself has considered this issue.

The most critical step in the development and production of atomic weapons is uranium enrichment technology.

There are three isotopes of uranium, uranium 238, uranium 235, uranium 234, three isotopes similar to hydrogen, protium, deuterium and tritium.

It is uranium 235 that can form a chain reaction and can be used in fission weapons, but uranium 235 only accounts for 0.72% of natural uranium.

The remaining 99.275% is uranium-238, which cannot be used to make fission weapons, and 0.005% is uranium-234.

The uranium element in the uranium compound also exists these three isotopes at the same time.

To use uranium 235 to make atomic weapons, it is necessary to separate uranium 235 from a large amount of uranium 238.

This process of separating uranium-235 is uranium enrichment.

The high-concentration uranium 235 obtained after enrichment is used to make atomic weapons.

Uranium 235 with medium and low concentrations is used in the construction of nuclear power plants.

The remaining residue, mainly uranium-238, can also be used to make shells, so-called depleted uranium shells.

The name depleted uranium bomb is actually not accurate.

The depleted uranium bomb does not only have a small amount of uranium, but only a very small amount of uranium 235, most of which are uranium 238.

In Zhu Jingyuan's memory, there are two ways to separate uranium-235.

One is the gas diffusion method.

It starts with building specialized chemical plants to convert uranium ore into uranium hexafluoride, a gaseous compound of uranium.

Then, the uranium hexafluoride containing uranium 235 is screened out with a filter membrane similar to a mesh sieve, and then reduced to pure metal uranium.

Another method is centrifugation.

The uranium hexafluoride gas is passed into the centrifuge, and the heavier uranium hexafluoride containing uranium 238 is thrown out by the centrifuge.

Relatively speaking, the centrifugation method is more efficient, consumes less energy, and has a higher upper limit.

However, there are higher requirements for the production process, and high-speed motors and high-speed centrifuges are difficulties that need to be overcome.

Zhu Jingyuan's early atomic energy industry in his previous life was basically based on the gas diffusion method.

It was not until the 60s that centrifugal uranium enrichment, as the second-generation enrichment technology, gradually became the mainstream.

Now Zhu Jingyuan has taken out the electric furnace electric steel and electroslag remelting steel in the 60s in advance.

The rotor of the high-speed motor and the bearings of the centrifuge have all been settled.

Zhu Jingyuan made some calculations in his mind, and explained his thoughts to Zhu Zhongliang:

"With electroslag steel, we can manufacture higher-level electric motors and higher-strength mechanical equipment.

"In the uranium enrichment program, we have made two-handed preparations, and studied gas diffusion and centrifugation at the same time.

"Originally, the gas diffusion method was the main method, but in the future, it will gradually switch to the centrifugation method.

"The centrifugal method is more efficient, consumes less energy, and does not need to build so many factories and power plants.

"It should be able to speed up the construction and maturity of the atomic energy industry."

Zhu Zhongliang actually had a judgment in his mind.

The iron and steel industry is the foundation of industrial society. If the level of iron and steel materials is greatly improved, most high-end industrial industries can be improved accordingly.

Now with Zhu Jingyuan's affirmation, Zhu Zhongliang further confirmed his judgment:

"Then how much faster do you think it can be? Can you cut in half the time it takes to create an atomic weapon?"

Zhu Jingyuan almost froze when he heard that:

"Speed ​​up by half...it's obviously impossible...

"Unlike the aircraft industry, which was able to rely on the internal combustion engine industry, the atomic energy industry started from scratch.

"The process of infrastructure construction and the process of building an industrial system cannot be skipped.

"Whether gas diffusion or centrifugation is used, prospecting, mining and beneficiation are required.

"We must build a chemical plant for making yellow cake (ammonium diuranate), and a chemical plant for synthesizing and separating uranium gas (uranium tetrafluoride, uranium hexafluoride), and we must develop computers for auxiliary scientific research.

"What's more, although the project scale and energy consumption of the centrifugal method are much lower than those of the gas diffusion method, the research and development of the centrifugal method is more difficult.

"Replacing the gas diffusion method with the centrifugal method, the construction speed of the entire atomic energy industry system can be increased by a quarter.

"It may not even affect the speed of construction of the entire industrial system.

"However, instead of using the gas diffusion method, the centrifugal method can be used directly, so that the atomic energy industry can skip the initial stage.

"This actually saves a stage of research and development and construction costs.

"There are of course huge benefits overall and in the long run."

Zhu Zhongliang immediately felt a little regretful, but he could understand the logic.

The difficulty of high efficiency is also high, and the time required for actual completion may be almost the same.

Zhu Zhongliang knew that he had just imagined:
"Well, since that's the case, I'd like to speed up by a quarter.

"Speaking of which, when we return to Xintianfu, let's go to the factory together."

Zhu Jingyuan also wanted to take a look, and it was time to go, so he nodded in agreement.

Zhu Zhongliang and Zhu Jingyuan, the grandson and grandson, traveled at sea with the aircraft carrier formation for six days, and after watching the second comprehensive exercise, they returned to Xintianfu on a cruiser.

The two rested in the palace for a day, and left the palace by car on the morning of the third day to inspect the industrial park outside the city.

The general industrial facilities and civilian-oriented industrial bases of Xintianfu are all arranged in the east side of the inner city.

The most up-to-date and cutting-edge scientific research facilities and special military research and development bases are located in the west side of the inner city.

The atomic energy-related research bases and supporting factory facilities are separated from all other industries and placed in the southern part of the inner city of Xintianfu.

The sign of "New Element Research Base" was hung at the gate of the base surrounded by a high wall.

Under the inner and outer walls of the base and at the gate, there are soldiers patrolling 24 hours a day.

After Zhu Zhongliang's grandfather and grandson entered Jidi, they didn't immediately go to see the construction base related to enriched uranium.

Instead, they went to the power plant in the garden first.

Energy is the foundation of industry, electricity is the foundation of the modern world, and electricity is even more important for enriched uranium.

Xintianfu is surrounded by large plains, and there is no way to build large hydropower stations.

A large number of hydropower stations under construction in the upper reaches of the Milky Way cannot be quickly connected to the grid for power supply in the short term.

They are to provide electricity for the future large-scale continuous production of enriched uranium.

Therefore, at the same time, it is necessary to build the thermal power station with the highest efficiency and the fastest commissioning speed, the research facilities next to Xintianfu, and the early separation experiment base to provide energy.

In and around the thermal power plant in Xintianfu, there is no coal mountain facing it like a mountain.

Because the thermal power plant of Xintianfu New Element does not burn coal, but burns heavy oil.

Southern Yinzhou lacks coal mines.

The meaning of this lack does not mean that there is no such thing at all, but that in such a large continent, the proportion of coal mines in the world is only [-]%.

It can only be said that there is almost nothing.

On the contrary, Nanyinzhou is quite rich in oil resources, especially in Venezuela, which has the world's largest heavy oil field.

Heavy oil is not easy to smelt, and the proportion of gasoline and diesel produced is low, and more than half of the rest is "residual oil".

Heavy oil cannot be sold at a good price in the smelting market, so it is not unacceptable to use it directly for power generation.

The calorific value of heavy oil is almost twice that of coal of the same weight.

In South Yinzhou including Venezuela, the heat generated by burning heavy oil per unit price may be cheaper than coal.

It has been less than two years since Zhu Zhongliang reminded Zhu Jingyuan at the end of the second year of Ankang to start Yinzhou's strategic planning and start preparing for the atomic energy industry.

Although the construction of thermal power plants is fast, this time is not enough to complete directly.

Most of the current power plant is still a construction site, with busy workers everywhere.

However, a set of generators has officially started to operate, and now it has begun to supply electricity to the base experimentally.

　I have something to do today, I will update this half chapter first, there should be more tonight,

　　
　
(End of this chapter)