The military-industrial scientific research system of the academic master.

Chapter 1380 Isotope Production Reactor
On the hillside in the western suburbs of Jincheng, the blue colored steel tile roof of the workshop of Nuclear Industry Factory 504 is faintly visible in the twilight.

Peng Juexian pushed up his glasses, looked at the barbed wire and warning signs passing by the car window, and suddenly spoke:
"When I first came here fifteen years ago, the guard battalion here didn't even have a full set of automatic rifles, and most of them were still using the 56-and-a-half."

Han Chenfeng, who was flipping through his notes nearby, looked up when he heard this.

Through the side window glass, you can see the Type 81-1 assault rifle on the chest of the soldier in the sentry box emitting a faint blue reflection.

He curled his lips and thought that he seemed to have not kept up with the pace of the times. After all, even the local military district in Shengjing had begun to replace its equipment with newer models of assault rifles.

Han Chenfeng didn't know much about light weapons, but the magazine of that new gun was located behind the grip, and even a complete layman could recognize the difference at a glance.

But before he could speak, a lieutenant colonel of the armed police who was in charge of picking up the car in the co-pilot seat seemed to have guessed his thoughts and explained in advance:

"In fact, we have already changed to 95, but the main function of the sentry at the door is to deter and warn. After using it, I found that the new gun is too short and the plastic feels too heavy. Moreover, when holding the gun, the magazine cannot be seen from the front because of the arm blocking the view... In short, the deterrent effect is insufficient, resulting in a significant increase in the frequency of sentries giving orders or even raising their guns to warn, so a batch of old guns are specially reserved for use when standing guard..."

Han Chenfeng nodded with a strange expression.

These contents can actually be regarded as idle chat, and there is no question of whether you believe it or not.

It’s just that it’s a bit hard to imagine what kind of external environment would require sentries to frequently raise their guns…

He thought that Liaoning Province in the 90s was already extremely exaggerated.

But looking at it this way, it is indeed a small matter compared to the big one.

In order to prevent human-driven vehicles from running through checkpoints, a section of road near the factory entrance was specially designed to be winding so that the speed of vehicles can never be increased.

After a long while, the full picture of the core factory area appeared before everyone.

"You even disguised the cooling tower?"

Han Chenfeng pointed to several abrupt cylindrical buildings in the distance. The white mist drifting from the top of the tower glowed a strange lavender in the sunset:

"I thought it was a chimney when I saw it from outside..."

Peng Juexian nodded:

“It does borrow some visual dislocation techniques…”

As they were talking, the convoy had stopped in front of the third checkpoint, and the entrance to the underground project was finally revealed - a concrete slope extended underground, at the end of which stood a lead-steel composite gate, with the radiation meter on top of the gate flashing green.

"What's buried underneath is a state secret."

After swiping his pass, he turned to Han Chenfeng, who had just changed into protective clothing and was wearing a dosimeter, and whispered:
"Last year, a commercial satellite photographed a cooling tower and insisted that it was a plutonium breeder reactor. The Foreign Affairs Department argued with them for three months with fake drawings, and finally insisted that it was a potato starch production line..."

Han Chenfeng almost laughed out loud.

When it comes to intelligence analysis, the more information there is, the better.

When discernment and data processing speed are prioritized, too much information can backfire and lead to erroneous, or correct but useless conclusions.

As the last lead door weighing several tons slowly opened to both sides, hot and humid air rushed in with the low-frequency roar of the air-conditioning equipment.

Han Chenfeng's pupils suddenly contracted——

Through the observation window of the control room, one can see the cylindrical reactor vessel standing in the center of the semi-underground space in the distance. About half of the silver-gray control rods are suspended above the core like the hands of a clock. The light blue Cherenkov radiation shines through the observation window and spreads in the water mist.

"Is this... a reactor?"

He studied nuclear physics, so of course he knew what the inside of a reactor should look like.

But I was not a nuclear power expert in the past, and the only nuclear energy project I had the opportunity to work on fell through halfway and remained at the design stage, so I rarely had the opportunity to see it so directly.

Moreover, due to their size, commercial reactors are usually built by digging out a pool for soaking in, so even if outsiders come to visit, they can only look down from above.

This is the first time I’ve seen it from this angle.

"To be precise, it is a pool-type uranium-plutonium-zirconium alloy reactor."

A technician who was leading the way pointed to a row of badly worn Russian nameplates on the console base, with the CCCP stamp faintly visible:
"This place was first built with the help of the Soviets in the late 239s to produce plutonium-90. It was upgraded and rebuilt on the original site in the 225s. In addition to conducting preliminary technical demonstrations for fast neutron reactors, it is also mainly used to produce actinium-89 and strontium-252, as well as some californium-..."

"..." At this moment, Han Chenfeng instantly understood why this seemingly inconspicuous place was so heavily guarded:

"I always thought that Californium-252 was produced in Daya Bay?"

He knew that the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Station had an isotope production department, and that on the order list of the nuclear industry's internal channels, the shipping place for isotope purchase and transfer was also Pengcheng.

Now it seems that it was all a trick.

"You are right to think so..."

Peng Juexian grinned from behind his mask:
"Because we have been misleading the outside world in this way in the past. Of course, some isotopes used in medicine and research do come from there, but they are not the mainstream."

Han Chenfeng paused after hearing this, and his mind was filled with the two words that the other party had just said:

"Outside...outside world?"

He had always thought that as the head of Institute 240, he should be a well-known figure in the nuclear industry.

It seems that there is still a long way to go.

Peng Juexian certainly didn't know that his casual words had caused great trauma to others. He thought that the other party was puzzled by the act of "misleading" itself:
"You should know that Californium-252, as a neutron source, has the ability to induce chain reactions. To some extent, the level of nuclear energy research and construction can be inferred from its output, so it is more sensitive in engineering..."

Han Chenfeng actually understood all of this, but he didn't want to talk at the moment. He just moved a little closer to the observation window and looked at the surface of the fuel rods soaked in water, which were covered with honeycomb-shaped bubbles.

Suddenly, a crisp dripping sound was heard, and a robotic arm grabbed a group of fuel rods and began to rise. The bubbles rising from the surface of the ingots burst into light golden sparks the moment they came into contact with the air.

"A single production cycle can yield about 3 nanograms of californium-252."

Peng Juexian's voice was filled with mixed emotions:
"The annual output is less than 40 micrograms, only about one-tenth of that in the United States... It seems too conservative now, not even enough for domestic industrial construction, not to mention medical and other purposes..."

Han Chenfeng suddenly realized that the radiation meter on the cuff of his protective suit was vibrating slightly. He looked down and found that the second alarm light from left to right had lit up.

This level of radiation slightly exceeds the human body's safety limit, but is still within the protection range of protective clothing.

"So you're going to use it as a plasma generator?"

His Adam's apple moved, and his voice seemed a little muffled due to the mask:
"Convert nuclear fission directly into ionized gas, and then generate electricity through magnetic fluid... But the temperature field distribution of this core does not meet the requirements at all. A water-cooled reactor cannot break through the boiling point no matter what, even if it is pressurized..."

He was interrupted by Peng Juexian when he was halfway through his words:

"Of course not."

After saying that, he turned around and gently patted the stainless steel shell of the console:

"We are going to shut it down and convert it into a gas-cooled reactor..."

"..."

For a moment, the air in the entire control room froze.

Han Chenfeng stood still, his eyes slightly widened under the full-coverage protective helmet, looking even more shocked than when he heard that he was an "outsider" just now.

After a long time, I finally came up with an interjection:
"what?"

Peng Juexian gave a standard reply:
"Ah for what?"

"The gas cooling technology for small research reactors is relatively mature. Similar-sized reactors have long been used abroad to verify high-temperature gas cooling technology. It is the safest solution at this stage. We can't really take risks with the HTR-10 high-temperature gas-cooled test reactor, right?"

Han Chenfeng quickly shook his head, and because he was wearing a heavy head protection, his movements were a little funny:
"I mean, you're just going to tear it down like that?"

He knew that the project he was working on had the endorsement of Academician Chang, so it should have a high priority.

But I never thought that the higher-ups would agree to stop the isotope production directly.

"That's of course impossible..."

Peng Juexian put his hands behind his back, a gleam of light flashed in his eyes:
"Academician Chang has agreed... We will work together to write a report and strive to build an isotope production base with a larger scale and higher capacity."

(End of this chapter)