Siheyuan: I eat melons while doing scientific research

Chapter 1361 The Northern Comrade's Design is Brilliant (4k)

The landscape of this artillery battle is about to change.

Thankfully, we were the ones who changed first? Then it's alright.

At that moment, he was unaware that his assumption that the rocket artillery was "a bit scattered" was completely wrong.

In any case, judging from the feedback from the Be-6 patrol aircraft, the test can be considered a complete success. As for the outcome, that depends on luck, the luck of all parties involved.

However, people who smile often are usually lucky, and those who can still smile now are undoubtedly our comrades who are conducting equipment testing.
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This operation took place during a 21-year-long artillery battle, and it did not cause much of a stir internationally, let alone a major reaction.

In that area, which two sides don't fight for ten days or so every month?

What difference does it make if there are a few more or fewer shells? Even if it's 160 shells, it's not a very large number compared to the total number of shells fired in a day.

So what's the big deal about hitting a few dozen more people? If you have to say something, it's probably just that those few dozen people were unlucky, landing right where the shells were supposed to hit. After all, with the power of heavy artillery, if people are clustered together, it's only a matter of one or two shells. It's even possible that the shells that hit them weren't originally aimed at them, but just missed.

It's nothing special; compared to the other actions of that notoriously ruthless country, this is just routine.

In reality, apart from some rumors circulating within both sides that caused panic among some people, there were no other significant developments.

Three days later, Jin Chen's satellite data center forwarded another Level 1 data message.

"Success!" This was the only thing the comrade in charge of decoding the data reported to his superiors.

The incident happened so quickly that Gao Zhendong hadn't even left the confidential room of the National Defense Committee before it was over.

Has it started? It's already over!
On this day, Gao Zhendong was nearing the end of reviewing the existing reactor materials, but before he could take any action, the leaders of the National Defense Commission came to find him.

And as soon as he arrived, he showed a happy expression.

"Boss, you seem to be in a good mood today."

"Haha, you figured it out?"

"Of course, it's so obvious, I can't possibly pretend I didn't see it," Gao Zhendong said with a smile.

However, he didn't ask what it was about. If he could tell, his superior would naturally tell him; otherwise, asking wouldn't be of any use.

But it was clear that there was a reason why the boss had come to see him this time, and that reason was exactly what pleased him. Otherwise, everyone would be busy, and the boss wouldn't have time to wander around aimlessly.

"Come on, let me share this with you. We just confirmed it too." The leader handed a piece of paper to Gao Zhendong, his face bearing an expression that said, "I share good news with you as soon as I have it. Aren't you loyal?"

Gao Zhendong took the paper, glanced at it briefly, and then stopped moving. It wasn't that the image froze, but rather that he completely stopped all his movements.

He carefully read the message on the paper again, then looked up and asked, "Confirmed?"

The leader nodded: "Confirmed! The comrade over there confirmed it himself! There's no mistake!"

Gao Zhendong laughed heartily, tears streaming down his face.

Although he never experienced it firsthand, it was one of the things that made him most indignant when he was researching related information online in his previous life.

Now everyone's here, plus the traitor and executioner from the last flight to Beihai, all in one place.

"Happy, aren't you? I knew it! From beginning to end, although you didn't do everything yourself, your achievements played a significant role, so you deserve to know everything immediately," the leader said with a smile.

Gao Zhendong nodded repeatedly, praising the leader's righteousness!

The most important thing has already been told to him, and the leader doesn't plan to stay here any longer. Everyone is busy. We need to have a sense of ceremony, but we also need to do our work. The ceremony doesn't need to be long; what matters is that it has meaning.

"Alright, I didn't come here today for anything else, just to tell you this good news. You continue with your work, I'll be going now." The leader turned around as if to leave.

Gao Zhendong quickly asked him to wait: "Sir, please wait a moment."

Since we're already here, this is perfect. This matter really can only be handled through him.

The leader stopped and turned to look at him.

No way? Could he have discovered it so quickly?

As it turns out, he was right.

"Boss, please gather the relevant colleagues in this area. I've found a problem in this set of documents. We need to communicate with the relevant colleagues as soon as possible. If we follow this set of documents too late, the problem may become more complicated."

The leader was first surprised, then delighted.

As expected, none of these high-tech achievements are perfect or without setbacks. But fortunately, our comrades worked very hard and discovered the problem so quickly.

"Okay!" the leader agreed first, then asked, "Is the problem serious? Is it related to Romania...?"

Gao Zhendong nodded first, then shook his head: "It's a serious hidden danger. If it's not resolved, or if it's not brought up and controlled in management, it could become a big problem if something goes wrong. However, judging from the situation itself, it shouldn't be intentional, but rather a design flaw. It's actually quite difficult to deliberately fabricate such a flaw, hehehe."

Hearing Gao Zhendong's laughter, the leader felt relieved. Since that was the case, then everything was fine. As long as it wasn't intentional, it meant the other party was sincere, and the matter wouldn't fall through.

"Okay, I'll gather the relevant personnel immediately! Whether you've finished reading it or not, you'll stay at the Defense Committee for the next two days. If you haven't finished reading it, keep reading; if you have, consider it a two-day rest."

The location Gao Zhendong was pointing to was the nuclear island of the reactor; to be precise, he was referring to the reactor itself!
This is why the leader was initially taken aback; in this position, if there were any problems, it wouldn't be surprising if something serious happened.

The National Defense Commission acted swiftly; only one day later, Gao Zhendong met with comrades from the Northwest.

They were the comrades involved with the first graphite pile, and this set of materials would undoubtedly be handed over to them for digestion and absorption, and they would be responsible for subsequent related work. The leaders of the National Defense Commission and the chief engineer also arrived, and after introducing themselves to both sides, they did not leave. To be honest, they were also quite curious about what Gao Zhendong had discovered that made him so eager to call all his comrades over.

Gao Zhendong didn't delay and immediately made a groundbreaking statement in this field.

"This reactor has certain safety hazards! If these are not addressed or strict management regulations are not implemented, a major accident could occur due to a series of operational errors!"

This is what Gao Zhendong wanted to do after he learned that the introduction of the graphite pile had been finalized—to expose the hidden danger of Luo Guo's RBMK in advance!
If we don't have this reactor, then so be it; the main issue is that Gao Zhendong can't find a reason to bring it up. If he could know about the problems with Romania's latest reactor while sitting in China, then that's simply inexplicable.

Could it be that Comrade Vladimir Ilyich told him this in a dream?

But now the situation is different. First, we can ensure the safety of our comrades, and second, we might be able to give the Russians a little shock. Why not?

Gao Zhendong believes that even if we don't pay any price, we will proactively inform the other party of this defect. This is different from doing business; they are completely different things.

However, Gao Zhendong's assessment was relatively objective, and he didn't exaggerate the serious hidden dangers. In reality, the defects of the RBMK weren't that significant. The explosion in Luo Guo's case was caused by a series of operational errors combined with the reckless violation of regulations by the operators.

That's why he mentioned two approaches: "solving the problem" and "making strict management regulations." Both approaches are acceptable, but the relevant personnel must be made aware of this matter.

Furthermore, it would be even better if some improvements could be made to further reduce the probability of accidents on the basis of strict management.

But no matter how objective he was, his words had a different meaning to his comrades.

When it comes to nuclear matters, nothing is insignificant.

Holy crap! No wonder Comrade Gao Zhendong was in such a hurry, now I know why.

The defense commission leaders and the chief engineer exchanged a glance. Sure enough, it was beneficial to show these technical things to Comrade Zhendong as soon as possible.

As for Comrade No. 1 and Comrade No. 2 who were in charge of the reactor, Gao Zhendong could only refer to them by that name, because that's how the National Defense Commission introduced them.

These two comrades were equally uneasy. Everyone knows where our graphite piles come from, but hopefully this question is something Luo Guo came up with after making significant improvements to the original pile design.

"Tell me quickly." At this moment, the leaders of the National Defense Commission were even more anxious than the two comrades in the relevant fields.

Gao Zhendong nodded, and under everyone's gaze, he opened a document and pointed to a place.

"This is where the problem started, but it's not the root of the problem!"

The two comrades were relieved upon seeing this; it was indeed a newly improved part. That was terrifying! Thank goodness!

"This is... a replacement rod!" Clearly, these two comrades hadn't been idle since the data arrived, and they immediately recognized the spot Gao Zhendong was pointing to.

If we were to translate it literally, "displacement agent" would be more appropriate. However, when it comes to translation, we should strive for accuracy, fluency, and elegance. Even if something like "reactor" doesn't have to be elegant, accuracy and fluency are still necessary. "Displacement rod" is much better; that's exactly what it looks like.

In some reactors, this is also called a follower rod. The material is not necessarily graphite, but the general purpose is roughly the same—to replace water in the control rod channels when the control rod that absorbs neutrons is lifted.

As for why Luo Guo uses graphite instead of other materials, it involves some complex reasons such as reactor power control.

However, they still had some objections: "So many control rods are meant to control the reaction rate, or even shut down the reactor. How could these things pose a safety hazard? That seems unlikely."

Gao Zhendong said, "But we should know that if the control rod of this structure is completely removed, the reaction rate will actually experience a sharp, short-term increase when it is reinserted..."

After listening to him, the two comrades looked at it carefully, considered it for a moment, and nodded in agreement: "Yes, you are right. When the control rods and replacement rods are removed and the control rod tubes are filled with water, and the control rods are reinserted, then from the time the replacement rods enter until the neutron absorption part of the control rods officially enters the fuel zone, the reactor power will indeed have a huge increase."

Graphite is a neutron moderator and also a neutron absorber, but unlike water, it has a better moderation effect than water, but a worse absorption effect.

In other words, when the original water in the reactor is completely replaced by graphite, and the neutron absorption element has not yet entered the fuel rod region, the neutrons in the reactor are absorbed at the lowest level. These unabsorbed neutrons will intensify the nuclear reaction.

However, the two comrades had different opinions on this: "Even so, as long as the neutron absorption region of the control rods enters the reactor fuel region, the reaction rate will be brought back under control, so there shouldn't be any problems. Moreover, according to the operating procedures, neither the number of control rods nor the length of each control rod can be completely removed, so there shouldn't be any serious problems."

With so many control rods, they cannot all be withdrawn. Moreover, each control rod has a top dead center when withdrawn, and it is essential to ensure that a portion of the neutron absorption region of the control rod remains within the fuel region.

Indeed, to say that Luo Guo hadn't considered this issue would be to underestimate them; they were simply reckless, not stupid.

However, their operators were both reckless and foolish.

Gao Zhendong nodded: "That's right, they did consider that, but there's one situation they probably can't control."

"what's the situation?"

"During maintenance...or when changing fuel..."

The two comrades thought to themselves, "Oh no, that's really the case. Anything can happen in a situation like this."

"However... in this case, there are still some control rods at the bottom. Otherwise, you can forget about replacing the components of this reactor."

Gao Zhendong also knew that, in fact, the design of this thing, if not flawless, was at least quite comprehensive; otherwise, it would have been impossible that the designers in Luo Guo, along with our relevant professionals, had not discovered this problem.

He nodded and said, "Yes, but there is another problem. The positive cavitation coefficient of this pile is a bit high, 4.7."

Simply put, the water in the reactor produces bubbles when heated, and these bubbles cannot absorb neutrons, which intensifies the reaction. The intensified reaction leads to even more heat, which in turn produces more bubbles, creating a vicious cycle.

The positive cavitation coefficient reflects the severity of this cycle.

"Hmm... it is a bit high, but we should know that a high positive cavitation coefficient does not necessarily mean it is unsafe. Other methods can be used to control and compensate for it."

To be honest, our comrades think the Northern comrades' design is quite ingenious, with each step interconnected, controlling all the unsafe factors. Brilliant!
However, Gao Zhendong's next words made things turn somewhat unfavorable.

(End of this chapter)