The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 421 Nuclear Engineering Status

It took a long time for humans to discover radioactive elements, and it took an equally long time for humans to realize that radioactive elements could be used in fission weapons.

If we start from a purely theoretical perspective, it will definitely take a very long time to complete the corresponding experiments and research and realize the possibility of atomic weapons.

In the Ming Dynasty and even in the world today, relevant theoretical research is still incomplete, and it is only under the guidance of Zhu Jianxuan that a breakthrough has been made.

But this did not prevent Zhu Jianxuan from leading the craftsmen to directly produce the relevant finished products.

Zhu Jianxuan is a time traveler. He already knows that atomic weapons are achievable, and he also knows the general principles and directions.

Knowing that something is achievable is a time traveler's greatest reliance.

Then Zhu Jianxuan can follow the logic of empirical science and directly do things while completing theoretical summary.

For most of human history, the scientific and technological revolution and most of the previous technologies were developed along the path of empirical science.

At that time, scientific principles were "summaries of natural laws."

It means people try to do it by trial and error first, confirm how to do it successfully, and summarize the rules in the process of success.

Then use the rules to guide subsequent actions to ensure the success rate of subsequent actions.

The most important characteristic of modern science is its "abstract and precise expression of natural laws."

For example, the ancients had observed that flames of different colors produced different amounts of heat and knew that they could produce different burning effects.

Modern science aims to quantify the temperature of flames, to determine the scale at which the color will change and what changes will occur to the burning objects.

Classical empirical science is qualitative analysis, which knows what happened, while modern science needs to do quantitative analysis and restore specific and complete details.

Finally, abstract the changes in the entire process and use formulas and descriptions that are as concise and accurate as possible to explain the changing conditions.

But this does not mean that empirical science is useless in modern science. It is still the foundation of science.

If we can't even determine the direction, there is no way to talk about measurement, and naturally there is no way to make an abstract description.

Even in the new century, people engaged in flight propulsion research still have to rely on wind tunnel tests.

It is to analyze which design is more reasonable through actual observation.

The prerequisite for supercomputing simulation of nuclear tests is to have obtained specific nuclear explosion data, and then use the data as the basis to build a model for analysis.

If there is no basic data, or the data is made up out of thin air, the simulation results will be meaningless.

Theoretical science originated from empirical science and has continuously developed various new technologies, even abstract technologies that seem like miracles.

However, quantitative research in one "direction" has its limits.

For example, the limit of silicon semiconductors is already at hand. As the limit is approached, the actual annual upgrade rate will continue to decrease until it stagnates.

Only by finding new materials can leapfrog development be possible.

How to find new materials? Materials research is a very chaotic subject, because there is no mature and comprehensive theory to guide it.

Therefore, it is impossible to accurately predict the results before testing, and we can only estimate the approximate possibility based on experience.

You have to try it to know the specific results.

The whole process is like refining elixirs, where conditions are changed repeatedly to try again. This method is of course very time-consuming and expensive.

And this process is about accumulating experience and finding results in ambiguity and chaos.

After finding the possible results, describe the process so that it can be reproduced later.

At the same time, in this process, we discover the phenomena that may be caused by different materials and summarize the laws of "alchemy".

What Zhu Jianxuan can do now is to directly give the direction and let the craftsmen complete the measurement work.

And in this process, they formed accurate abstract expressions and completed their theoretical research.

As humanity's most cutting-edge technological project, the particle collider is essentially about hitting stones with rocks to see what the effect will be.

It’s just that the two stones used for smashing are highly specialized.

Modern artificial intelligence research is also advancing in ambiguity and is in the process of forming theories rather than already having theories.

Due to the excessive promotion of the concept of "scientific thinking" by the education system, many modern people have excessive contempt for the concept of empirical science, and many people have misunderstood the process of scientific development.

In the vast majority of scientific development processes throughout history, technology is first acquired, then laws are summarized from the technology, and then ideas are formed based on the summarized laws.

Instead of having ideas first, generating rules from ideas, and then deriving technology from rules.

Scientific principles are the summary of natural laws, and scientific ideas are the summary of the methods of summarizing natural laws.

If we trace back as far as possible, Zhu Jianxuan's research and preparation for the atomic bomb can even be traced back to the Wu Kingdom period.

When Zhu Jianxuan was the King of Wu in Australia, he had already arranged preparations for the development of Australian uranium mines.

Starting from Nan'ao Prefecture, which is the Melbourne area in Zhu Jianxuan's previous life, 800 kilometers west along the coastline, there is a larger bay.

A peninsula extends out from the middle of the bay, dividing the bay into two. On the east side of the eastern bay, there is a coastal mountain range. The precipitation at the foot of the mountain is slightly more than other places.

During the Wu Kingdom's development of Australia, the Shanhaiwei garrison, a military settlement built by immigrants, has now become the Shanhaifu City.

Responsible for the development areas around the Great Bay and the large semi-arid areas deep inland.

This Shanhai City is probably located at the location of Adelaide in Zhu Jianxuan's previous life. If you go more than 500 kilometers inland to the north, you will find Australia's largest uranium mine.

Therefore, Zhu Jianxuan paid a little more attention and support to the construction of Shanhaiwei at the beginning.

However, no one could have imagined that the development and construction of this place had any direct relationship with the subsequent specific uranium mine development.

In fact, it was not until more than ten years ago that Zhu Jianxuan officially arranged for the army to take charge and complete the local mine exploration.

Then railways and roads were built, construction machinery was prepared, and factory facilities were constructed.

After the uranium is mined, the initial ore processing is completed on site and then sent to the factory in Shanhai City for leaching and refining.

A relatively pure uranium compound, diuranate yellowcake, is obtained.

The yellowcake was loaded onto a ship and shipped to the Ming mainland, where it was converted into uranium hexafluoride through chemical methods outside the city of Jizhou, more than 80 kilometers east of Shuntian Prefecture.

From the moment the ore is mined until its chemical conversion, the uranium element it contains has three isotopes.

Uranium 238, uranium 235, uranium 234, three isotopes similar to hydrogen: protium, deuterium, and tritium.

Of the three isotopes, only uranium 235 can form a chain reaction relatively easily and can be used in early atomic weapons.

The proportion of uranium 235 in natural uranium is only about 0.72%.

The vast majority of the rest is uranium 238, accounting for as much as 99.275%, and cannot be directly used in the production of atomic weapons.

It can only be used to make depleted uranium bombs, or as the outer coating of three-phase bombs. The last 0.005% is uranium 234.

The most important and difficult link in the production technology of atomic weapons is how to separate uranium 235 from its compounds.

As far as Zhu Jianxuan can remember, there are two methods to separate uranium 235.

One is the gas diffusion method.

Use a filter membrane similar to a mesh screen to screen out uranium hexafluoride containing uranium 235, and then reduce it to pure metallic uranium.

Another method is centrifugation.

The uranium hexafluoride gas is passed into a centrifuge, which is used to remove the heavier uranium hexafluoride containing uranium 238.

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

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

In Zhu Jianxuan’s previous life, the early atomic energy industry was basically based on the gas diffusion method.

It was not until the 1960s that centrifugal uranium enrichment, as the second-generation enrichment technology, gradually became the mainstream.

It also truly enabled the large-scale production of atomic weapons.

Now, after several years of preparation, Zhu Jianxuan has finally brought out the electric furnace electric steel and electric slag remelting steel from the 1950s and 1960s.

The production of centrifuges is also guaranteed.

After completing basic experiments using the gas diffusion method, the craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty turned directly to the centrifugal method during the process of industrial production.

Simply stop engaging in large-scale gas diffusion production.

The prerequisite preparations are basically ready. Once it is confirmed that the centrifuges are usable, a large-scale uranium enrichment plant can be built.

Zhu Jianxuan had already approved the corresponding resource and manpower needs in advance.

This report from the Academy of Engineering is just a regular report to Zhu Jianxuan on the progress of related projects.

According to what Zhu Jianxuan has learned now, the uranium enrichment plant building has been prepared, and even a large number of centrifuges have been produced.

Zhu Jianxuan was sure that the relevant ideas were feasible, and the craftsmen had complete trust in Zhu Jianxuan's guidance, coupled with his gradually supreme authority.

Therefore, the craftsmen and factories are conducting research and verification while directly starting to produce the relevant tools.

The verification process is only to obtain accurate data and form a clear theoretical system.

For a large industrial country, the consumption of this project is actually not that large, and Ming Dynasty’s current power generation is sufficient to cope with it.

However, in order to ensure the absolute stability of the project itself, it is not affected by external changes and is kept as confidential as possible.

Zhu Jianxuan still ordered the construction of a power plant in Jizhou.

Four sets of aircraft carrier power units are directly used to drive large generators to provide power for the entire project.

The ship-borne power unit does not have the highest energy consumption ratio, but it can keep running in unstable environments and under various circumstances.

Ship power units use fuel oil as fuel, which facilitates a continuous and stable supply of fuel, reduces logistics-related personnel, improves safety and reduces the possibility of leaks.

The total output power of the four latest power units is about 800,000 horsepower, equivalent to a total installed capacity of 580,000 kilowatts, which is equivalent to a power generation of over 400 million kilowatt-hours per month.

During World War II, the United States built the Manhattan Project, the Oak Ridge Plant for uranium enrichment and the corresponding laboratories, and the substation capacity was 200 million kWh per month.

At that time, the total power generation in the entire United States was about 20 billion kilowatt-hours per month, which was 100 times the capacity of the Oak Ridge plant and laboratory substation.

Therefore, the generators of the two Lexington-class aircraft carriers of the United States at that time could supply the electricity needs of the Oak Ridge factory and laboratory.

The statement that was widely circulated on the Internet in later generations, that the data of "consuming one-seventh of the electricity generated in the United States" was probably the result of mistaken attribution by a marketing account.

During the height of the Cold War in the 1960s, when the United States and the Soviet Union were frantically expanding their nuclear forces, the electricity consumption of the entire U.S. nuclear industry system reached 2.4 billion kilowatt-hours per month.

At that time, the total power generation of the United States was 14 billion kilowatt-hours per month. In other words, the United States used one-sixth of its power generation to produce nuclear weapons.

However, at that time, the United States mainly used the gas diffusion method, and the electricity consumption of this mass production was very terrifying.

Americans couldn't afford such high electricity consumption, so they developed a new centrifugal method.

The power consumption is reduced to one eighth of that of the gas diffusion method.

This dedicated oil-fired power station ordered to be built by Zhu Jianxuan can only be considered a small-scale power source for a single factory if it is used to supply mass production of gaseous diffusion enriched uranium.

But if it is used to supply centrifuge uranium enrichment plants, it would be enough to cope with the speed of nuclear expansion at the peak of the Cold War.

Of course, these power consumption data only refer to the consumption of enriched uranium itself, and do not include the power consumption of other experiments and engineering projects.

The cost of the entire Manhattan Project must have been extremely huge, and it must have been extremely wasteful.

Because they were explorers, they didn't know what to do correctly at first, so they tried all kinds of refining and manufacturing plans.

When the project started, the United States began searching the world for available uranium ore, and finally found Africa.

Africa's infrastructure is backward and its mining methods are very primitive.

In the early days of the Manhattan Project, electromagnetic isotope separation was tried, but this method consumed even more electricity than the gas diffusion method.

In the current Ming Dynasty, everything is going smoothly thanks to Zhu Jianxuan’s early layout.

Research direction, technical direction, raw ore mining, engineering facilities, equipment and materials, power supply, etc.

It seems that it has been delivered to the craftsmen when the project needs it.

When the experiment was completed, we turned directly to the most mature centrifuge method of uranium enrichment.

The Ming Dynasty's current spending on atomic energy-related research may not be less than what the Americans spent in the past.

But they were all used to the best effect, with almost no large-scale waste.

Zhu Jianxuan estimates that in three years at most, the craftsmen will have completed the theoretical summary and the factory will be able to complete experimental weapons.

Within three years we will be able to find a place to conduct actual explosion experiments.

Atomic bomb explosion experiments cannot be carried out anywhere. If the explosion was simply powerful, it would be fine, but the key is that contamination from early atomic bombs is unavoidable.

So after Zhu Jianxuan read the report, he gave a special reply and also issued another order.

Australian troops responsible for uranium mine construction were required to go deep into the inner desert of Europe to prepare a nuclear test site.

It is not difficult to find a suitable place for this task in the desolate and barren Australian outback.

(End of this chapter)