Development of productivity started in 1981

Chapter 83 3MW Reactor Construction (Part )
February 1982, 2, the 14st day of the first lunar month

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It was Sunday and the school was closed. Wang Jiankun got up very late because he had been busy until late the night before and almost injured his muscles from moving stones.

I cooked some noodles for breakfast, and then went down to the underground base to start building a 3-megawatt reactor.

Wang Jiankun completed the space for the water tank last night, and used the extracted metal to make a 5 cubic meter spherical water tank, which already contains 1000 cubic meters of water extracted during excavation. The remaining water will be replenished after a channel to the Le'an River is dug. Now we can build the reactor first.

He first went over the information about the reactor's components in his mind, and according to the synthesis path diagram made with the help of Zhizi, he first manufactured the base, the lower pressure hull, the anti-neutron layer, etc.

The next step is to mobilize a large amount of carbon elements and manufacture the graphite core from bottom to top according to the preset position.

Under the influence of super powers, carbon elements were inserted into corresponding positions one by one to form dense graphite, from transparent at the bottom to gradually translucent and finally completely black. In this way, a 1-meter-high black graphite core appeared in front of Wang Jiankun.

I used my super powers to check it to make sure the size was up to standard, whether there were any cracks inside, whether the vents were smooth and had no defects, and that the inner wall of the channel where the fuel balls were placed was covered with a dense layer of metal beryllium.

This layer of beryllium metal is used for neutron emission and neutron deceleration. It was not used in previous experimental reactors. Now, because we can use containers that can withstand higher temperatures and pressures, we can add this layer of beryllium metal to make the fuel balls react faster and more violently, and release more energy per unit time.

After the graphite structure of the core is manufactured, it is then manufactured layer by layer starting from the bottom, including the internal neutron reflection layer, neutron absorption layer, high temperature and high pressure resistant layer, and the outermost lead shielding layer and cement layer.

So although the size of the core is a hexagonal prism with a side length of 1 meter and a height of 1 meter, after adding so many outer layers, it becomes a large cylinder with a diameter of 3 meters and a height of 2 meters.

Of course, during the manufacturing process, various interfaces inside the large cylinder had been reserved according to the drawings. After the manufacturing was completed, Wang Jiankun once again compared the drawings with the actual synthesized things to see if there were any mistakes or errors. After all, this is the core of the reactor, and it would be terrible if there was any mistake.

After some inspection and comparison, it was exactly the same as the requirements in the drawings, so I started to integrate various pipes and valves, display meters, detectors, etc. with confidence.

It was almost 12 noon when all this was completed. Wang Jiankun decided to take a break. He had just consumed a lot of energy and had already digested the noodles he had eaten in the morning. It was not a good idea to go to the recycling station at this time, so he rode his motorcycle to the restaurant at the school gate.

Ever since squad leader Wu Xiaoyi stopped playing with Wang Jiankun because the proposed project fell through, Wang no longer ate at this restaurant.

This time when I came in, I saw that the sign and the door had been renovated, which made it look more grand. There were even pictures on the menu on the wall. I wonder what's going on.

"Boss, you've redecorated this place and it's more impressive. Have you added any new dishes?"

"Hey, an old customer is here. I renovated the restaurant during the Chinese New Year and asked other places for some new dishes. Would you like to try them?"

"Oh? What are you looking for? Let me see."

"Look here. There are Sichuan dishes like twice-cooked pork, Kung Pao chicken, shredded pork with fish flavor, pickled fish, mouth-watering chicken, pickled pepper chicken offal, and dry pot spareribs. These are the new dishes I learned. Do you want to try them?"

"Well, then let's have some twice-cooked pork, Kung Pao chicken, and some vegetables. I'm eating alone, so please order smaller portions."

"Okay, please sit for a while and have some tea. I'll be back soon." As he said that, he poured most of the tea into the cup in front of Wang Jiankun, and then went to the kitchen to busy himself.

Wang Jiankun waited for a while before a young man came up with two dishes. When he brought them to the table, he announced the names of the dishes and told Wang Jiankun that one dish was twice-cooked pork and that one was Kung Pao chicken.

In fact, Wang Jiankun could have guessed it without being told that the Kung Pao Chicken must be small pieces of chicken, and the other one was twice-cooked pork. The boss must have learned the cooking skills very well. The twice-cooked pork tasted very good, the lean meat was dry and fragrant, and the fat part was not greasy. The chicken in the Kung Pao Chicken was very tender, and the side dishes such as carrots were fried to the right softness and hardness, and were also tasty.

Without waiting for the last vegetable to be served, Wang Jiankun took a few bites and felt that it was very suitable to go with rice, so he asked the waiter to serve the rice quickly.

Pour a small portion of the twice-cooked pork onto the rice, then stir it slightly. Pick up a large piece of meat, rice and chili, and it tastes great when you put it in your mouth.

Kung Pao Chicken is best eaten with a spoon alone. Take a bite of chicken and then a bite of rice. You can finish the two dishes with two bowls of rice.

The last vegetable served was cabbage. They said a new cooking method was used, called hand-torn cabbage. It tasted really different from the previous ones. First of all, the cabbage was not cut into small pieces with a knife, but torn into large pieces by hand. Then when it was cooked, the fat was probably used to boil the oil until it was half dry, and then the cabbage was added in and stir-fried, and some dried chilies and garlic were added. It was fragrant and spicy.

Wang Jiankun was very satisfied with the meal. Although he felt the bill of 10 yuan was a bit expensive when he paid the bill, he enjoyed the meal and had no regrets. He will try this restaurant occasionally in the future. The new dishes the boss mentioned sounded delicious.

After eating and drinking, Wang Jiankun rode his motorcycle to the Le'an River. He planned to take a good look at where to open the water intake and discharge openings. Once the reactor was completed, river water would be used to cool down the underground water storage tanks every few days.

Taking the distance and concealment into consideration, Wang Jiankun planned to set up the water intake 5 meters upstream from the confluence of Le'an River and Dongxikou, where there is an island in the middle of the river with no one on it because the island will be submerged during floods.

More than 30 meters downstream from the island in the middle of the river, Wang Jiankun used his superpowers to create a water intake at the bottom of the river. The river is deepest there, and there is solid rock underneath, so the water intake can be set there relatively stably.

After the water intake was completed, a pipe was dug 50 meters underground below it. The pipe was made of elements such as iron and silicon from the rocks nearby, and then began to bend towards the shore. Wang Jiankun tried his best to select a straight line to create the water inlet pipe underground.

The terrain becomes higher as you go deeper into the underground base, so in order to ensure that the incoming water can flow naturally to the underground water tank using water pressure, the depth of the pipe becomes deeper and deeper.

The diameter of the water inlet pipe is 20 work points. Wang Jiankun calculated the amount of elements to be mobilized and stopped production after 150 cubic meters were consumed.

At this time, the pipeline has been opened to only 4 miles away from the underground base, with a depth of 70 meters. Looking at the terrain of the part that has not been opened, the depth of the base will eventually be around 100 meters, which is still within the influence range of super powers. Otherwise, another underground construction channel will have to be opened.

After checking the time, it was already past 3pm, so we returned to the underground base to continue making the helium circulation device and the power generation device. There was no major change in the helium circulation device, except that it was enlarged a bit according to the experimental reactor, and the pipes were made of materials that could withstand higher temperatures and pressures.

The power generation device has undergone a major change. There is no longer a first-stage steam turbine for reducing pressure. Instead, it directly uses high-temperature and high-pressure helium to generate electricity. Wang Jiankun used an AC-to-DC device to convert the generated electricity, and then directly charged the electricity into an energy storage device.

Because AC power will eventually have to be converted into DC power for storage, it is better to store it all directly, and use an external power supply to draw the electricity needed by the device from the energy storage device.

This greatly simplifies the power generation system and maximizes the power generation efficiency. The previous experimental reactor energy utilization rate was 80%. After this change, the expected energy utilization rate is close to 90%.

This steam turbine was also designed with reference to the steam turbine on the big black fish and the steam turbine on the aircraft carrier. The materials used are more advanced than those previously prepared by Wang Jiankun based on public information.

The air inlet temperature can reach 1400°C and the pressure can reach 20 standard atmospheres, which greatly improves the energy conversion efficiency.

The finished steam turbine is shining silver and looks very industrially beautiful. The blades inside are checked one by one using superpowers to avoid defects. After all, once it is running, its speed will reach more than 4 revolutions per minute.

After the inspection, Wang Jiankun also made the outer shell and installed a waste heat recovery device on it. This was based on the design of the big black fish. The waste heat is of no use for the time being, so it is first introduced into the underground water storage tank. When he thinks of ways to use it in the future, it will be convenient to export it through an external interface.

After the three major parts were completed, Wang Jiankun manually connected the interfaces one by one, and then used super powers to mobilize elements to seal the seals, and added lubricants to the moving parts. These lubricants have also been improved, and the lubrication effect and shelf life are much better than those manufactured before.

In short, Wang Jiankun benefited a lot from the trip to Okinawa. This was just a simple application of some techniques that could be used immediately. There are more things waiting for Wang Jiankun to discover.

After all, the public information he could access were all relatively old technologies, and the technology and materials used in top-level military equipment could not be published publicly. Even if they were published in certain places, Wang Jiankun had no ability to access them.

That night, Wang Jiankun was busy in the underground base, testing several major components that had been manufactured and using up most of the electricity in the energy storage system. This was also to free up the energy storage system, as there would be a large amount of electricity to store after the subsequent manufacturing was successful.

After testing the reactor with nitrogen, it was found that it could operate normally to generate electricity. All pipelines and valves could withstand the predetermined pressure without leakage. All detection devices and fault protection devices could also be used normally.

After the test was completed, the pipes of the waste heat recovery system were connected to the underground water storage device. Although the connection with the Le'an River has not yet been opened, there are 1 cubic meters of water in it, which can receive the waste heat generated by the test.

After the entire device was inspected and tested, Wang Jiankun packaged it as a whole and made a multi-layer protective shell on the outside. The inside was 20 cm thick lead, followed by a layer of metal beryllium, then a steel shell, followed by a 20 cm reinforced concrete shell, and the outermost layer was another steel shell.

The size of the entire 3-megawatt reactor and its power generation system is approximately a cuboid that is 6 meters long, 4 meters wide, and 4 meters high. Because the length of the four underground floors is not enough, an additional 4-meter cube space is excavated on the side to place the power generation equipment.

All preparations have been made except for the production of the fuel balls. Seeing that it is already past 2 a.m., in order to ensure that the enrichment level of the extracted uranium 235 meets the requirements, Wang Jiankun decides to take a rest first. There is still time later to avoid making mistakes in a hurry.

During the morning reading on Monday, Wang Jiankun had droopy eyelids. Seeing how sleepy he was, his deskmate Yu Zirun let him sleep on the table and even went to get breakfast for him and brought it to the classroom. After breakfast, he felt like he was finally alive.

"Yu Zirun, thank you!"

"Why are you being polite? You've helped me a lot. You're like half a teacher to me. By the way, Wang Jiankun, why are you so sleepy? Didn't you sleep last night?"

"I was doing an experiment and couldn't stop, so I worked until late at night."

"Oh, so, why don't you ask for leave this morning and go back to have a good rest. The head teacher will definitely approve it."

"Forget it. I'll stay in the classroom this morning. I just had a good nap and feel much better. I'll ask for leave in the afternoon. Once this experiment starts, it's best not to stop until it's finished."

"It seems that studying science and doing experiments is very tiring. You guys do experiments for a long time, and I see that you sometimes don't even have enough sleep. I'd better choose liberal arts in my second year of high school."

"It is indeed the case for some science majors. Once some experiments begin, they cannot be done without people. It is better in school laboratories, where people in a group can take turns to supervise. However, if it is an independent project, it is inevitable to work around the clock."

"Liberal arts is better. Although there are a lot of things to memorize, it's not so tiring."

"You have to discuss this with your family. I suggested you consider economic and diplomatic issues before. Have you told your family?"

"Not yet. Wait a little longer. My dad has reached a critical moment recently, and my choice of major is not so urgent. I will talk to him first when he is not so busy, and then tell other family members."

"Oh? Your dad is very busy lately? Can you tell me more about it?"

"Probably because of the change of leadership and the preparations for the meeting, my dad has been too busy to pick me up at night recently, so I went home with Zheng Qian and asked her to live with me."

"Oh, is that so? I think I understand now. You can tell me later. Don't distract him now."

Wang Jiankun probably understood that the policy adjustments from above had finally affected this small county. The national conference would be held next month, and now the localities should be electing representatives and conducting policy briefings. Those whose ideas were inconsistent with the direction from above would soon step back, and those who supported reform would be reused.

After the meeting, I don’t know whether last year’s suitcase factory project can continue. If it continues, it will be more convenient for me to do things in the county.

After having lunch in the school cafeteria at noon, Wang Jiankun returned to the underground base to continue building the reactor.

(End of this chapter)