Reborn Before the Apocalypse: My Backing is the Nation

Chapter 202 Earth's Scars

Professor Yu Qing's words, like thunder, resounded in the conference room and reached the ears of every participant.

At this moment, people looked slightly bewildered.

Although people still subconsciously resisted the proposal, they began to examine the issue in detail based on their knowledge and judgment.

Compared to the possibility of Earth being torn apart by a black hole and the extinction of human civilization, is this outcome really unacceptable?
Is implementing this plan truly the only option left for our side?

After a moment's thought, reason provided the answer.

Yes, this is the only solution that must be implemented.

Compared to the life or death of human civilization, the consequence of radioactive wastewater equivalent to four Taihu Lakes appearing on the Earth's surface is something we can and must bear.

So……

No matter how this apocalypse is ultimately overcome, no matter how thrilling the process may be, it will inevitably be gradually forgotten as time goes by.

The radiation lake, which may remain barren and inaccessible for thousands or tens of thousands of years, will always exist, like a scar on the earth, reminding people of what exists here.

History has proven time and again how people's hearts change under such circumstances.

An expert stood up, his expression resolute.

“Professor Yu, I believe that the signature list for submitting this proposal to the World Government should not only include your name, but also the name of our Northern Institute of Nuclear Physics.”

“Count us in too! If we survive this apocalypse, and we have to bear the blame, then we should all be the ones to do it.”

"Yes, we should all bear the responsibility!"

Having passed through the initial shock, all the participants suppressed their instinctive resistance and bravely stepped forward.

If this decision was made collectively by everyone, then clearly Professor Yu Qing would no longer stand out, and future hatred would not be focused solely on him.

Facing his resolute colleagues, who were prepared to bear the infamy for generations to come, Professor Yu Qing smiled gently.

He shook his head: "No, I'll take the blame myself."

"Professor Yu, you..."

“I disagree! If Professor Yu insists on your opinion, I will submit a report to the World Government Decision-Making Group through other channels.”

"Regardless of the final outcome, since this decision was made collectively, the responsibility should be borne by all of us. There's no reason for you to be the only one to bear it!"

Professor Yu Qing continued to shake his head.

"If I were to bear the blame alone, the criticism would only be directed at me."

If we all bear the brunt... then the blame will fall on the entire field of nuclear physics. And do you know what that means?

The meeting room fell silent instantly.

Professor Yu Qing seemed oblivious to the change in people's emotions and continued to speak to himself: "The entire field of nuclear physics may be stigmatized. People will think that the executioner who almost destroyed the Earth's ecology is no longer a specific person, but an entire discipline."

Public opinion will turn pale at the mention of nuclear power, and children aspiring to study nuclear physics will be swayed by public opinion to abandon their applications for related majors. The entire discipline will suffer from a lack of successors and fall into a state of stagnation. Even if development is forced, it will face countless waves of opposition.

And...our human civilization needs nuclear physics, and cannot exist without it.

He raised his head and calmly looked at his colleagues: "Therefore, this responsibility must be borne by me personally, and can only be borne by me personally."

In this way, in the future—if we even have a future—people will think that the problem isn't with this discipline, the nuclear power plants, or the hydrogen and atomic bombs; the problem is simply with me as an individual.

Before anyone could respond, Professor Yu Qing said directly, "This matter is settled."

The World Government's request for comments should be sent to you soon. Please respond in accordance with your professional ethics.

Okay, let's move on to the next topic.

……

After completing the top-level design within the industry, decomposing the corresponding tasks, and obtaining the consent of the world government, the hydrogen bomb manufacturing project truly entered the execution phase.

People only have two months left, instead of the original 86 days.

Because it is necessary to destroy the gravitational shield of the black hole from ten million kilometers away in order to complete the black hole interception mission with the help of the gravity of other celestial bodies in the solar system.

If they get any closer, we won't be able to intercept them.

Just two months later, the black hole will reach a distance of about ten million kilometers from Earth.

The project involved completing all the planned tasks in just two months, a truly massive undertaking.

"Director Yu, this is our latest upgraded and expanded hydrogen bomb production line. After this upgrade, the production capacity of this line will reach ten standard-type hydrogen bombs per day. Our entire factory has a total of 160 such production lines."

The entire industrial park covers an area of ​​1.6 square kilometers and has a total workforce of 2.2…

Wearing full protective gear, goggles, and carrying an oxygen cylinder, Professor Yu Qing entered the highly cleanroom production workshop under the guidance of equally fully equipped staff.

This is the final stage of the hydrogen bomb production line. Once the corresponding electronic equipment is installed here, the hydrogen bombs can be shipped out and detonated when necessary, single-handedly destroying a city.

In the past, such a bomb could have crippled a medium-sized country. But here, it's like an ordinary industrial product, flowing out of the previous workshop one after another, undergoing installation by engineers, and final debugging and testing.

Professor Yu Qing walked up to a giant bomb that was undergoing electronic equipment installation. It was about 3 meters long, 1.2 meters high, and weighed more than 3 tons. He gently touched the cold bomb body through his gloves and felt a little emotional.

He knew that the outer shells of these hydrogen bombs were made of special alloy steel with extremely high performance.

Only steel of this kind can withstand the impact of a high-explosive chemical explosion, allowing it to be fully injected into the fission raw materials and promote their fission.
Only these steels can withstand the impact of a fission bomb explosion for a short period of time, locking the temperature and pressure onto lithium deuteride-6, a fusion raw material, and allowing it to begin fusion.

Assuming that each hydrogen bomb uses 1.5 tons of special steel, 360 million hydrogen bombs would require as much as 540 million tons of this special steel.

Compared to previous usage, this figure represents a dramatic increase of several thousand times.

In those steel factories, countless workers toiled through the night for this cause.

But as I said before, under the leadership of the World Government, a project of this scale is nothing at all.

It is merely a tiny, insignificant part of the entire black hole interception plan.

Even setting aside the other components of the black hole interception program, the production of hydrogen bombs alone—including the purification of fusion materials, the production of precision components, and the production of high-explosive chemical explosives—is no less demanding than the production of special steel.

After inspecting the hydrogen bomb manufacturing process, Professor Yu Qing nodded, offered some words of encouragement, and then turned to leave.

As the leader of the hydrogen bomb manufacturing project team, he was responsible for the overall planning, coordination and management of all industrial forces related to hydrogen bomb manufacturing worldwide. The various coordination meetings and specific decisions alone occupied most of his energy and time.

The time available for on-site investigations and inspections is extremely limited.

But this is absolutely necessary, as it allows him to truly grasp the specific situation on the production line and modify the top-level design in real time based on the research findings.

We have a total of five inspection targets today, so we need to save time.

The helicopter took off hastily and arrived at another target.

This is a much larger factory, and it is heavily guarded.

Located deep in the mountains, it occupies an entire canyon. All the surrounding high points are guarded by sentry posts, with armed guards constantly monitoring the surrounding area.

Professor Yu Qing knew that those outposts even contained artillery. The factories even had anti-aircraft missile bases.

Since its establishment, this uranium enrichment plant has been a target of attack and sabotage by the opposition.

Over the years, we have faced countless instances of infiltration, espionage, and sabotage.

The reason is simple: if this uranium enrichment plant can be destroyed and a nuclear leak can occur, it would be enough to contaminate all the space within a radius of hundreds of kilometers.

Even if they can't destroy it, they can steal some enriched uranium from it. Even if they can't make an atomic bomb, they can make a dirty bomb and drop it into a city to easily take tens of thousands of lives.

It is of such importance that it must be kept under strict guard.

Especially now, with the end of the world approaching and this uranium enrichment plant bearing a crucial responsibility, we must be even more cautious.

The helicopter landed on the helipad, and a team of guards came forward and carefully inspected Professor Yu Qing and his entourage. Only then did the factory supervisor respectfully approach: "Director Yu, welcome to our inspection."

"During this special time, we must pay attention to security and absolutely prevent any accidents from happening."

After giving a special instruction, Professor Yu Qing and his group entered the factory, which was heavily guarded and had a sentry post every three steps and a sentry post every five steps.

Before even reaching the production area, Professor Yu Qing heard a low humming sound. The ground beneath his feet seemed to tremble slightly under the influence of this sound.

Without taking a break, Professor Yu Qing first went to the control room of the yellowcake conversion workshop, the first link in the production area.

Under remote control, Professor Yu Qing watched as the yellow raw materials were fed into the high-temperature reactor while listening to the introduction from the person in charge beside him.

"All the uranium dioxide in our factory is produced here. We process 100 tons of yellowcake per day, generating about 90 tons of uranium dioxide."

Recently, due to a sudden increase in production tasks, our factory has added a lot of new equipment and personnel. We are currently in the early stages of integration and production capacity has not yet reached its peak.

It is expected that uranium dioxide production here will increase by about 30% in three days.

......"

(End of this chapter)