Reborn Before the Apocalypse: My Backing is the Nation

Chapter 204: The Floodgates Open!
In the vast wilderness, overgrown with vegetation, a cluster of buildings, clearly made of temporary steel plates, arrived in a line of large trucks.

Robots, intelligent machinery, engineers, and workers are busy installing these machines into the building and laying all sorts of complex pipes and lines.

Professor Yu Qing stood atop the building, gazing silently at the endless convoy of trucks stretching into the distance.

How long until the first batch of uranium-238 arrives?

"About 3 hours left."

"Has the mine tunnel reinforcement been completed?"

"The final round of checks is underway."

Professor Yu Qing nodded slightly.

Beneath his feet, the entrance to a huge, spacious underground passage was clearly visible. At that moment, numerous giant vehicles were going in and out of that passage, carrying in truckloads of building materials and out truckloads of rubble and waste.

300 meters underground, in a dark and vast underground chamber covering hundreds of thousands of square meters, numerous workers and machines are also busy at work.

All underground rivers were blocked and diverted, and all irregular entrances and exits were sealed with special cement.

The massive stalactite columns extending from the top were smashed and smoothed out, and the undulating rubble on the ground was also broken and cut.

After some repairs, the irregular underground chamber gradually transformed into a spherical shape with relatively smooth inner walls.

Under these circumstances, more than a dozen large trucks marked with conspicuous yellow triangular warning icons entered the base, escorted by military vehicles in front and behind.

After unloading was completed, the gray-black or yellowish-brown metal blocks were escorted into the underground passage by workers wearing heavy full-body protective suits.

These metal blocks were carefully glued to every part of the underground chamber walls.

Hundreds of large trucks arrived, carrying thousands of tons of nuclear waste and yellowcake, which were all installed in the underground chamber.

At this moment, the entire underground chamber was filled with a dark and peculiar light.

That's radiation.

Uranium-238 is far less radioactive than uranium-235, but it is still radioactive and has extremely high chemical toxicity.

At this point, it can be said with absolute certainty that this underground chamber has been transformed into a hellish place.

Without protective clothing, a normal person entering this chamber would probably not survive more than a minute. Even with protective clothing, the time spent in this underground chamber must be strictly limited to 20 minutes, otherwise it will cause irreversible damage to the body.

Several buses sped away, urgently transporting the last batch of workers who had participated in the previous nuclear waste placement to the hospital—they had accumulated a considerable dose of radiation during their previous work and needed emergency treatment.

And now, there is one last thing to do.

To place nuclear bombs.

It was a small tactical nuclear bomb with a total mass of less than 200 kilograms and a yield of less than 10,000 tons of TNT.

The work of placing the nuclear bomb is also very simple. It only requires transporting it in and then securing it to a suspended rope. Including the time for entering and exiting, it takes less than 20 minutes.

Despite the simplicity of the task, the workers selected to undertake it felt as if facing a formidable enemy.

Not only did they look solemn, but all the managers at the base, including Professor Yu Qing, were present.

Wearing a heavy radiation protection suit and carrying an oxygen cylinder, Professor Yu Qing still gave him some instructions with some concern: "Be sure to pay attention throughout the mission, except for the soles of your feet, no part of your body should come into contact with nuclear waste."

Wear a breathing mask at all times, follow the operating procedures exactly, and evacuate immediately after completing the mission without any delay.

"understand!"

The lead worker nodded vigorously and looked at his colleagues: "Let's go!"

A specially designed vehicle carrying people and the small nuclear bomb slowly drove into the underground passage. Those left outside watched the spot where they disappeared, their expressions filled with worry.

Sixteen minutes later, the car returned.

"Reporting to command, we have successfully completed the mission!"

"Okay, clean the dust chamber immediately! Send him to the hospital as soon as cleaning is complete!"

The prepared logistics personnel swarmed forward, surrounding these heroes who had returned home, to receive further processing. Professor Yu Qing then looked at the base supervisor.

"The nuclear bomb is expected to detonate in 3 hours."

"it is good."

Three hours later, night had fallen.

A gentle breeze rustled, insects chirped, the moon was bright and the stars were few; the night was peaceful.

Under these circumstances, the detonation order was issued from the command post.

The next moment, the entire earth shook violently.

Professor Yu Qing knew that in that unseen underground chamber, destructive light and deadly radiation had already enveloped everything.

Under the bombardment of fast neutrons, uranium-238 in nuclear waste is first converted into uranium-239. However, uranium-239 is unstable and will spontaneously decay into neptunium-239, and then into plutonium-239.

This series of processes takes about ten days.

Just like planting wheat, the "crop" in this cavity will mature in ten days and can then be harvested.

During these ten days of waiting, the people at the base were not idle.

In addition to continuing to improve the installation and debugging of various equipment, people are also quickly leveling a large pit nearby. It was originally a small basin, with a maximum depth of only about 100 meters and a diameter of about one or two kilometers.

At this moment, all the vegetation at the bottom of the basin was removed. After further leveling, a large amount of specially made cement was poured into the basin, completely covering it.

Above the cement layer are special coatings and isolation layers, which are applied layer by layer until the small basin is finally transformed into a smooth basin.

This can effectively prevent subsequent nuclear wastewater from seeping into the ground.

Of course, it's hard to say how long the waterproofing layer will last as corrosion worsens. But that's a matter for the future, we'll talk about it later.

Ten days passed quietly.

On this day, drilling tests showed that the spontaneous decay behavior within the chamber had essentially ended, meeting the initial requirements.

Then, it's time to harvest.

"Well No. 1, begin pressurization!"

"Yes!"

Inside the control room, the operator pressed the large button forcefully. Instantly, a deep humming sound began to reach everyone's ears.

The pre-mixed liquid, stored in a huge liquid tank, was forcefully pumped into the chamber that had completely collapsed and turned into a pile of rubble during the nuclear explosion.

Along the cracks in the rock and along the cavities in the structure, they spread rampantly underground, maximizing their contact area with the rock.

"Well No. 2, increase pressure!"

"Yes!"

On hundreds of thousands of square meters of the ground, more than a dozen wells simultaneously injected that liquid into the ground until the underground pressure rose to a predetermined value.

After a period of waiting, another order was issued.

"Open the sluice gate at the water well!"

A tightly sealed gate to a well suddenly opened. In an instant, a grayish-black aqueous solution, carrying extremely high radiation and containing most of the plutonium-239, gushed out from the well. This solution had already reacted fully with the underground rock and incorporated most of the plutonium-239 into itself.

Without the limitations of those devices, these aqueous solutions could even be sprayed tens of meters high.

Like a tamed, unruly dragon, they eventually obediently followed the pipes that had been laid in advance and entered the solution purification and processing workshop.

The concentrated solution is sent to the next process, while the wastewater is discharged directly into the pre-treated small basin through pipes.

At first, the amount of water was small, occupying only a small area at the bottom of the basin. But in just one hour, at the edge of the basin, hundreds or even thousands of meters away, the lush green grass began to wither and the trees began to fall.

Some small animals and insects that couldn't escape in time also struggled and fell to the ground.

Wearing full protective gear, the teacher from Yuqing stood at the edge of the basin, looking at the pool of wastewater that shimmered with various colors such as red, green, and blue, which looked filthy at first glance, and sighed softly.

"Let's lay down an anti-evaporation layer."

"Yes."

Some white plastic foam, about half a meter thick, was thrown into the puddle and floated on top of the wastewater.

They can slow down the rate of water evaporation, keeping the wastewater there for as long as possible. Furthermore, their material can block some radiation.

It's hard to say how effective this will be or how long it will last. But as I said before, let's talk about the future later.

One day later, the first batch of purified products appeared.

Through the thick glass, Professor Yu Qing saw with his own eyes the silvery-white metal.

That is plutonium-239 with extremely high purity.

If there are enough of them, they will spontaneously explode if piled together.

At this moment, the purified plutonium-239 weighs only a few hundred grams, and it's smaller than the palm of my hand.

Professor Yu Qing's expression was full of complex emotions as he looked at this small amount of plutonium-239.

He thought of the workers receiving treatment in the hospital, the withered vegetation around the basin, and the dead small animals.

This is just the initial impact. In the future, with the inevitable infiltration of groundwater and evaporation of steam, it is unknown how the situation will become.

It probably won't be long before that basin is filled with nuclear wastewater...

At that time, this place should become an absolute no-go zone for life; just getting close would be enough to bring down all life.

Even wearing anti-radiation clothing, one cannot stay here for too long.

"Hey……"

He sighed softly to himself and turned to leave.

With the first nuclear breeding base officially commencing operation, the remaining bases will gradually be put into operation as well.

This is the first time that humanity has used this method to collect nuclear fission materials on a large scale. Many unexpected things are likely to happen during the process, and as the person in charge, I must be on standby at all times.

I'm afraid I'll be quite busy for the next while.

(End of this chapter)