As early as the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, some physicists in Europe found that the atom may be composed of negatively charged electrons and positively charged nuclei, and also realized that some heavy elements in nature, such as radium, can spontaneously emit rays and transform into other elements. And how about transforming it into other elements?

In 1919, Rutherford and his assistants used radium rays as "cannonballs" to bombard nitrogen nuclei and force the nitrogen atoms to release protons with a unit of positive charge.

Professor Rutherford's experiment is the first artificial nuclear reaction in human history, he successfully used artificial methods to transform one element into another, it is worth mentioning that Professor Rutherford's nuclear reaction experiment is an energy absorption process, in this reaction no energy is released, so it can not be used for nuclear energy development, people have not paid attention, but Professor Rutherford still continued his experiment, and the next series of experiments also made Professor Rutherford have a further understanding of the atomic nucleus, He predicted that there might be neutral particles with the same mass as protons inside the nucleus, that is, the "neutrons" he guessed, and he also hoped to prove his hypothesis through further experiments, but Professor Rutherford did not complete his experiment, which was done by the Curies in Europe, but at that time, they did not notice Professor Rutherford's speculation, they mistakenly thought that the particle they found was "photons", and this mistake was quickly corrected by a student of Professor Rutherford, this person named Chadwick, He was also a British physicist.

In 1932, Chadwick published an article in the British journal Nature, linking Rutherford's prediction to the experiments of the Curies, and at this point, mankind finally realized that the atomic nucleus is composed of protons and neutrons, and this discovery opened a window for mankind to use nuclear energy, but this window is too small for most people to see what is beyond the window.

In the same year, under the guidance of Professor Rutherford, the Cavendish Laboratory in the United Kingdom built a giant machine, which was named "contemporary alchemy", and the experimenters used ultra-high voltage to accelerate protons, and bombarded lithium metal with high-speed protons, successfully obtained excess energy in the process, which was the first time that mankind saw the prospect of nuclear energy in the laboratory.

But this prospect is quite bleak in the eyes of many physicists, including Rutherford, Bohr and a large number of other scientists who are at the forefront of nuclear physics research, because in their opinion, the energy released by the atomic nucleus in this experiment is so "insignificant" and "extremely inefficient" that humans may never be able to use the energy of the atom.

This pessimistic perception arose because physicists at the time had not yet discovered the phenomenon of nuclear fission, which was a common concept for a time-traveler.

While European physicists were busy looking for effective ways to artificially produce radioactive elements, Zhao Bei had already issued an order to his nuclear physics research team in the form of a written document to "find a safe and feasible method of chain reaction pathway".

Zhao Bei is a pseudo-military fan, for a lot of military, weapons-related knowledge only knows some skin, principles, structure is a mystery for him, he knows the atomic bomb, knows the hydrogen bomb, but how the atomic bomb from a radioactive element into a powerful weapon of destruction, this itself is also a difficult mystery for Zhao Bei, he only knows, without the atomic bomb there is no hydrogen bomb, and without uranium and plutonium, there is no atomic bomb, he also knows that there are two ways to detonate the atomic bomb, one is called the "implosion method", the other is called " This is how the two atomic bombs dropped by the United States on Japan were detonated, and Zhao Bei knew that the United States had spent quite a huge amount of money on the development of the atomic bomb, and that it had carried out the research and development work on the premise that it had concentrated most of the European nuclear physicist elites.

For the future of this country, even if he is a pants, Zhao Bei also wants to develop the atomic bomb, so as early as 1927, he allocated special funds to use a group of students in Europe to form his first nuclear energy research group to carry out basic research projects, in fact, long before the "contemporary alchemy machine" in Britain was manufactured, this Chinese-led nuclear energy research team has completed similar experiments and achieved the same conclusions as British physicists, but not as flamboyant as the British, This experiment itself is a top-secret project, which has never been made public, and there is no trace of this "shadow group" even in the official documents of the government, and when Li Yuanhong was in power, the government did not know that there was still a project research group that did not need any government funding in that "place of playing with rockets", and all the research funds of this group were other funds except for the funds that Zhao Bei secretly removed from the central financial expenditure project that year. From 1929 to 1933, Zhao Bei paid for it privately, but in those years the research team also carried out basic research and searched for uranium mines in China, without conducting large-scale experiments.

It wasn't until Zhao Bei became president again that the nuclear energy research team accelerated its work, and although there was no breakthrough at present, the research team had already used the pool to verify the "slow neutron effect" a few years ago, and it was faster than the Italian physicist Fermi's research, and the results of this experiment were hidden in the safe and not published in journals, which is why these members of the nuclear energy research team did not win the Nobel Prize in physics.

Low-key, low-key, this is Zhao Bei's basic position on nuclear energy research, in fact, in all the current research on new weapons and equipment, nuclear energy research is the most confidential project, the project director is directly responsible to Zhao Bei, even the vice president, the prime minister is completely unaware that China is now carrying out nuclear energy research, and has achieved considerable results, the only one who is aware of this is the Ministry of Finance, because the nuclear energy research project needs to use a very large amount of money, not private enterprises can afford, The Treasury had to negotiate with the President on this issue, but the President solemnly told him in the secret conference room of the General Staff that "the matter is very important and must be kept secret." ”。

The Treasurer, who was shocked into a cold sweat, had to go to great lengths to "smooth" the accounts of the central government, so it is not surprising that all kinds of inexplicable "unplanned expenditures" often appear in the financial reports of the central government, but fortunately, the Congress is basically controlled by the military through veterans, so every financial review is always in danger, and the Treasurer will always be shielded by the president and do not have to attend congressional hearings.

This is the overall situation of the current progress of nuclear energy research, which can be summed up in eight words: abundant funds and smooth progress.

As the chief planner of China's nuclear energy research, Zhao Bei is very aware of the current research progress, and according to the content of a secret report that has just arrived, now, the technical experts of the nuclear energy research team are starting to build the first nuclear reactor, and the reactor has begun to be designed, and it is believed that in the near future, this nuclear reactor that can realize self-sustaining and controllable nuclear fission chain reaction will be officially built.

However, so far, there are not many radioactive elements that can be used in this nuclear energy research and development base, only a small amount of radium stored for experimental purposes, and some uranium ore purchased from all over the world, including uranium ore specimens found in China.

Even so, before entering the experimental factory, Zhao Bei changed into a white overalls as required as necessary protection, as for the lead protective suit, he refused, but an intern from the School of Nuclear Physics still walked beside Mr. President with a counter in his hand, and once the counter reading was abnormal, the president had to retreat immediately.

In fact, there is nothing to visit, the current nuclear base is still in the early stage of comprehensive infrastructure construction, not to mention nuclear reactors, that is, the supply of electricity and fresh water is also very tight, and these two things are the most important basic raw materials in the process of developing the atomic bomb, especially when the experimental base is located in the depths of the desert, the supply of electricity and fresh water is a very difficult problem.

Therefore, after Zhao Bei met with the project director and relevant technical backbones in the office, the first thing he had to solve was the supply of electricity and fresh water.

"Now, the central government has decided to completely hand over the two hydropower stations in the upper reaches of the Yellow River to the base, and the electricity will be allocated by the base, as for the problem of fresh water, the military engineering troops are currently stepping up construction, before the end of the year, an underground water pipeline will be from Gansu to the base, in order to solve the problem of fresh water supply to the base, and before that, the train will increase the intensity of fresh water transportation, the supply of wagons will be guaranteed, the locomotive will also increase a few, and the locomotive repair plant of the base will also be expanded."

Zhao Bei made a pledge on behalf of the central government, and then asked questions that he was very concerned about.

"According to your research and calculations, how many high-purity graphite bricks are needed for this nuclear reactor? At present, there is no domestic enterprise with the ability to produce this kind of high-purity graphite bricks, and the central government intends to import it to the United States through Lanfang's private enterprises, and the cadmium rod you are talking about is impossible for domestic private enterprises to provide, so you can only find your own way. The key is still a question of funding, you say that the technology required to refine pure uranium is very complicated, and you can't guarantee which refining technology is the best, so you hope to use three methods at the same time, one is the electromagnetic separation method, one is the gas diffusion method, and the other is the thermal diffusion method, but with the current financial resources of the central government, it is impossible to support these three uranium purification methods at the same time to carry out experiments at the same time, so I think it is okay to choose one of them, which one is better, you still have to choose carefully. It is necessary to choose those that are suitable for the development of China's industrial technology, and the central government does not want to rely too much on foreign companies to provide raw materials. ”

"No one has ever built a nuclear reactor, so we have to make estimates, and according to our most conservative estimates, at least 1,000 tons of high-purity graphite bricks are needed to build a usable nuclear reactor. As for the purification of uranium, we believe that the electromagnetic separation method is the best, suitable for the current industrial technology of our country, China's electronics industry is leading the world, and the equipment needed by domestic enterprises can be provided, but this purification method has high requirements for power supply, at that time, it may be necessary for the center to transfer some power from other power stations to the base here, and the corresponding high-voltage transmission lines must also be completed as soon as possible. ”

The answer to Zhao Bei's question was He Ping, who was also the director of the project, and his wife was the deputy director of the project, named Yuan Zi, the husband and wife duo were both well-known, they were both students of the European theoretical physics master Bohr, who had been a researcher and Bohr's assistant at the Copenhagen Institute of Theoretical Physics for a long time, and was a pioneer in China's nuclear physics community.

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