"I already know everything about aircraft carriers and battleships..."
Zhu Zhongliang listened to Zhu Jingyuan's description, compared it with his understanding of Shizu's posthumous chapter, and made a basic judgment on the changing trend of the naval ship system, and then began to confirm another question:
"By the way, during the public discussion during the day, we talked about the technology related to electric furnace steelmaking, which can promote the maturity of aircraft turbine engines faster. So can it speed up the development of atomic energy weapons?"
Zhu Jingyuan himself has also considered this issue.
The most critical step in the development and production of atomic weapons is uranium enrichment technology.
Uranium has three isotopes, uranium 238, uranium 235, and uranium 234, which are similar to hydrogen's three isotopes: protium, deuterium, and tritium.
Uranium-235 can form a chain reaction and can be used in fission weapons, but uranium-235 only accounts for 0.72% of natural uranium.
The remaining 99.275% is uranium-238, which cannot be used to make fission weapons, and 0.005% is uranium-234.
The uranium element in uranium compounds also contains these three isotopes.
To use uranium 235 to make atomic weapons, uranium 235 must be separated from massive amounts of uranium 238.
This process of separating uranium-235 is uranium enrichment.
The high concentration of uranium-235 obtained after enrichment is used to make atomic weapons.
Uranium-235 in low to medium concentrations is used in the construction of nuclear power plants.
The remaining residue, mainly uranium 238, can also be used to make artillery shells, which are so-called depleted uranium shells.
The name depleted uranium bomb is actually inaccurate.
Depleted uranium bombs do not only contain a small amount of uranium, but only a very small amount of uranium-235, and most of them are uranium-238.
In Zhu Jingyuan's memory, there are two ways to separate uranium-235.
One is the gas diffusion method.
First, special chemical plants are built to convert uranium ore into uranium hexafluoride, a gaseous compound of uranium.
Then a filter membrane similar to a mesh screen is used to sift out the uranium hexafluoride containing uranium 235, and then reduce it to pure uranium metal.
Another method is centrifugation.
The uranium hexafluoride gas is passed into a centrifuge, and the centrifuge is used to throw out the heavier uranium hexafluoride containing uranium 238.
Relatively speaking, the centrifugation method is more efficient, consumes less energy, and has a higher upper limit.
However, there are high requirements for the production process, and high-speed motors and high-speed centrifuges are difficult points that need to be overcome.
In the early days of Zhu Jingyuan's previous life, the atomic energy industry was basically based on the gas diffusion method.
It was not until the 1960s that centrifugal uranium enrichment gradually became mainstream as a second-generation enrichment technology.
Now Zhu Jingyuan has taken out the electric furnace electric steel and electroslag remelted steel from the 1950s and 1960s in advance.
The rotors of high-speed motors and bearings of centrifuges have been installed.
Zhu Jingyuan thought about it in his mind and explained his thoughts to Zhu Zhongliang:
“With electroslag steel, we can make higher-level electric motors and higher-strength mechanical equipment.
“For the uranium enrichment plan, we have made two preparations before, studying gas diffusion and centrifugation methods at the same time.
“Originally, the gas diffusion method was the main method, and it will gradually switch to the centrifugal method in the future.
“The centrifugal method is more efficient, consumes less energy, and does not require the construction of so many factories and power plants.
"It should be able to speed up the construction and maturity of the atomic energy industry."
Zhu Zhongliang actually had a judgment in his heart.
The steel industry is the foundation of industrial society. If the level of steel materials is greatly improved, most high-end industrial industries will be improved accordingly.
Now with Zhu Jingyuan's affirmation, Zhu Zhongliang further confirmed his judgment:
"How long do you think it can be sped up? Can the time to build atomic weapons be cut in half?"
Zhu Jingyuan was almost stunned when he heard this:
"Speed it up by half...it's obviously impossible...
“Unlike the aircraft industry, which can rely on the internal combustion engine industry, the atomic energy industry is starting from scratch.
“The process of infrastructure construction and industrial system construction cannot be skipped.
“Whether it is using gas diffusion method or centrifugal method, it is necessary to prospect, mine and process minerals.
“We need to build chemical plants that produce yellow cake (ammonium diuranate), build chemical plants that synthesize uranium gas for separation (uranium tetrafluoride, uranium hexafluoride), and develop computers to assist scientific research.
“What’s more, although the project scale and energy consumption of the centrifugal method are much lower than those of the gas diffusion method, the development of the centrifugal method is more difficult.
“If the gas diffusion method is replaced by the centrifugal method, the construction speed of the entire atomic energy industry system can be increased by a quarter.
“It may not even affect the construction speed of the entire industrial system.
“But instead of using the gas diffusion method and going directly to the centrifugal method, the atomic energy industry can skip the primary stage.
“This actually saves a phase of R&D and construction costs.
"There are certainly huge benefits overall and in the long term."
Zhu Zhongliang suddenly felt a little regretful, but he could understand the logic.
The difficulty of high efficiency is also high, and the actual time required for completion may not be much different.
Zhu Zhongliang knew that he had just had a whim:
“Well, since that’s the case, I hope I can speed it up by a quarter.
"Speaking of which, when we return to Xintianfu, let's go to the factory together."
Zhu Jingyuan also wanted to take a look, and it was time to take a look, so he nodded in agreement.
Zhu Zhongliang and Zhu Jingyuan, two grandsons and grandsons, followed the aircraft carrier formation at sea for six days. After watching the second comprehensive exercise, they returned to Xintianfu on a cruiser.
The two rested in the palace for a day, and took a car out of the palace on the morning of the third day to inspect the industrial park outside the city.
Xintianfu's general industrial facilities and civilian-based industrial bases are all arranged in the east area of the inner city.
The latest and most cutting-edge scientific research facilities and special military research and development bases are all located in the block on the west side of the inner city.
The atomic energy-related research base and supporting factory facilities are far away from all other industries and placed in the south of the Xintianfu inner city.
The sign of "New Element Research Base" is hung at the entrance of the base surrounded by a high wall.
There are soldiers patrolling under the inner and outer walls and at the entrance of the base.
After Zhu Zhongliang and his grandson entered the army, they did not immediately go to see the construction base related to uranium enrichment.
Instead, we went to the power plant in the garden first.
Energy is the foundation of industry, electricity is the foundation of the modern world, and electricity is even more important for uranium enrichment.
Xintianfu is surrounded by great plains, and there is no way to build large hydropower stations.
A large number of hydropower stations under construction in the upper reaches of the Milky Way will not be able to quickly connect to the grid to provide power in the short term.
They provide power for large-scale and sustained uranium enrichment production in the future.
Therefore, at the same time, we must build the most efficient thermal power station with the fastest commissioning speed, the research facilities next to Xintianfu, and the early separation experimental base to provide energy.
In and around the Xintianfu thermal power plant, there are no mountains of coal facing it.
Because Xintianfu New Element’s thermal power plant does not burn coal, but heavy oil.
Nanyinzhou lacks coal mines.
This lack does not mean that there is no coal at all, but that in such a large continent, coal mines account for only 0.4% of the world's total.
It can only be said that it is almost gone.
On the contrary, Nanyinzhou is quite rich in oil resources, especially in Venezuela, which has the largest heavy oil field in the world.
Heavy oil is not easy to smelt, and the proportion of gasoline and diesel produced is low, and most of the remaining oil is "residual oil".
Heavy oil cannot be sold at a good price in the smelting market, so it is not unacceptable to use it directly for power generation.
The calorific value of heavy oil is almost twice that of coal of the same weight.
In Nanyinzhou, including Venezuela, the unit price of heat generated by burning heavy oil may be cheaper than coal.
From the end of the second year of Ankang, Zhu Zhongliang reminded Zhu Jingyuan to start Yinzhou's strategic planning and preparations for the atomic energy industry. It has taken less than two years now.
Although the construction speed of thermal power plants is fast, this time is not enough to complete them directly.
Most of the current power plant is still a construction site, with busy workers everywhere.
However, a generator set has officially started operating, and it has now begun to supply power to the base on an experimental basis.
I have something to do today, so I will update this half chapter first. I should have more chapters tonight.
(End of chapter)
