Chapter 82: Seperation and Purification
The manufacture of atomic bombs requires uranium or plutonium. After comprehensively exploring the mineral reserves of Loshen Star and God-Enemy Star, Tom finally decided to use uranium for his first attempt at utilizing nuclear energy.
The Solar System formed approximately 5 billion years ago. All the matter that comprises the Solar System originated from a nebula formed roughly 5 billion years ago, likely from a supernova explosion.
Supernova explosions are the most violent physical movements in the universe. During this process, due to extremely powerful energy, all elements after iron, including uranium and plutonium, are generated and then scattered into interstellar space.
During the long evolutionary process of the Solar System, these uranium elements were randomly dispersed throughout the Solar System.
They are found on Earth, on Mercury and Mars, and also on dwarf planets like Loshen Star, located at the edge of the Solar System.
It was highly probable that it also formed in the Inner Solar System initially, only later breaking away and acquiring an orbit so far from the Sun.
After extensive exploration, Tom indeed found uranium ore on Loshen Star.
And not just one, but four of them.
But...
Tom still couldn’t help but smile wryly.
"Although there are four, this uranium ore is too barren... The one with the highest content has an average uranium content of only a few grams per ton."
He vaguely remembered a statistic: even the relatively barren uranium ore explored on Earth contains at least 100 grams or more of uranium per ton of ore.
Yet, the richest mine on Loshen Star couldn’t even compare to the most barren mine on Earth.
However, there was nothing to be done. Loshen Star is too small, with no scorching core, no magma flow, and no groundwater flow.
Lacking these enrichment methods, barren ore veins were quite normal.
Sighing, Tom ultimately chose the richest uranium ore vein among them.
According to the plan, a large factory was quickly built near this uranium ore.
A large amount of mining equipment was transported there, and soon, many ores buried more than a hundred meters underground, which could only be extracted with difficulty by digging wells, were dug out and sent into the factory for processing.
These ores would first be crushed and then directly ground into powder.
Because of the large quantity of ore that needed to be processed, the crushing and grinding processes also required a lot of equipment and an enormous amount of electricity.
There was no other way; Tom could only build a power plant nearby to specifically supply its electricity consumption.
In addition, Tom also specifically built a chemical plant to supply acidic solutions.
After being ground into powder, these uranium ore powders were soaked in an acidic solution for further processing.
Due to the large amount of uranium ore powder, the consumption of acidic solution was also very high. Fortunately, with this specially built chemical plant, the supply could be met.
After soaking, and then undergoing solvent extraction technology, the uranium oxide, the famous yellowcake, was extracted.
Looking at the pale yellow cake-like substance in front of him, Tom secretly thought, "I’ve only seen this in movies and TV shows before; now I’m seeing the real thing."
This stuff also has radiation, though not high, but to be safe, Tom still had the Clones wear radiation suits.
Making yellowcake was only the first step in producing enriched uranium.
There was still much more to do.
Yellowcake, after some chemical treatment, was converted into uranium hexafluoride.
Uranium hexafluoride is a gas, and at this stage, the most important step in the uranium enrichment process could begin.
Uranium elements exist in two isotopes, uranium 235 and uranium 238. However, whether it’s a nuclear power plant or an atomic bomb, only uranium 235 can be used; uranium 238 cannot.
But in natural uranium, the content of uranium 235 is only about 0.8%, with the remaining 99.2% being uranium 238.
But how to separate these two, which have almost no difference in mass and chemical properties?
This was a difficult point. In human history, this difficulty once troubled humanity for a long time.
But it didn’t matter. Although Tom had never been involved in the uranium enrichment process before, he roughly knew the basic principle.
It was nothing more than centrifuges.
The mass of uranium 235 is about 1% lighter than uranium 238. When combined with fluorine to form uranium hexafluoride gas, the same tiny difference exists between the two gases.
Given that, it was easy to handle.
Tom again built a power plant to specifically supply electricity to another factory.
And in this factory, Tom manufactured tens of thousands of huge tanks. Each tank was divided into two layers: an outer shell, and inside, a high-speed rotating centrifuge similar to a washing machine drum.
The uranium hexafluoride gas produced from the previous factory was transported through pipelines to the first centrifuge in the centrifuge factory.
Under the supply of surging electricity, this centrifuge began to spin at high speed. Consequently, the heavier uranium hexafluoride gas, composed of uranium 238 and fluorine, was thrown to the drum wall by the enormous centrifugal force, while the lighter uranium hexafluoride gas, composed of uranium 235, accumulated in the center of the centrifuge, furthest from the drum wall.
But this step alone was far from enough.
The mass difference between the two was simply too small, and the separation at this point was far from pure enough.
Therefore, the lighter uranium hexafluoride near the drum wall was drawn out and poured into the second centrifuge.
The second centrifuge also began to spin at high speed, completing another separation of the two gases. Afterward, the uranium hexafluoride from the center was again drawn out and poured into the third centrifuge...
With each centrifuge, the concentration of uranium 235 increased slightly.
And Tom built more than ten thousand such centrifuges in this factory!
The electricity consumed by more than ten thousand centrifuges rotating at high speed day and night was incredibly terrifying, even surpassing that of the supercomputing base.
These centrifuges were divided into four production lines, each with approximately 2,600 centrifuges. Thus, one batch of uranium hexafluoride gas, after 2,600 centrifugations and 2,600 enrichments, finally had its concentration raised to the required level.
At this point, the uranium hexafluoride gas could finally be converted into metallic uranium, becoming qualified raw material for an atomic bomb.
But merely this was still not enough.
Relying solely on naturally occurring chain reactions, an atomic bomb would likely require tens of kilograms of uranium, would have limited destructive power, and most of the uranium would be wasted.
An explosive device had to be designed.
The design of this explosive device was quite complex, involving a great many extremely intricate calculations, such as nuclear cross-section data, equations of state, implosion dynamics, shockwave focusing and symmetry, explosive lens design, and so on.
However, these complex calculations posed no difficulty for Tom.
Because Tom had a supercomputer! And, it was a supercomputer far more advanced than those of the same period in human history!
After dozens of pre-detonation experiments to obtain sufficient parameters, the supercomputer calculated the corresponding data in less than a day.
Thus, a huge bomb with a total mass of 3.6 tons and a length exceeding three meters was finally built.