Chapter 5： Refining of nuclear materials

Chapter 5 Refining of Nuclear Materials

"Of course you can't buy it directly, but in our daily life, there are some things that can be extracted from trace amounts of materials." He Xingzhou directly searched the Internet to discard the smoke alarm.

"The smoke detector has americium 241 in its probe. Americium 241 emits alpha particles. Take out the americium 241 from hundreds of smoke detectors and wrap them with aluminum foil. When the alpha particles hit the aluminum atoms in the aluminum foil At that time, a nuclear reaction will occur, releasing neutrons."

"In this way, the raw materials for the neutron gun used to strike the nuclear fuel rods are available."

He Xingzhou has found the manufacturer of the smoke alarm on the Internet. He carefully searched the manufacturer’s information and found the manufacturer with americium 241 in the probe raw materials. Then he went to the second-hand website and bought hundreds of them in wholesale.

"This is also okay?" The three roommates exclaimed, "Then this is just the raw material for the neutron gun, what about the material for the nuclear fuel rod?"

He Xingzhou continued: “The surface coating compound of the old-fashioned gas lampshade contains thorium-232. Bombarding thorium with neutrons can produce uranium-233, and uranium-233 is the material for nuclear fission.”

He bought those second-hand car lampshades on the second-hand website, and he also bought hundreds of them.

"The nuclear raw materials extracted from these materials are very scarce, and it is impossible to make a nuclear reactor with sustainable and stable power generation. But it is enough for me. I only need to produce a nuclear fission reaction once." He Xingzhou said.

When he heard what he said, the three roommates were really convinced, but he didn't think he even thought of this level.

"I suddenly believed that you might succeed!" Wang Jiahao said.

"Big Brother is really six, wait and see!" Feng Tao said with emotion.

"I have nothing to say, just wait for the nuclear reactor to appear!" Zhang Yang also took it.

He Xingzhou said: "I will trouble you to help me at that time, such as refining raw materials, and shooting videos."

"Wrap it on us!" The three immediately agreed.

He Xingzhou started his own micro-reactor manufacturing plan, and the items purchased on the Internet arrived one by one, because they were all second-hand junk goods, and the cost was less than budgeted.

These things piled up the entire dormitory. As the roommates were looking forward to He Xingzhou’s masterpiece, they had no opinion on this, and even took the initiative to help.

In the dormitory, Wang Jiahao is holding a cell phone and shooting at He Xingzhou. They are making a video.

He Xingzhou said to the video: "Hello everyone, my name is He Xingzhou and I am a student of Capital University of Science and Technology."

"Because I wanted to verify my idea, I decided to build a miniature nuclear reactor myself. To this end, I wrote a complete experimental plan. The plan has been approved by the relevant departments. I would like to remind everyone here to proceed. Nuclear tests are subject to approval. Please do not conduct dangerous experiments without authorization."

"My reactor mainly includes five structures, active area, neutron reflection layer, control and regulation system, cooling system, and protective layer."

"Now I am in the first step, collecting materials for nuclear fission reactors. I have some second-hand smoke alarms here. At its probe, there is a small amount of americium 241, which only makes the neutron reflector, that is, hits the nucleus. The raw material of the neutron gun for the raw material atom."

"The following process will be carried out in the laboratory. Because it cannot be spread at will, the video will be cut out."

He Xingzhou used these waste materials to extract some americium 241 in the laboratory.

He plans to make a series of videos while experimenting, called "University Students Make Nuclear Reactor".

He deliberately registered an account on the video website B station, named his ID "Planet Builder", and then chose to publish his first video.

After the release of   , He Xingzhou did not manage his own account, but started his second step, making the basic equipment of the reactor.

He Xingzhou’s construction of a miniature nuclear fission reactor has only attracted a few days of attention among students, and then there is no sound.

In this era of information explosion, there will be a huge amount of new things every day, and everyone thinks that He Xingzhou is just a whim and cannot make nuclear reactors successful, so after just a week, few people are paying attention to this matter anymore.

Only physics professors such as Zhang Boyan are the only ones who keep paying attention.

On   B station, there will be videos posted with many video bloggers every day, and most people see the videos of those big UP owners.

While newcomers post videos, there is little chance of being seen by others.

The first video released by He Xingzhou has only four views. And these four clicks were all ordered by him and his roommate, and there was no new audience.

"This is not good, no one is watching this video at all!" Wang Jiahao is helping He Xingzhou edit the second video.

"Maybe everyone saw the title and thought it was fake. And there are no fans, and big data is not recommended." He Xingzhou said, "No matter what, release the second issue first."

"The second video is called "University Students Make Nuclear Reactor-Phase Two, Pressure Cooker Making Active Reaction Zone"."

After editing the video, He Xingzhou released the video again.

Because there are no fans, this video was sent out naturally and no one watched it. However, the new video will enter the background of the video editor for review, and some resources will be promoted for videos that the video editor thinks are of interest.

He Xingzhou’s video entered the background of a certain video editor of the technology video channel.

"Recently, the UP owners of the science and technology channel are getting more and more hip!" Video editor "Xiaomu" talked to his colleagues while working.

"There was a lot of content before, but now it's all about mobile phone reviews and electric car reviews, and there are no hot videos."

For editors, the more popular videos, the better the editing performance.

"It's all like this." said his colleague "Ant". "The main reason is that the newcomer's creativity is too boring. I won't shoot anything other than the evaluation video of technology products. Naturally, there will be no explosions."

They were chatting, Xiaomu suddenly saw a new video appearing in the background: "University Students Make Nuclear Reactor-Phase II, Pressure Cooker Making Active Reaction Zone".

"Huh?" He had an impression of this video, and he had seen the first episode before.

He only watched it for a minute and then turned it off, because he thought that the UP master was the title party, so what else to make a nuclear reactor? Isn't this funny? Who has this ability!

Moreover, the content of the first issue is also very boring. It is about extracting elements. At that time, Xiaomu felt boring and false, so he didn't give any promotion.

Today, seeing that he was actually out of the second issue, Xiao Mu curiously clicked in and took a look.

In the video, He Xingzhou’s face appeared. He was in the laboratory, transforming a pressure cooker.

"Hello everyone, this is He Xingzhou. In the last issue, we have refined americium 341, the raw material for the neutron reflecting layer. Today we are going to make the active area, which is the place where the nuclear reaction occurs. The main raw material we use is stainless steel. Two pressure cookers, one small water pump, one electric fan, one radiator, several small-diameter plastic pipes, and several conductive wires."

"Can I use this to make a nuclear reactor? Am I funny?" Although the first reaction in my heart was not to believe it, Xiaomu was even more curious about this video, and he continued to watch it.

(End of this chapter)