Magus Tech Chapter 896: The ultimate purification of uranium

Genius remembers the address of this site in a second: (Apex Chinese), the fastest update! No advertisements! Note in advance: Most of the relevant knowledge involved in this chapter comes from the official website of the China Academy of Engineering Physics and public information.

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As Li Cha read, his eyes moved across the pages.

"The first method of purifying uranium 235 is electromagnetic separation, using the principle of mass spectrometer for isotope separation.

Among them, a mass spectrometer is an instrument used in laboratories to analyze the quality of charged particles. It can separate particles with different masses but the same charge, which enter a magnetic field and have different deflection radii.

If you explain in detail, that is, the particle enters the magnetic field with the velocity v (assuming it is upward), and the magnetic field lines of the magnetic field generated by the movement of the positively charged particle are upward on the left and downward on the right along the direction of motion. Therefore, the magnetic field on the left side of the moving charged particle is strengthened, and the magnetic field on the right side is weakened, forming a magnetic field gradient and generating a magnetic pressure pushing from left to right.

This force is perpendicular to the direction of velocity. Although it cannot change the magnitude of the velocity value of moving charged particles, it can change the direction of particle movement and form a centripetal force.

Because the magnetic field is uniform, the magnetic pressure on the moving charged particles is equal everywhere, so the moving charged particles make a uniform circular motion in the magnetic field.

According to the electromagnetic formula, it can be seen that the force of the magnetic field is equal to qBv, and the centripetal acceleration is equal to v2/R.

So, it can be derived: qBv=Mv2/R→qBR=Mv.

In the formula, q is the electric quantity of the particle, v is the velocity of the particle, M is the mass of the particle, B is the magnetic induction intensity, and R is the deflection radius of the particle in circular motion.

Because the particle electric charge q and the magnetic induction intensity B are both determined, the momentum of the moving particle is proportional to the deflection radius.

For ions with the same charge q but different masses, through the same acceleration voltage U, the potential energy obtained is equal, and equal to the kinetic energy when entering the magnetic field: qU=(1/2)Mv2.

The momentum Mv=qBR of the particle is known above, and v is eliminated from the two formulas, and M=qB2R2/2U is obtained.

For a particle with mass equal to (+DM), (+DM)=qB2(R+DR)2/2U.

It can be concluded that DM/=2DR/, that is, the relative deviation of quality is twice the relative deviation of radius.

Because of the different masses of the incident particles, they obtain the same energy after being accelerated by the same voltage, but different momentums. After entering the magnetic field, the bending radius is larger when the momentum is large, and the bending radius is smaller when the momentum is small.

If the angles at which ions of the same momentum enter the magnetic field are skewed, they will be co-focused in the range. Then the relationship between the range and the incident angle can be calculated as follows: DR/R≈0.5q2.

When q is less than 50, the relative error of R is 4/1000, and the possible quality deviation is 8/1000. The relative mass difference between uranium 235 and uranium 238 is equal to 13/1000, so that mass spectrometry can be used in practice..."

After Li Cha finished reading, he raised his eyebrows.

This is obviously a very simple and easy-to-understand method. The principle is: particles with different masses but the same charge have different momentum after being accelerated by the same voltage, resulting in different deflection radii when entering the magnetic field.

For example, this is like a train running on a track. At a bend, a train with an appropriate speed can pass normally. However, if the train is too fast, due to the unbalanced force, it will directly rush out of the track with the carriage, resulting in derailment.

Using this method, uranium 235 is a train with a suitable speed, and uranium 238 is a train with an excessive speed, so that the two can be separated to obtain high-purity uranium 235.

The technical content of this method is relatively low, so on the earth, German chemists Hahn and Strassmann discovered nuclear fission in 1938, and Meitner and Frisch proposed a theoretical explanation for nuclear fission. Just two years later, in April 1940, Neal of the University of Minnesota used a mass spectrometer to produce a trace amount of enriched uranium 235.

After that, in 1942, the Manhattan Project, which was the first nuclear weapon to be manufactured on earth, began. Lawrence and others began to use electromagnetic isotope separators to purify uranium 235.

This is a proven method and is perfectly feasible.

However, it also has a small problem.

That is too much investment.

In the Manhattan Project on Earth, in order to use this method to purify uranium 235, a super electromagnetic device was specially built in Oak Ridge. Nearly 25,000 manpower were invested, more than 1,100 separators were invested, and 15,000 tons of silver was used for coil winding alone.

15000 tons!

The result obtained is that only a few grams of uranium 235 are produced every day. After several years, the amount of uranium 235 obtained is just enough to make an atomic bomb.

Li Cha pursed his lips.

He does not have tens of thousands of men, nor does he have 15,000 tons of silver. If he really wants to use this method to produce, he must first solve the preconditions.

If this is the only way, he may really want to consider creating a private force in advance, but fortunately, this is not the only way, he has other options.

Keep reading down.

"The second method of purifying uranium 235 is the gas diffusion method.

As the name suggests, the principle of this method is the common gas diffusion.

To give an example, if you sprinkle a drop of perfume in a corner of the bedroom, the molecules of the perfume will spread rapidly, and after a while the whole room can smell the perfume.

If you replace a drop of perfume with a drop of vinegar, and sprinkle it in the same corner of the bedroom under the same conditions, it will take longer to make the whole room smell of vinegar.

This is because the molecules of vinegar are heavier than those of perfume, so they diffuse more slowly.

Correspondingly, a balloon is filled with hydrogen (relative molecular mass is 2) and nitrogen (relative molecular mass is 28, which is 14 times that of hydrogen). When the balloon deflates, hydrogen leaks faster than nitrogen because hydrogen molecules are smaller and lighter.

Using the gas diffusion method to the uranium element, the two isotopes of uranium 235 and uranium 235 can be separated according to the same distance.

In terms of specific operation, it can be carried out as follows: put uranium hexafluoride in an environment above 64.8°C (338.0K), and uranium hexafluoride will sublimate into a gas. Then, the UF6 in the gaseous state is pressed towards the porous membrane. According to the principle of gas diffusion, the gas molecules of UF6 containing U-235 will pass through the membrane faster than the gas molecules of UF6 containing U-238. Its diffusion rate will be inversely proportional to the square root of its gas molecular weight.

In this way, if the aperture of the porous membrane is set such that the average distance traveled between two collisions between a gas molecule and other gas molecules is small, the best conditions for gas diffusion can be obtained. Let light molecules pass faster than heavy molecules and pass through the membrane pores more easily.

Through the data collection, it can be determined that the pore size of the porous membrane is controlled below 0.02 microns and the UF6 is maintained at 85 °C under the condition of continuous gas feeding. The gas thus diffused through the membrane (enriched flow) will be enriched by approximately 0.2% of the uranium-235 in the feed gas (feed)..."

After reading the second method, Li Cha thought.

The principle of this second method is also very simple and easy to understand, but it is just the difference in the moving speed of molecules involved in gas diffusion. As long as this point can be grasped, the content of uranium 235 can be continuously increased.

The only problem is that, according to the data, the concentration of uranium-235 increases by only about 0.2% every time it passes through the porous membrane.

In this way, in order to increase the content of uranium 235 to a certain level, to a level that can actually manufacture nuclear weapons, it is necessary to connect many separation stages in series.

Moreover, a single-level or two-level series connection will not have much effect, and thousands of levels are required to be connected in series.

Actually, this approach was taken in the Manhattan Project on Earth. For this reason, a gigantic factory was specially built in Oak Ridge, where thousands of levels of separation equipment were assembled.

In this way, the scale is obviously huge, which is comparable to the scale of the first method. In addition, in order to ensure that the diffusion gas continues to diffuse in the same direction, a strong power is required.

For this reason, the power of the entire country must be tilted towards the gas diffusion plant.

It can be said that whether it is the first method or the second method, if it is really put into practical operation, it needs the support of most of the national power of an extraordinary modern country.

Because of this, a country that can develop and produce nuclear weapons by itself is the most powerful representative of power on earth and a symbol of absolute strength. It is precisely because of this that such a country is awe-inspiring and cannot be ignored.

But these are a bit difficult for Li Cha now.

He pursed his lips and continued to look down.

"The third method of purifying uranium 235 is centrifugal separation..."

"The fourth method of purifying uranium 235 is the nozzle separation method..."

"The fifth method of purifying uranium 235 is..."

"Uranium 235..."

After quickly browsing most of the content, Li Cha shook his head.

There are indeed many ways to purify uranium 235, almost all of which are based on the subtle mass difference between uranium 235 and uranium 238. Compared with the first and second methods, these methods are similar, and have high requirements on manpower and material resources.

In order to use this method, he needs to create a huge private force first.

But in his heart, now is not the time to create a private power.

Frowning slightly, Li Cha patiently continued to read, and finally stopped at a page of the book.

“The ninth method of purifying uranium 235 is laser separation.

This is a relatively advanced method. The starting point of the principle is that isotopes have different energy levels because of their different masses, resulting in certain differences in the absorption spectrum when excited from a low energy level to a high energy level.

In this way, if lasers with different wavelengths are selected to excite only one of the isotopes, the difference in physical and chemical properties between the excited state isotope and the non-excited state isotope can be used to separate them by appropriate methods.

Uranium 235 and uranium 238 atoms and their compound molecules have been confirmed through experiments, which are in line with this method. In the experiment, a laser was used to excite the U-235-containing UF6 gas molecules, which could change the U-235-containing UF-235 molecules without affecting the U-238 UF6 molecules. A second laser is then used to break down the excited molecules to produce UF5, which is then recovered as a white powder...

In fact, uranium metal can also be directly manipulated by the atomic vapor laser isotope separation process. Specifically, the uranium metal ingot is locally heated to 3000°C in a vacuum environment with a focused electron beam, so that the uranium metal is vaporized into the atomic states of uranium-238 and uranium-235.

Afterwards, a laser is used to ionize the uranium-235 atoms in the uranium vapor, while the uranium-238 atoms are not affected. After electrons, using electromagnetic methods to collect uranium 235 can greatly increase the purity..."

After reading this method, Li Cha's eyes lit up slightly.

He can see that the laser separation method has outstanding advantages compared with the previous method.

First of all, the first point is that the separation coefficient is large and the method is simple.

The second point is that it consumes less power. According to the calculation of some data in the method, the power required by the laser separation method may be less than one tenth of that of the diffusion method.

We must know that on the earth, the Manhattan Project consumed almost 1,700 megawatts of electricity in order to adopt the gas diffusion method, which was too difficult. It can barely be considered if it is reduced to one-tenth.

The third point is that the volume of the device is relatively small, and the input of manpower and material resources does not require much. At the beginning, Manhattan planned to adopt the gas diffusion method, with several thousand separation stages and a factory covering an area of ​​240,000 square meters. However, the laser separation method only needs a simple level, and the area required for the equipment is also greatly reduced.

In general, the laser separation method is currently the best choice.

However, Li Cha did not draw conclusions prematurely, and continued reading until he finished the book, then nodded and said to himself: "It's still easier to implement the laser separation method, so... let's try it. "

After speaking, Li Cha stood up with the book and walked out of the room.

The tortoise statue that Li Cha was sitting on came back to life. Crawling, followed Li Cha, passed through several oak doors, returned to the original place, and stood still little by little.

Li Cha was about to walk out of the library door with a book in his hand. He turned his head to look at the stone turtle statue, and when he saw the stone turtle statue, he also looked over.

Li Cha blinked and said: "Suma, the problem I encountered has been solved, and now I have to leave."

"I'm glad to hear you say that, my creator." The tortoise stone figure sputtered, its head moving slightly, "At the same time, I look forward to seeing you next time."

"Yes." Li Cha smiled, and walked out of the library with a book.

In the library, the tortoise stone statue's slightly moving head stopped, its whole body froze, and it returned to its original motionless state, turning into a real stone statue.

Outside the library, Li Cha walked on the path paved with bluestones, admiring the scenery. After walking for a while, with a light tap on the ground, the whole person flew up at high speed, straight into the sky.

Soon, Li Cha rushed out of the atmosphere ~IndoMTL.com~ left the planet, and came to the empty outer space.

Looking around, Li Cha looked at the stars one after another like a military parade and made some adjustments.

Seeing some places where the stars are too dense, wave your hand to control the dispersion of the stars, and seeing some places where the stars are too sparse, wave your hand to let the stars in other places move over.

Afterwards, Li Cha saw a dim star nearby, which was crimson as a whole, and was constantly expanding in size, preparing to devour several planets surrounding it. This indicates that the life of this star is about to run out, and it has left the ranks of the main sequence star and transformed into a red giant star.

Looking over, Richard soon learned about the galaxy of this star, and all the information recorded was time-sensitive. For him, it is completely meaningless, and it belongs to the existence that needs to be cleaned up to make room for the rest of knowledge.

Without hesitation, Li Cha crumpled the entire galaxy into a ball with a wave of his hand, and then threw it to the black hole in the distance - which is equivalent to the recycle bin in the memory palace.

Looking at the galaxy being swallowed by the black hole and bursting out with intense radiation, Richard turned his head and began to adjust to the rest of the place.

After confirming that there is no major problem in the entire memory universe and that it can keep moving for a long time, Li Cha nodded in satisfaction, and left here with the book in his hand.

"Collapse!"

Li Cha spoke, and the entire universe suddenly shrank towards him, squeezed into a singularity, and then exploded with a bang, releasing an incomparably dazzling light.

That light is the illumination in reality.

In the real world, on the small bed in the main laboratory of the Garden of Eden, Li Cha slowly opened his eyes.

At this time, he had nothing in his hand, and he didn't bring out any books, but the relevant knowledge had already been transferred to the shallow memory of his brain.

"Laser separation method, let's start."

Li Cha said, blinking his eyes, stood up and walked out.

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