Magus Tech

Chapter 899: The Ultimate Purification of Uranium Element

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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Richard read, and his eyes moved on the pages.

"The first method of uranium 235 purification is electromagnetic separation, which uses the principle of mass spectrometry to separate isotopes.

Among them, the mass spectrometer is a kind of instrument used by the laboratory to analyze the mass of charged particles. It can make the particles with different masses and the same charge have different deflection radius into the magnetic field and thus separate.

To explain in detail, that is, particles enter the magnetic field at a speed v (assuming upwards), and the magnetic field lines of the magnetic field generated by the movement of positively charged particles are directed upwards on the left and downwards on the right.Therefore, the magnetic field on the left side of the moving charged particles is strengthened, and the magnetic field on the right side is weakened, forming a magnetic field gradient, generating a magnetic pressure pushing from left to right.

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

And because the magnetic field is uniform, the magnetic pressure generated by the moving charged particles is equal everywhere, so the moving charged particles are moved in 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 v2R.

Therefore, it can be exported: qBv=Mv2RqBR=Mv.

In the formula, q is the electric quantity of the particles, v is the speed of the particles, M is the mass of the particles, B is the magnetic induction, and R is the radius of deflection of the particles in a circular motion.

And because the electric quantity q of the particle and the magnetic induction B are both determined, the momentum of the moving particle is proportional to the deflection radius.

With the same charge q and different mass ions, through the same acceleration voltage U, the potential energy obtained is equal, and equal to the kinetic energy when entering the magnetic field: qU = (12) Mv2.

The momentum of the particle Mv=qBR is known in the foregoing, and v is eliminated in two ways, that is, M=qB2R22U.

For particles with a mass equal to (M+DM), (M+DM)=qB2(R+DR)22U.

It can be concluded that DMM = 2DRR, that is, the relative deviation of mass is twice the relative deviation of radius.

Due to the different mass of the incident particles, the energy they get after accelerating with the same voltage is equal, but the momentum is different.After entering the magnetic field, the bending radius with large momentum is large, and the bending radius with small momentum is small.

If the ions of the same momentum enter the magnetic field at a skew angle, they will be focused together in the range of D.Then the relationship between the range of D and the angle of incidence can be calculated to obtain the following formula: DRR≈0.5q2.

When q is less than 50, the relative error of R is 41000, and the possible mass deviation is 81000.The relative mass difference between uranium 235 and uranium 238 is equal to 131000, so that the mass spectrometry method can be used in practice..."

After reading Richard, he raised his eyebrows.

This is obviously a very easy-to-understand method, the principle is: particles with different masses and the same charge have different momentum after accelerating with the same voltage, resulting in different deflection radius into the magnetic field.

For example, this is like a train traveling on a track. At a curve, a train with a suitable speed can pass normally.However, if the train is too fast, it will rush out of the track with the carriage because of the unbalanced force, resulting in derailment.

In this way, uranium 235 is the train with the right speed, and uranium 238 is the train with too fast speed, so that the two can be separated to obtain high purity uranium 235.

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

Later, in 1942, the Manhattan project to manufacture nuclear weapons for the first time on Earth began. Lawrence et al. began to use electromagnetic isotope separators to purify uranium 235.

This is a proven method and is completely feasible.

However, it also has a small problem.

That is too much investment.

In the Manhattan Project on Earth, in order to purify uranium 235 by this method, a super electromagnetic device was specially constructed in Oak Ridge.It has invested nearly 25,000 people, and has more than 1,100 separators. The silver used for coil winding alone is 15,000 tons.

15,000 tons!

The result obtained is that only a few grams of uranium 235 are produced every day, and it took several years to obtain the amount of uranium 235 just to be able to make an atomic bomb.

Richard pouted her lips.

He doesn't have tens of thousands of people now, 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 private forces in advance, but fortunately, this is not the only way, he has other options.

Keep reading.

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

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

As an example, if you spray a drop of perfume in the corner of the bedroom, the perfume molecules will spread quickly, and soon you will smell the perfume in the entire room.

Instead of replacing a drop of perfume with a drop of vinegar, under the same conditions, sprinkle it in the same corner of the bedroom. If you want to smell the vinegar throughout the room, it will take longer.

This is because vinegar molecules are heavier than perfume molecules, so they diffuse 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 a balloon leaks, hydrogen leaks faster than nitrogen because hydrogen molecules are smaller and lighter.

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

The specific operation can be done in this way: Put UF6 in an environment above 64.8℃ (338.0K), and UF6 will sublimate into a gas.Then pressurized gaseous uranium hexafluoride toward the porous membrane. According to the principle of gas diffusion, uranium hexafluoride gas molecules containing uranium 235 will pass through the membrane faster than uranium hexafluoride gas molecules containing uranium 238. The diffusion rate will be inversely proportional to the square root of its gas molecular weight.

In this way, the pore diameter of the porous membrane is set to a small average distance traveled between two collisions between a gas molecule and other gas molecules, and the best conditions for gas diffusion are obtained.Light molecules are faster than heavier molecules, making it easier to pass through membrane pores.

Through data collection, it can be determined that the pore size of the porous membrane is controlled to be below 0.02 micrometers and the uranium hexafluoride is maintained at 85°C in the state of continuous gas feeding.The gas diffused through the membrane (enriched stream) in this way will be enriched by about 0.2% than the uranium 235 in the feed gas (inlet)..."

After reading the second method, Li Cha pondered.

The principle of this second method is also simple and easy to understand, but it is only the difference in the rate of molecular movement involved in gas diffusion.As long as this can be grasped, the content of uranium 235 can be continuously increased.

The only problem is that, according to the data, every time through the porous membrane, the degree of uranium 235 concentration increase is only about 0.2%.

In order to increase the content of uranium 235 to a certain height and to a level that can actually make nuclear weapons, many separation stages need to be connected in series.

Moreover, the single-level and two-level cascades have little effect, requiring thousands of cascades.

In fact, this method was adopted in the Manhattan Project on Earth.To this end, a huge factory was built specifically at Oak Ridge, with up to several thousand levels of separation equipment assembled.

Since then, 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, it needs a strong power.

For this reason, the entire country has to lean towards gas diffusion factories.

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

It is for this reason that a country that can develop and produce nuclear weapons on its own is regarded as the most powerful representative of the earth and a symbol of absolute strength.It is for this reason that such a country will be in awe and cannot be ignored.

This is a bit difficult for Richard now.

He pursed his lips and continued to look down.

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

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

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

"Uranium 235..."

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

There are indeed many methods for purifying uranium 235, almost all of which are based on the slight difference in mass between uranium 235 and uranium 238.These methods are similar to the first and second methods, and have high requirements on human and material resources.

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

But in his mind, it is not time to create private power.

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

"The ninth method of purifying uranium 235 is the laser separation method.

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

In this way, by selecting lasers of different wavelengths and exciting only one of the isotopes, the physical and chemical properties of the excited and non-excited isotopes can be used to separate them using appropriate methods.

Uranium 235 and uranium 238 atoms and their compound molecules have been determined through experiments and are consistent with this method.In the experiment, using a laser to excite uranium 235 uranium hexafluoride gas molecules can change the uranium 235 uranium molecules without affecting the uranium 238 uranium hexafluoride molecules.Then use a second laser to decompose the excited molecules to produce uranium pentafluoride, and then let it be recovered as a white powder...

In fact, the atomic vapor laser isotope separation process can also directly operate uranium metal.Specifically, the uranium metal ingot is locally heated to 3000°C in a vacuum environment with a focused electron beam to vaporize the uranium metal into the atomic state of uranium 238 and uranium 235.

After that, a laser was selected to allow the uranium 235 atoms in the uranium vapor to be ionized by the laser, while the uranium 238 atoms were not affected.After electrons, collecting uranium 235 by electromagnetic method can greatly improve the purity..."

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

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

The first point is that the separation factor is large and the method is simple.

The second point is that the power consumption is low. 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 the diffusion method.

You know that on the earth, Manhattan planned to consume almost 1,700 megawatts of electricity in order to adopt the gas diffusion method, which is too difficult.Reducing it to one-tenth can barely consider it.

The third point is that the volume of the device is relatively small, and the invested manpower and material resources do not need much.At the time, Manhattan planned to adopt the gas diffusion method, the separation level reached several thousand, and the factory occupies 240,000 square meters.The laser separation method requires only a simple level, and the area required by the equipment is greatly reduced.

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

However, Richard did not draw a conclusion prematurely, and read it again, reading the entire book, and then nodded and said to himself: "It is still easier to implement the laser separation method, so... try it."

After talking, Richard stood up with the book and walked out of the room.

The tortoise stone statue sat by Richard, then recovered his life.Crawling, following Richard a piece, through several oak doors, back to the original place, standing a little bit.

Richard took the book and was about to walk out of the gate of the library. He leaned his head and looked at the turtle statue. He was seeing the turtle statue too.

Richard blinked his eyes and said, "Suma, the problem I encountered has been solved, and now I am leaving."

"I'm glad to hear you say that, my creator." The turtle statue vomited and his head moved slightly. "At the same time, I look forward to seeing you next time."

"Yes." Li Cha smiled and took the book out of the library.

Inside the library, the tortoise head of the tortoise statue stopped, and the whole body froze, restoring its original motionless state and turning into a real stone statue.

Outside the library, Richard walked on the bluestone paved path and admired the scenery.After walking for a while, gently on the ground, the whole person flew at high speed and rushed to the sky.

Soon, Richard rushed out of the atmosphere, left the planet, and came to empty space.

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

Seeing that the stars are too dense in some places, wave control to disperse the stars, seeing the stars too sparse in some places, waving to let the stars in other places move past.

Later, Richard saw a nearby star dim and dull, the whole was crimson, and the volume was constantly expanding, ready to devour the planets surrounding it.This indicates that the star's life span is about to be exhausted, and it has moved away from the main sequence of stars and turned towards a red giant star.

Looking away, Richard soon learned about the star's galaxy, and recorded some time-sensitive information.For him, it has no meaning at all. It belongs to the existence that needs to be cleaned up to make room for the rest of the knowledge.

Without hesitation, Richard waved the whole galaxy into a mass with a wave of his hand, and then threw it into the distant black hole-which is equivalent to the recycle bin in the Palace of Memory.

Watching the galaxy swallowed by the black hole and bursting out strong radiation, Richard turned his head and adjusted to the rest.

Finally, it was determined that there was no big problem in the entire memory universe, and it could keep moving for a long time. Richard nodded with satisfaction, and left here with the book in his hand.

"Collapse!"

Richard whispered, and the entire universe shrank toward him, squeezed into a singularity, and then exploded suddenly, releasing dazzling light.

That light is the lighting in reality.

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

At this time he had nothing in his hands and did not bring out any books, but the relevant knowledge had been transferred to the shallow memory of his brain.

"Laser separation method, let's get started."

Richard said, his eyes blinked, and he stood up and went out.

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