Chapter 1665 Sliding

Scientists with great souls, may God welcome you!

When you're with us, even strangers know

Your reputation for wisdom and greatness

Not only in the furnace of death

We finally see your noble heart

From a 1943 poem by Ashlock, editor-in-chief of the Berliner Zeitung, in memory of the accident. (Forgive the hero of East China, Wenqing.)

Slotin is serious.

Two hemispherical beryllium balls are made of plutonium-239 inside. Because beryllium has a good property of reflecting neutrons, it can be ensured that no neutrons will come out from the inside. In this way, people are safe outside.

Radiation sickness is a terrible disease, but people in later generations are definitely too hypocritical. After she became pregnant, she actually prevented her neighbors from using wifi. She was simply the biggest in the world. Her childbirth is the most important thing in the world, just that little electromagnetic If radiation can cause personal injury, there is no safe place in the world.

This, of course, is a matter of dose size.

When the two balls are close to each other, the neutrons will have more opportunities to impact the nucleus, and to what extent, this can only be known through experiments.

This is basically the model of an ordinary nuclear bomb. The two hemispheres in the front and the rear, and the explosives in the back are detonated. Pushing the two hemispheres together can complete the terrible chain reaction and become the explosion of a nuclear bomb.

The key is this distance, which is achieved by transferring the gasket in the middle. The thickness is marked on the gasket, and the distance can be known, and the real and effective critical situation can be determined through the response of different distances.

Slotin's expression is not too serious. For him, it is necessary for him to be light-hearted. He has killed so many times before, especially during the test flight. When was he nervous? If it wasn't for the fact that smoking was not allowed in the laboratory, he really wanted to finish this simple experiment with a cigarette butt in his mouth.

Yes, there was nothing difficult for him.

Slotin stood in front of the two hemispheres, his left hand inserted easily into the thumb hole, grasped the upper beryllium hemisphere, and moved easily down toward the lower hemisphere resting on the platform below.

The two hemispheres were originally separated, and the distance between them was very large at the beginning, so Slotin moved quickly.

The scale of the nucleus is quite small, and only when the distance is close to a certain value will a terrible chain reaction occur.

At this moment, Slotin held a screwdriver in his right hand. When the upper hemisphere was about to come into contact with the lower hemisphere, he stabbed the screwdriver in and pressed it between the two hemispheres, maintaining the gap between the upper and lower hemispheres.

"Move the shims," ​​Slotin greeted.

Although he was the main operator of the experiment, just like in surgery, only one main surgeon is not enough, and an assistant is needed.

Slotin occupied both hands, holding the upper hemisphere in his left hand and a screwdriver in his right. At the same time, an assistant was in charge of converting different shims beside him. The distance between them is changed by different thicknesses of this spacer.

At this time, there were only the two of them on the side of the console. Two meters away from them, two colleagues were watching. Farther away, in the corner of the room, there were four other people who were responsible for making calculations.

The assistant carefully began to draw the shims. The assistant did not have the mental endurance of Slotin. This thing is quite dangerous. If there is an accident, I am afraid that everyone present will die, and the entire base will be destroyed.

Otherwise, why call it the Devil's Sphere Heart?

Just as the assistant had just pulled out the thick shim, before inserting the thin one, he heard a buzzing sound in his ear.

Damn, in this broken desert, there are actually mosquitoes. The vitality is so tenacious, and the mosquitoes in Africa are quite powerful. Once they bite a pimple, they may not get down for ten days and a half months.

This mosquito, unexpectedly, flew towards the gap between the two hemispheres?

Just as the assistant was watching the trajectory of the mosquito, there was a big hand in front of him.

"Wow!" Slotin quickly grabbed the mosquito with his right hand, and his mouth was still laughing: "Look whether you are flying fast or my hand is fast, in a while, I will take your Pull your mouth down."

The assistant was stunned.

Where's the screwdriver in your hand? What you want to control is the core of the devil!

"Boom!" A crisp voice appeared in everyone's ears. Slotin was originally holding a screwdriver in his right hand, but now he used his right hand to slap the mosquitoes. down, it fell to the ground!

In an instant, everyone's eyes looked over, and there was fear in everyone's eyes.

The shim has just been pulled out, and the new one has not been inserted, and now, the only screwdriver inserted in it has fallen off!

At this moment, Slotin was also stunned, what happened?

Mosquitoes are the most annoying here, he is right to hit them, because the screwdriver is inside, he feels that it is firmly inserted!

But who would have thought that the screwdriver actually fell off?

It doesn't matter, I'm still holding it with my left hand!

In order to prevent accidents, Slotin prepared with both hands, a screwdriver in his right hand, and the upper part of the beryllium ball in his left hand.

Don't be afraid, don't be afraid.

Slotin's psychological quality is quite strong. This sudden situation is nothing at all. Now, his left hand is firmly grasping the upper hemisphere!

I rely on, not good!

Just then, suddenly, his left hand slipped.

"Boom!" The sound was not loud, even lower than the sound just now, but at this moment, the coming of the god of death had been announced.

If he knew that he was prone to sweating, Slotin would definitely put some anti-slip powder on his hands before doing the experiment!

The current situation also exceeded Slotin's expectations, and he stayed for a while.

The plutonium block on the top is in close contact with the plutonium block on the bottom, just like two cut eggs are placed on top of each other, and the yolks are completely aligned.

At the moment of contact, a terrifying chain reaction started.

A neutron strikes, produces four neutrons, bombards four atomic nuclei, produces sixteen neutrons, and continues to bombard... Each impact reaction almost always occurs in a time shorter than a microsecond.

The neutrons can't get out either. The outer shell of beryllium envelops all the neutrons, reflects them back, and continues to participate in the reaction.

As a result, the impact chain continues to extend downwards, with more and more behind. This is what is exponentially terrible. The density of neutrons grows wildly in microseconds. Every time a new neutron is generated, it will continue to bombard other plutonium. Atoms, producing energy and more neutrons…

There is no barrier between the two plutonium hemispheres, the neutrons are growing wildly, and at the same time, the energy is also growing at a terrifying speed.

The fission of a single atomic nucleus releases only a few hundred megaelectron volts of energy, but the advantage of quantity makes it quickly become a terrifying energy on the macroscopic scale.

In a short period of time, at the gap between the two balls, the plane parallel to the gap expanded to the entire room, and the blue fluorescence produced by air ionization could be seen. At the same time, a huge heat wave had hit everyone. cheeks.

Ruined!