Chapter 140 The Third Base
July 8th.
Dawei Port in the storm.
Kevin, who is in charge of the work in the area, is in an underground bunker, reporting his work to Li Qingye.
After landing in Bangkok, Li Qingye settled down in a resort near Bangkok under the identity of Andrew. In fact, he was a soldier disguised as Andrew and was active in the resort.
Li Qingye was a small family in Siam, in the Dawei port area of Hongsavady.
Kevin said stiffly: "Boss, the third research base has been completed, but we have very few researchers in the field of nuclear physics. Now there are only 17 related researchers, and the rest of the personnel are customized soldiers."
Li Qingye did not blame anyone for this situation: "It doesn't matter. After all, nuclear physics is a key area of focus for the major powers. It's right to be careful ."
"In addition, our crude uranium reserves have reached 3,213 tons. We have built three small graphite reactors in the third base in Black Tiger Canyon. However, we are currently lacking low-enriched uranium 235 and have not yet conducted any formal tests."
Li Qingye nodded with satisfaction: "I came here this time to solve the refining problem. Where do you store the things that the Internal Affairs Department transported some time ago?"
"It's in Black Tiger Canyon."
"Then when the rain stops, we will head to Black Tiger Canyon."
"I understand."
At noon the next day, Li Qingye, Kevin and others arrived in Kayah State in the southwest of the Shan Plateau on a ship.
The Black Tiger Canyon, where the third base is located, is located in the mountain valley of this plateau. It is a very inconspicuous small valley plain.
In order to cover up the base, Hongsavadi set up this area as a nature reserve for Bengal tigers and also set up a scientific research station in the open.
The advantage of this place is that it can be entered directly by a 500-ton ship through a tributary of the Salween River.
Especially after the dredging, and now that it is the rainy season, even a 1,500-ton ship can reach Black Tiger Town in Black Tiger Canyon.
After immigration and relocation, the entire Black Tiger Town is now inhabited by members of the Qingye Group. There are no outsiders at all, ensuring the confidentiality of the place.
After Li Qingye arrived in Heihu Town, he did not appear in front of ordinary employees, and his identity was also an inspector sent by the headquarters.
Led by the base commander Wu Hu, the group entered a mine near Heihu Town.
The reason we chose this place was, on the one hand, because of its concealment and convenient water transportation, and on the other hand, because of this mine.
This is a small lead-zinc mine with many underground tunnels dug by the previous mine owner.
After the second transformation, all the mine tunnels were reinforced, expanded and modified to become the underground base we have today.
Moreover, the second phase of the construction of this base is also being carried out in secret.
Li Qingye took the elevator shaft converted from a mine and arrived at 27 meters underground. If part of the mountain is included, the depth of some areas here can probably reach thousands of meters.
The nuclear facilities are located beneath the cover of those mountains.
"We have transferred some of the rough materials here. Currently, there are 1,200 tons of rough materials stored here." Kevin introduced in a low voice.
When you reach the bottom of the elevator shaft and take the elevator, there is a small underground station where trams are used as a means of transportation.
Wu Hu quickly opened the door of the carriage: "Boss, let's get in the car!"
Soon the tram started slowly and drove deep into the base.
However, the tram did not directly enter the nuclear test area or crude material storage area. After all, these things involve certain risks.
Only after changing into full-coverage biological protective suits in the safe zone did Wu Hu lead them into the nuclear test area.
A group of researchers, also wearing full-body protective suits and specially made resin transparent space helmets, are standing in front of a small centrifuge.
Wu Hu called the head of the research team, Dr. Lewis, who was a former researcher at the Luzon Nuclear Power Plant and one of the few scholars studying nuclear physics in Luzon. He was secretly sent here at the beginning of this year by faking his death and changing his appearance.
Levis had actually met Li Qingye in Luzon. He said helplessly, "Li, this small centrifuge can't separate uranium 235 at all. You should understand the danger of this kind of thing!"
"Don't worry! I will solve the uranium enrichment problem." Li Qingye replied confidently.
"Can you solve it? Li, although I admit that you are a top biologist, this is nuclear physics." Levis looked skeptical.
Li Qingye shrugged, then turned to Wu Hu and instructed: "Take the item No. 983 that was sent over earlier and bring it to the special biological laboratory here."
"Yes, boss."
After a while, in the special biological laboratory.
What Li Qingye wanted was already placed in front of everyone.
He opened the suitcase, revealing rows of storage tubes containing special frozen fungal spores, and pulled out one of them.
Insert into one of the large barrel-shaped petri dishes.
By adding various pheromones and hormones, as well as a steady supply of nutrient solution and adjusting the temperature, the fungus soon began to grow rapidly in the culture dish.
After an hour of rapid growth, Li Qingye mixed together one hundred kilograms of uranium-containing powder and nutrient paste.
Finally, pour the fungi in the culture dish into the uranium-containing nutrient paste.
"Let's go!"
"Is that all?" Levis was confused.
Li Qingye replied confidently: "Don't underestimate the adaptability and possibilities of organisms. You should know that the area around the Chernobyl reactor is now full of fungi."
Levis was skeptical and muttered to himself: "Can biotechnology really enrich uranium?"
"You'll find out tomorrow."
The next day, early in the morning.
Levis couldn't wait to come over, obviously he also wanted to know the effect of bioenrichment technology.
Opening the row of lead chamber cultivation pools, a large group of reddish-brown fungi were seen floating on the surface of the cultivation pools, which were somewhat similar to the appearance of blue-green algae after eutrophication.
"Remove the bacteria from the surface and then dry the sludge at the bottom of the culture pond."
"yes."
The bacteria floating on the surface are removed, and then the sludge at the bottom of the pool is filtered and dried, turning into hundreds of kilograms of mud.
Lewis and his team measured the uranium 235 content of the mud .
After more than five hours of intensive testing, the uranium 235 content in the mud finally came out, with a concentration of about 7.2% to 8.3%.
Obviously, this concentration made Levis feel unbelievable. It was equivalent to being purified hundreds of times. He said excitedly:
"Lee, you are a genius."
But Li Qingye felt somewhat dissatisfied:
"This technology is not perfect yet. Uranium-enriching bacteria are currently unable to purify uranium 235 in one go. It must be repeated 15 times before a concentration of uranium 235 exceeding 90% can be extracted."
"Moreover, among the uranium elements absorbed by the uranium-enriching bacteria, there is still a small amount of uranium-238 left, and these wastes must be processed for the second time."
Haha! Levis was speechless.
In his opinion, this technology is already very powerful. Even if it needs to be repeated 15 times, it is faster and cheaper than the centrifuge separation method, and it can even be said to be cheap.
You should know that bioenrichment method only requires simple cultivation equipment, bacteria, nutrients, hormones and pheromones.
The cost of these things is not high for the Homo Sapiens company.
Levis made a rough estimate and according to current data, the cost of producing one kilogram of uranium 235 with a concentration of 90% would not exceed 5,000 gold yuan.
This cost is far lower than that of centrifuge separation method.
