Chapter 28: The Super Bomb

Ding Yidong, an internationally renowned nuclear physicist as well as missile scientist. The famous F+ intercontinental missile and the Da pocket atomic bomb were designed by him. Ding Yidong can also be said to be a weapons expert.

However, in this era of peace, the possibility of war has been very small, because the policy needs, governments are more inclined to invest funds in the moon base, so the amount of military funding is also getting smaller and smaller, his skills gradually no longer useful.

In this situation, Ding Yidong came to the moon base to participate in the construction of this place. Here he was able to play a greater role, for example, the surrounding nuclear power plants he participated in the design of a part of the anti-asteroid missiles in the base was also designed by him.

But the main reason is that there is an experimental material here that is not available on Earth - helium-3!

Normally, a most common helium atom consists of two neutrons and two protons. Helium-3, as an isotopic gas of helium, has an atomic weight of 3 and only one neutron.

It is a good material for nuclear fusion, and because there are no neutrons in thermonuclear reactions using helium-3, the use of helium-3 as an energy source produces no radiation and poses no environmental hazards, making it a clean, clean energy source.

However, helium-3 is scarce on Earth and cannot be used as an energy source in large quantities. What is not available on the Earth is abundant on the Moon. According to the results of lunar exploration, the helium-3 content on the Moon is estimated to be more than 1 million tons!

So, Ding Yidong wanted to use helium-3 to design a weapon never before seen on Earth - a helium-3 nuclear bomb!

"Oliver, we can totally use helium-3 to develop nuclear weapons!" Ding Yidong said in a serious manner, "After thirty years of development, the base has stockpiled at least a thousand tons of helium-3, why not use these ready-made raw materials?"

Helium-3 is hidden in the lunar soil, and when the lunar soil is heated to over 700 degrees Celsius, the monolithic gas of helium will appear. The moon base had been established so far, billions of tons had been mined, and indeed there were a couple of thousand tons of helium-3 reserves.

Oliver sighed, he had heard Ding Yidong's thoughts, "So, Professor Ding, why was your proposal rejected?"

"Alas, it's not because helium-3 nukes have never appeared ..."

Ding Yidong showed a bitter look, "They pursued conservative nuclear bomb technology for the sake of maximizing human security, which I can understand."

"I also know that a weapon, from design and production to final equipment, requires non-stop testing and modification, which takes at least five or six years of work. However, by adopting my solution, although it is a bit risky, it frees up more energy!"

"The materials needed for the hydrogen bomb are deuterium and tritium, and deuterium can be extracted directly in water without any particular difficulty. But tritium is more problematic and must be produced through industry. The cost of one gram of tritium is around $30,000! If converted into energy, do you know how big that is." Ding Yidong said bitterly.

"Freeing up this energy can do exactly more! The construction cycle alone can be reduced by more than two months!"

"Oliver, trust me for once, I'll get the helium-3 nuke out of the way! I designed it a long time ago, and have simulated it countless times in the computer, and never practiced it because of financial problems. But there's really nothing wrong with my solution!"

Oliver moved his butt, he really didn't know how to refuse these famous and stubborn scientists. In fact, Ding Yidong's program was a huge gamble, if it succeeded, it would free up a lot of energy, save a lot of time, and humanity could develop better, if it failed, it might be a reunion here.

He carefully deliberated up, the pursuit of the most stable program, in the end, in fact, not necessarily stable. In fact, people do not have enough time, six months is too little, at least seven months or eight months to safely leave the moon ... more dragging a day, the danger is one more point ah!

One of the most time-consuming, or the propulsion problem. The manufacture of a nuclear bomb in the traditional sense does require a lot of energy and time. But even so, scientists still dare not gamble, they can not afford to fail.

The faster option, which is unsafe, saves time. The safer option, which consumes more, is slightly safer, and at the end of the day, the security is not quite right, which is a dilemma.

As the base leader, he had no way to escape and had to make a decision.

After a long time, Oliver exhaled a long breath and finally spoke slowly, "Alas, you have to know that the resources in my hands ..."

"An atomic bomb, a small atomic bomb will do!" Ding Yidong said, "Like the hydrogen bomb, the helium-3 nuclear bomb also has to be ignited with an atomic bomb. Within three months ... no, two months, I will be able to produce a small-yield helium-3 nuclear bomb! I guarantee it!"

Seeing that Ding Yidong had issued a military order, Oliver had also secretly strengthened his resolve, "I can allocate manpower to you. But small atomic bombs, I only have a quota of one, failure, there is no more ..."

"You do not worry, I understand!" Hearing and understanding Oliver's subtext, Ding Yidong was in a good mood and shouted at the top of his voice.

"By the way, what do you mean by a billion ton level nuclear bomb? Did you write that proposal?" Oliver asked in disbelief, recalling that he had read that program ... really crazy, it can be said that people have a lot of courage, the earth has a lot of production.

"Yes, that program is written by me!" Ding Yidong straightened his back, with a bit of fervor in his tone, "If my helium-3 nuclear bomb succeeds, I can totally use it to get an ultimate nuclear bomb of a billion ton level!"

"Thermonuclear weapons have almost no upper limit, and according to my calculations, a billion-ton ultimate nuclear bomb can generate an incomparably powerful propulsion, one, and it can blast our spaceship directly into the sky!" He gestured with his arms wrapped around him.

"My scenario is much more economical, we'll use conventional rockets to fine-tune the direction once the ship has its initial velocity."

"In my scenario, the ignition temperature of helium-3 is 100 million degrees, but the atomic bomb explosion can only reach about 50 million degrees, which is still a bit short of the temperature. So I plan to have the atomic bomb ignite a hydrogen bomb first, and then have the hydrogen bomb ignite a helium-3 nuclear bomb!"

"I will design a small megaton equivalent helium-3 nuclear bomb first, if the experiment is successful ..." Ding Yidong stared up at Oliver.

Oliver slammed the table, "If you succeed, I will definitely ask them to reconsider your proposal!"

Using a hydrogen bomb to ignite another ultimate nuclear bomb! What a crazy idea, Oliver was a little shocked in his mind. But as a man, a soldier, from the bottom of his heart, he still liked this kind of violent and wild weapon.

The most crucial thing is that although Ding Yidong's plan is risky, it is too time-saving, as long as a billion-tonne-yield ultimate bomb is all that is needed, the energy freed up can do other things entirely.

What is the concept of a billion tons equivalent nuclear bomb? I don't know, there has never been one in history.

A 50-million-ton "Big Ivan" bomb has so much energy that it could produce an 8.1 magnitude earthquake, shattering windows 900 kilometers away, and sending seismic shock waves around the Earth three times.

What about a billion tons? That's 20 times more than the Big Ivan!

One ton of helium-3 can generate 10,000 megawatts of electricity, and its instantaneous detonation would bring about 1.5 times the destructive power of the "Big Ivan" bomb, or 75 million tons of equivalent. In other words, theoretically, only 13.3 tons of helium-3 is needed to make the ultimate billion-ton nuclear bomb.

This is the power of nuclear fusion, the power of the sun, the infinite greatness of nature.

Oliver fell silent, to gamble or not to gamble. He couldn't make up his mind for a while, he could only see if Professor Ding Yidong's experiment would be successful or not.