Flammable ice was an ice-like crystalline substance formed from natural gas and water under high pressure and low temperature conditions over a long period of time.
Because it contained a large amount of flammable gas, plus it was solid, the same volume of flammable ice had 160 times more burning energy than natural gas.
Under normal temperature and pressure, flammable ice would volatilize on its own and burn when ignited. There would be no natural residue and it was cleaner than natural gas. It was simply the South Bowen of clean energy.
Moreover, the reserves of this thing were also very rich. Once it was used on a large scale, it could completely replace coal and natural gas.
However, extremely harsh mining conditions and storage conditions limited the development of flammable ice.
In the depths of the Yongdong soil layer, thousands of meters deep at the bottom of the sea, in the Antarctic continent, it was buried. Moreover, flammable ice was solid and as strong as coal. It was impossible to drill a deep well and extract it with a pipe like oil extraction.
Taking advantage of the low temperature, Professor Cai Chenning opened three flammable ice samples and took a little of each with a tool.
The sample in the Yongdong soil layer of Siberia was gray, the sample in the Yellow Sea was light blue, and the sample in the Antarctic continent was completely transparent like a crystal.
After the three samples came into contact with the air, visible gas slowly floated out.
Professor Cai Chenning quickly put the samples into smaller metal containers, marked the place of origin, and put them into an incubator.
Flammable ice was not too rare, but it would volatilize when it came into contact with the air. Originally, Zhongyun University had a few hundred grams of flammable ice in stock, but after many experiments, the flammable ice in front of them had volatilized to the size of a fingernail.
After thanking him, Ye Qing did not immediately leave. After all, he had just received a gift from the professor.
Sitting in the laboratory, they chatted about the topic of flammable ice. As they chatted, the topic turned to the most advanced nuclear energy at present. Ye Qing was half-joking and said with a smile that the factory's monthly electricity bill was tens of millions. He really wanted to build a nuclear power plant to supply electricity to the factory.
"The technology of nuclear power plants is not difficult, but safety management is difficult." Professor Cai Chenning joked: "If you want to build a nuclear power plant, it is estimated that at least half of the people in Zhongyun will protest on the streets."
"I'm just lamenting. Even if I have the technology, I can't get enriched plutonium, and the government will not approve it."
"Plutonium is easy to get!"
"They can even get weapons-grade plutonium. There are so many nuclear bombs in the sea." Professor Cai Chenning laughed and said, "During the Cold War, the Soviet Union and the United States were at each other's throats. The strategic bombers and nuclear submarines of both sides were cruising at high intensity. There were many accidents that happened when the bombers and nuclear submarines of both sides crashed into the sea."
"I clearly remember that the first American nuclear bomb was lost in 1950. It was called the Mark 4 and was carried by a B-36 bomber. However, the bomber malfunctioned on its way home and the nuclear bomb fell into the sea."
"Ah!"
Ye Qing was stunned. He looked at Professor Cai Chenning in disbelief. "There's such a thing?"
Noticing Ye Qing's surprise, Professor Cai Chenning was very happy to give this former student, now the famous Mr. Ye, another history lesson of his era that left a deep impression on him.
"Haha ~ Yes, more than once."
"I wasn't born in 1950, but when I was born, Hua Xia hadn't built nuclear weapons yet. The United States and the Soviet Union had already lost several nuclear bombs in the sea because of various bomber accidents. "
"At that time, the people of Hua Xia, who were suffering from nuclear blackmail, saw in the newspapers that the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, had lost various nuclear weapons. They couldn't wait to jump into the sea to find nuclear bombs and then hand them over to the country."
"At that time, the gap between us and the European and American countries was so big that it made everyone desperate."
Professor Cai Chenning sighed and said, "Take the one that left the deepest impression on me. It was in 1968, a few years after our country's first nuclear bomb was tested. The nuclear submarines of the United States were already cruising around the Pacific Ocean. "
"As a result, one of them had a serious malfunction, causing the nuclear submarine carrying the nuclear bomb to sink in the deep sea."
"At that time, the United States had dozens of nuclear submarines cruising. There were nuclear reactors and nuclear bombs on the nuclear submarines. What did Hua Xia have?"
"…"
Without experiencing the Cold War years of the two superpowers, Ye Qing really didn't expect that there would be so many bizarre and absurd things happening.
Nuclear bombs were the greatest invention in human history, and at the same time, the most terrifying invention. They could be lost just like that, and dozens of them were lost at one time.
However, thinking about the tens of thousands of nuclear weapons on both sides during the Cold War, Ye Qing felt that everything made sense.
Even today, in the 21st century, there were examples of planes crashing into the sea, and no matter how hard they tried, they couldn't be found. What's more, during the Cold War, when the electronic level was extremely underdeveloped.
Continuing to talk about this topic, Professor Cai Chenning told Ye Qing that the accidents in the United States nuclear arsenal were divided into several levels.
They were "Broken Arrow", "Broken Spear", "Blunt Blade", and "Empty Arrow Barrel". Among them, the loss of nuclear bombs was the highest, and it was also the time when the "Broken Arrow" accident happened.
There were hundreds of "Broken Arrow" accidents, but most of the nuclear warheads were successfully found, but there were still dozens of nuclear warheads that had not been found. The earliest one was decades old, and the United States had long stopped looking for it. There were a few cases where the approximate sea area was known, but because the sea was too deep, it was impossible to find and salvage.
There were even more cases like this in the Soviet Union than in the United States.
It was really a case of "at the end of the line, there is always a glimmer of hope."
After continuing to talk for a while, Ye Qing got up and left with the little bit of flammable ice.
Ye Qing was no different from when he came. He walked on the path dotted with plum blossoms and leisurely drove out of the school gate.
However, after turning a corner, Lagonda roared and drove quickly in the direction of the Longxitan factory.
Ye Qing, who was holding the steering wheel, was a little excited.
Sure enough, the Monster Factory would not give out an impossible technology project. The trip to his alma mater not only solved the flammable ice problem for Ye Qing, but it also pointed the way for the acquisition of weapons-grade plutonium.
The flammable ice was directly mined in the South Pole. Professor Cai Chenning told Ye Qing that the flammable ice of sample C was brought from the extremely cold South Pole by the Snow Dragon research ship.
Due to the unique climate conditions, the South Pole preserved the purest and largest flammable ice resources. And some flammable ice was directly sealed by ice on the surface, and it could be found by breaking the ice. It was not like mining from the sea, which could only be brought up by drills.
As for nuclear weapons …
Yes, Ye Qing decided to dive into the vast deep sea to salvage the nuclear weapons that had been lost by the United States because there was weapons-grade plutonium.
A nuclear bomb had at least five kilograms of weapons-grade plutonium, and the purity also met the requirements for building an energy tower.
The United States did not have the technology to search for salvage, but Ye Qing did.
The Lord's Battleship was simply a product tailor-made for this project. It was even the most suitable for mining flammable ice in the South Pole.
This way, the energy tower could be erected at the Longxitan factory!
Wait!
Ye Qing suddenly remembered that the Monster Factory was upgraded to the sixth stage, and the Lord's Battleship was also upgraded.
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