"Why do you look so serious?" Nightingale suddenly laughed. "In fact, I'll believe whatever you say. But you have to give other people some time to accept it. Otherwise, if you say that something the size of a palm can turn thousands of demons into ashes, no one can imagine it, especially after seeing the real thing Lucia separated. "
"Really?" Roland touched his cheeks, probably considering that humans were facing a life-and-death race against time, which made him unconsciously feel a sense of crisis. "But you're right. After all, before I see it with my own eyes, even I don't quite believe it."
He turned around and held the inconspicuous "stone piece" in his hand.
This was the beginning of the path of pursuing fire — purified uranium.
With just a few words, it was indeed difficult for people to associate it with the "glorious thing". The silver-white surface had become dull because of oxidation, and the cold touch had nothing to do with light or heat. However, Roland knew that under the right conditions, it would naturally show its magical side.
In order to collect it, Lucia and Spear had been busy at the North Slope Mine for almost a week after the meeting, decomposing the broken granite around the mine. The Countess even complained about it, thinking that it was inappropriate for her to rummage through the rubble. Using this as an excuse, she took away five apprentices from City hall.
But the result was this small piece.
Compared with the original sample, this thumb-sized piece of uranium was more than 90% pure. Under Lucia's adjustment, it was divided into two layers, with uranium-235 on one side and uranium-238 on the other. The ratio was 1: 99, which was also the natural ratio of the two in nature.
In other words, the uranium element on the surface of the stone piece, which was less than a strand of hair thick, could already be called "weapon-level".
As an almost stable nuclide, uranium-238, which was the majority but not very useful, and uranium-235, which could be used to make ultimate weapons, had a half-life of billions of years. With such a long decay period and the alpha particles released during the decay, the radiation range in human tissues was only dozens of microns, and it could not even penetrate the skin. Therefore, even if one held it in one's hand, one would not suffer any fatal external damage.
Of course, this did not mean that direct contact with high-concentration uranium was absolutely safe.
After all, some of the alpha nuclides produced by the decay might be highly toxic. It would be troublesome if they stuck to one's hand and entered the stomach.
Therefore, Roland asked Soroya to wrap the "stone" with a transparent film. In addition to preventing it from further oxidizing, it was also to avoid chemical poisoning.
Most people in this world did not have the habit of washing their hands frequently.
He looked at the item in his hand and couldn't help but sigh. This piece of uranium, which contained great energy, lay quietly in his palm. Before it reached the critical point, it looked so peaceful and harmless, almost no different from ordinary iron. It was no wonder that Pasha and the others were in disbelief.
Now that they had taken this step, the first task was to collect all the materials needed for Resplendent Radiation.
Azima was able to find samples with much lower purity through high-concentration uranium coins, which at least proved that it was feasible to use it for prospecting. Although Lucia could get enough uranium-235 by decomposing and polymerizing it in the mine day after day, that would defeat the original intention of multiple projects.
She still played an irreplaceable role in the field of high-end metal smelting.
Moreover, it was impossible to make a real live bomb with weapon-grade uranium alone. To prevent it from becoming a dirty bomb, Roland needed a really rare element. It was usually associated with uranium ore, but its content was only one millionth of the former. Even with Lucia's help, it would still require a large amount of raw ore.
All in all, it was up to Azima.
Roland put the small piece of uranium back into the box and locked it in the drawer again. Then he took out an unfinished internal combustion engine design drawing from a file beside him and spread it on the table.
Although most people in Neverwinter would go to bed early on a cold and snowy night, Roland still had a lot of work to do.
"Are we going to stay up late again?" Nightingale tilted her head and asked.
He stretched his neck and picked up the quill. "We finally see hope. I can't let all our efforts go to waste just because I'm lazy. It's not a big deal to sleep less in order to make a name for ourselves. "
"Really? But it sounds like you don't mean what you say."
"Ahem — didn't you believe everything I said?"
"But it's also your request to use your ability to confirm your true feelings." Nightingale stuck out her tongue.
"Okay, okay. I want to do this, okay?" Roland said helplessly. "I don't want to lose to the demons and the so-called Divine Will."
"Yes, I mean it this time. Then I'll go make you a cup of hot tea and some supper. "Nightingale smiled." Five spices barbecue, honey mushrooms, salt and pepper fried prawns, and refreshing Chaos Drinks. What do you think? "
"Hey, you want to eat them yourself!"
Roland shook his head and did not know whether to laugh or cry. "Whatever you like."
"As you wish, Your Majesty," she said slyly.
…
The next day, Azima set out on a journey to find the source of the high-purity uranium with her. At the same time, Roland received another piece of good news from City hall.
The petroleum fractionation tower project jointly participated by the Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of Chemical Industry had completed the construction of Tower No. 1.
To show that he attached great importance to the project, Roland attended the launch ceremony in person.
The tower was located on the bank of the Redwater River in the industrial area of Neverwinter. It was nearly 25 meters tall and was another masterpiece of new technology and ideas. There was nothing special about the tower itself. It was divided into several layers in the middle and used the different boiling points of oil and steam to separate different products. The specific temperature measurement and evaporation control had been completed in the laboratory. Coupled with Anna's welding skills, the tower could completely meet the requirements of simple fractionation.
In fact, the quality of the distillate had little to do with the tower itself. It was so small that in some places, oil could even be produced by building a boiler with bricks. This reminded him of the geography books he had read when he was a child. It was written in the books that the motherland was vast and had everything. However, when he grew up, he realized that the quality of the resources was generally not good, which created a lot of problems for refiners.
He found that resources were as different as appearance. The gap between high-quality minerals and low-quality minerals was vast and could only be made up by hard work. The same was true for oil. Crude oil, which was rich in wax, sulfur, and inorganic salts, was as thick as mud and could not be ignited by fire. It could not be used without further processing. However, light oil, such as the oil fields in Borneo, could be easily ignited and could be directly used as fuel after being extracted.
The Black River, which covered almost half of the Southernmost Region, belonged to the latter.
After learning that there was a phenomenon of self-eruption, Roland began to pay attention to this desert. The fact proved that the oil collected from the Endless Cape was indeed of good quality. After fractionation, it could basically meet the current requirements. Although it was not as refined as the products of the later generations, he did not need to pursue a one-step solution.
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