"Others?" asked the old lich Afu.
"Yes, others." Richard nodded, "In addition to what I have said, one thing to consider is that in some cases, private power can have a counterproductive effect on individuals.
If the starting point of developing private power is to help oneself, then after development, the private power will definitely provide certain services for oneself and be responsible for what one has done. Putting aside whether the private power is doing well or not, it is undeniable that once the other party has any problems, it will affect itself to a great extent.
The larger a private power is, the more likely it is for various problems to arise. Even if a lot of effort is put into avoiding it, it may be deliberately attacked by the enemy due to the struggle for certain interests. "
"So you will never develop private power?" The old man Lich frowned, "You can't say that private power is of no use, right?"
"Of course not." Richard shook his head. "I understand very well that sometimes, the role of private power cannot be ignored. It can act as a multiplier and shorten the journey to success. In the end, I still want to develop private power. The power will even develop on a large scale, but before that, I chose to take the research route."
"Research route, what is this?"
"To explain it simply, I am exploring the world and want to figure out something. Only by exploring to the end can I determine what I need to use private power to help me do.
For example, a few years ago, I might just ask them to help me prepare some simple chemicals. Now I might ask them to help me purify uranium. Later, I might ask them to help me use the exhaustive method. Analyze certain rules.
The goals of a private force largely determine the positioning of a private force and will affect its structure, personnel quality, and number of personnel.
For now, I can handle a lot of things, and building a private power is helpful, but not necessary. I will only create when it is truly necessary. For example, if my research reaches a certain bottleneck that I cannot break through personally, I will try to create a private force and forcefully break through the bottleneck.
All in all, in short, the time has not yet come, so I just occasionally plant a few seeds, or spend money to create a loose business organization to serve myself. Only when it comes to critical moments do I invest a lot of energy. "
"Therefore!" The old Lich's eyes widened after hearing this, and he said angrily, "Therefore, you can call me back with peace of mind to help you, right? You want to save energy and not blindly build private power. , but mercilessly squeezed me and occupied my time, which was not part of our previous agreement."
"It's not my fault." Richard spread his hands, "Originally I didn't intend to trouble you, but something happened in the mine before, and you told me clearly, 'Let me deal with it as I please'. So what can I do?"
"This-" The old man Lich's expression froze and he had nothing to say, because what Richard said was the truth.
After being silent for a long time, the old man Lich took a step forward, sat down heavily on the easy chair next to him, and said angrily: "Okay, okay, I'm in the wrong. But having said that, even if I'm in the wrong, I should help you. You need to give me some time to rest. I am an old man, I don’t know how many hundreds of years my real age is, is it okay if I rest for a while? I have decided, I want to lie down for a while and then help you."
"As long as you're happy." Richard said, shaking his head slightly and stepping to the side.
Now, there is indeed no work that needs to be done by the old man Lich.
The old man Lich watched Richard go away, stretched out his body, lay on the easy chair with his eyes closed, "squirmed" a few times, and said, "It's comfortable." He raced against time to enjoy the few leisure moments.
On the other side, Richard walked to the end of a row of chemical instruments, glanced at the instrument a few times, and then started to adjust it with the operating lever.
A few minutes later, accompanied by a "swishing" sound, substances began to form in a special glass container more than one meter high.
It is a colorless and transparent particle, a bit like salt.
But Richard knew very well that in a sense, this was more dangerous than the most dangerous salt grain he had ever made - magic salt.
Because the other party's name is uranium hexafluoride, with the chemical formula UF6. It is a substance produced by combining six fluorine elements and one uranium element. It is also the product of the third stage of uranium element purification.
If you want to get the other party, you need to use the ion exchange method to remove the neutron-absorbing impurities in the uranium salt from the yellow cake (U3O8) obtained in the previous stage, ensuring that the impurity content does not exceed the equivalent of eight parts per million of boron (i.e. 100 The absorption of slow neutrons by 8 parts of boron in 10,000 parts of uranium).
Afterwards, metal elements such as iron, aluminum, nickel, etc. that may generate non-volatile fluorides are removed to generate high-purity uranium oxide - uranium dioxide (UO2).
Then react the black powder of uranium dioxide (UO2) with hydrofluoric acid (HF).
Hydrofluoric acid (HF) is an aqueous solution of hydrogen fluoride, known as bone-eroding water, bone-changing water, and bone-white acid, and is highly corrosive. Because the bonding ability between hydrogen atoms and fluorine atoms is relatively strong, it cannot be completely ionized in water. In theory, it is only a weak acid, but it can dissolve many substances that other strong acids cannot dissolve, such as ruthenium, rhodium, tantalum, etc. .
It combines with uranium dioxide (UO2) to form uranium tetrafluoride (UF4).
Uranium tetrafluoride reacts with fluorine to form uranium hexafluoride (UF6).
Uranium hexafluoride, as a raw material for nuclear weapons that goes further than yellowcake, has many special properties.
For example, its melting point is 64.8°C (338.0 K), but its boiling point is lower, 56.5°C (329.7 K).
This causes it, which is originally a solid, to evaporate directly into a gas without going through the process of melting into a liquid when the temperature reaches 64.8°C, which is called sublimation.
In addition, it is highly toxic and direct contact with the human body needs to be avoided as much as possible. It also reacts violently with water and corrodes most metals, so the best way to store it is in a gas steel tank.
Li Cha looked at the instrument and determined that the temperature in the product container at this time was 35°C, the air was zero, and the moisture was zero. He felt relieved. Afterwards, all the uranium hexafluoride produced was put into gas steel tanks and stored in the warehouse.
This is the complete end of the third phase of the nuclear weapons research and manufacturing plan.
What comes next is the fourth stage—the final purification of the uranium element.
In a sense, this can be regarded as the only real purification, because it is no longer targeting the broad uranium element, but the more precise uranium-235.
Yes, uranium-235.