You were told to build a tractor, but you're building a rocket? Chapter 510 - 499 We Have a Lot of Research1

August 24th.

The second bidding eting for the blasting devices at the Union Mining Yushu Base comnced, and in attendance were representatives from Huaxia Nuclear, Xigao Company, Chelyabinsk chanical Company, and Alabama Engineering Machinery Technology Company.

Although Luo Luo had succeeded in the previous bid, he still ca to participate, as the last agreent signed was only a small part of the plan.

Compared to the first hastily arranged bidding eting, this one was clearly much more formal, and Union Mining was no longer unprepared.

Following Luo Luo, Union Mining provided the Moon geological data obtained from Skylight No. 2 to the other four confird bidders, who then calculated the specific amount of hydrogen bombs needed using supercomputers.

The supercomputer simulations were very fast; as of yesterday, all five bidding parties had sent over their calculation results:

Luo Luo believed that 9 hydrogen bombs with an equivalent of 12 million tons and 6 hydrogen bombs with an equivalent of 5 million tons would be sufficient; both Huaxia Nuclear and Xigao Company’s calculations suggested the use of 15 to 18 generic hydrogen bombs with an equivalent of 15 million tons.

If you could say that these three companies were still within the realm of normal, the results from Chelyabinsk chanical Company and Alabama Engineering Company were quite outlandish:

It’s hard to know if the Russians have a fixation with large-yield hydrogen bombs, but they suggested using one 150 million ton equivalent hydrogen bomb at a depth of 900 ters for the initial blast, followed by 8 hydrogen bombs with an equivalent of 1.5 million tons each for "sculpting" the mine and clearing debris, finally yielding a mine with strong outer walls and stability.

As for the Alabama Engineering Company, they completely overturned Union Mining’s calculations for the mine, deeming a surface diater of 2500 ters as too conservative for mining, suggesting the use of 15 hydrogen bombs with an equivalent of 25 million tons and another 15 with an equivalent of 8 million tons—a total of 30 hydrogen bombs—to create a super mine with a maximum diater of 5 kiloters, greatly reducing the difficulty of later mining operations.

One was keen on super hydrogen bombs, while the other almost wanted to double the number of bombs.

Therefore, today’s bidding eting wouldn’t rush to finalize the number of hydrogen bombs to be bid by each party; the proposals had to be confird first.

The person who hosted the eting had changed from Wu Yi to the temporarily appointed director of Union Mining’s engineering departnt, Wang Lu, an expert in nuclear science from the Rong 194th Institute. After all, such matters required a professional.

Wang Lu naturally understood the reasoning behind Huaxia Nuclear’s proposal: a 15 million ton hydrogen bomb had a large equivalent, and the number of bombs used was relatively small. The main reason was that there were readymade second-generation warheads with 15 million ton equivalences in the inventory, mounted on the obsolete East Wind 5 as high-yield single warheads.

The nuclear arsenal was gradually upgrading to 150 to 300 thousand-ton equivalents, with 3 to 7 multiple reentry vehicle warheads, so these outdated warheads could be used directly without any modification, making them very cost-effective.

Luo Luo’s proposal required precise control, had the lowest cost, but a small margin for error, whereas the proposals from the Russians and the Yankees... despite also having no major flaws, were still considered rather unreliable by Wang Lu.

But due to the nature of the bidding eting, Union Mining couldn’t simply choose a proposal as normal enterprises would; in fact, the plan was already being considered an international matter.

Wang Lu simply let all bidding parties introduce the strengths and weaknesses of their own proposals before a concentrated discussion, ensuring that afterwards, it would be difficult for anyone to raise objections.

This suggestion was accepted by all parties, and then they began to take turns speaking based on the data submitted in their computational proposals.

Academician Yu was the first to speak, focusing mainly on "controllable power" and "ease of technology". Both Luo Luo and Xigao Company claid to have the best cost control, followed by Jon from the Alabama Engineering Company.

Jon was a 70-year-old man, who began by introducing his specialty in blast chanics. Imdiately, those present understood that his main business related to the implosion cores of atomic and hydrogen bombs, revealing that there was no need to question the man’s technical professionalism.

"...We believe that, although the Moon’s low-gravity environnt seemingly facilitates blasting operations, it actually presents more difficulties.

It’s hard to form a uniform shock wave through solid material dispersal, as on Earth, and debris and rubble are likely to be more widely distributed due to low gravity. Exactly this requires a larger yield of hydrogen bombs to ensure results et the anticipated objectives...

Additionally, we have taken into account the later deep mining operations in the mine. The larger the mine pit now, exposing more of the ore vein, the easier it will be for subsequent developnt. If deep vein mining were to be perford later, it would be very difficult to conduct further hydrogen bomb blasting operations."

After Jon finished speaking, Tomarsov imdiately stood up, and Lin Ju, sitting in a corner of the room, heard Academician She’s soft murmur:

"Still rember that Russian expert who suggested using a hydrogen bomb to solve the Fukushima Nuclear Power Station pollution? Look, it’s this one."

Lin Ju imdiately cast his gaze toward the Russian man in his fifties. Short and stout, with a certain wildness evident on his face, it seed reasonable for such a man to propose such a crazy plan.

"Ladies and gentlen!" Tomarsov’s voice bood, his English thick with a Russian accent:

"Since there is no need to worry about any impacts on the Moon, why don’t we use a super hydrogen bomb to solve the problem in a simple and crude way?

We can provide the super hydrogen bomb, and you only need to provide 1.5 million tons of active warheads, let Russia undertake most of the research and developnt costs!"

"..."

The crowd exchanged glances, and finally, Wang Lu suggested that now was the ti to express opinions on each proposal. The scene suddenly erupted into a cacophony of criticism, with everyone speaking over each other in a chaotic debate.

Academician She, observing secretly, shook his head. Well, let them argue for a day first.

...

At 8 p.m., after debating for an entire day at the Union Mining Headquarters, the nuclear experts from the five bidding parties began to pack up and leave one after another.

At first, everyone was just talking, but as the discussions went on, papers and pens ca out, and eventually they even dragged out a whiteboard, beautifully decorated by United Mining, and began to write and draw on it. Those outside the discussion couldn’t understand a word of what was being discussed.

By the end, there was still no consensus, mainly divided between multiple large-yield hydrogen bombs and a single super hydrogen bomb, with the forr having the upper hand.

Tomarsov’s proposal was the first to be rejected, mostly because if his theory held, the other companies would have nothing to do. The discussions mainly revolved around the size of the mining pit and other related topics.

When the experts began to leave one by one, Lin Ju’s assistant took the opportunity to quickly say sothing to several teams, then hurried away without waiting for a response.

The teams that were ssaged also seed unaffected and left, but once they each returned to their respective hotels and hastily packed up, they all left again.

At about 10 p.m., the small group of nuclear experts gathered in a long-established restaurant. Lin Ju had been waiting inside for quite so ti.

Seeing that the nuclear experts from all sides had arrived, with Wang Lu from Rong 194th Institute representing his own team.

They were invited by Lin Ju in his personal capacity, purely for "getting to know each other" with absolutely no other implications.

Once everyone was seated, Lin Ju didn’t waste words and began with a welcoming gesture, then made a request:

"Ladies and gentlen, I have no understanding of nuclear technology, so I’d like to ask a question that might seem a bit naive."

Stevenson: "Please ask, we’re all friends here."

Lin Ju: "I once heard a theory that the residual pollution from fission can be cleared with a larger yield hydrogen bomb. Is this claim true?"

After waiting for several interpreters to translate his words, Tomarsov’s expression imdiately turned to one of great surprise:

"Davarish, we’ve done a lot of research on this!"