Chapter 5 Refining Nuclear Materials

"Of course we can't buy it directly. However, there are objects that we use in our daily lives that can be broken down and refined into nuclear materials." He Xingzhou started to searched for abandoned smoke detectors on the internet.

"The probe of the smoke alarm has Americium-241 which decays by emitting alpha particles. If we can extract Americium-241 from hundreds of smoke detectors and wrapped it in aluminum foil, the alpha particles that emits from the element will make contact with the aluminum atoms in the aluminum foil. When that happens, a nuclear reaction will occur where neutrons will be emitted.

"With this, we now have the raw materials necessary to create an imitation neutron gun to strike the nuclear fuel rods and initiate a fission reaction."

He Xingzhou had already found the manufacturer for the smoke detectors online. He searched carefully in the information on manufacturer website and found the models of smoke detectors that used Americium-241. He then went to a second-hand website and bought hundreds of them wholesale.

"It can be done this way too?" The three roommates exclaimed. "This is only the raw material of the neutron gun. What about the material of the nuclear fuel rod?"

He Xingzhou continued, "The compound used to coat the surface of headlights in old-fashioned automobiles contain Thorium-232. By using neutrons to bombard Thorium, we can produce Uranium-233, the main source of initiating nuclear fission."

He Xingzhou went a bought a hundreds of old headlights from the second-hand store on the Internet as well.

"Only a very miniscule amount of nuclear material can be refined from these materials. It's impossible to produce a sustainable and stable nuclear reactor device. "But it's enough for me. I only need to produce one nuclear fission reaction," He Xingzhou said.

Hearing these words, the three roommates were really impressed. They didn't expect him to be this prepared.

"I suddenly have a feeling that you might succeed!" Wang Jiahao said.

"Big Boss is really awesome. Let's wait and see!" Feng Tao sighed.

"I have nothing to say. I'll just wait for the nuclear reactor to appear!" Zhang Yang was also convinced.

He Xingzhou said, "I'll need your help when the time comes. For example, refining the raw materials and shooting videos."

"Leave it to us!" The three immediately agreed.

He Xingzhou started his own miniature nuclear reactor manufacturing plan. The things he bought online arrived one by one. Since they were all second-hand trash, the cost was even less than the budget.

These things started to pile up and filled up the entire dormitory room. Since his roommates were all looking forward to He Xingzhou's masterpiece, they did not have any objections and even took the initiative to help.

In the dormitory, Wang Jiahao was filming He Xingzhou with his cell phone. They were going to make a video.

He Xingzhou looked at the camera and started talking "Hello everyone. My name is He Xingzhou. I'm a student at the Beijing University of Science and Technology."

"I have some ideas that I wish to experiment on so I decided to build a miniature nuclear reactor myself. For this, I wrote a complete experimental plan. This plan has already been approved by the relevant departments. I would like to remind everyone that nuclear tests need to be approved. Please do not carry out dangerous experiments on your own."

"My reactor consists of five main structures: active zone, neutron reflector, control and regulation system, cooling system, and the protective layer."

"Now I am start off with the first step of refining raw materials for a nuclear fission reactor. Here, I have some second-hand smoke detectors. At its probe, there is a small amount of Americium-241, which can be used to make the neutron gun that will emit neutrons for the neuron reflector.

"The following process will be carried out in the laboratory. Due to the fact that the steps cannot be made public, we will have to edit this part out of the video."

In the laboratory, He Xingzhou used these discarded raw materials to extract some americium 241.

He planned to make a series of videos at the to document the experiment, called "University student's homemade nuclear reactor.".

He specially registered an account on BiliBili, with the ID [Planet Builder]. Then, he uploaded his first video.

After uploading, He Xingzhou left his account alone. He quickly started to work on his second step, which was to build the basic reactor equipment.

The matter of He Xingzhou building a miniature nuclear fission reactor only attracted the attention of his classmates for a few days before it died out.

In this era of information, something was always happening. Moreover, everyone thought that He Xingzhou was just doing this on a whim and could not successfully build a nuclear reactor. Therefore, after a short week, less and less people paid attention to him.

Only Zhang Boyan and other physics professors continued to paid attention to it.

On BiliBili, many vloggers and videographers posted videos every day. Most people only watched videos posted by people with large followings.

When a newcomer posted videos, it's very hard for them to be discovered.

The first video that he Xingzhou posted only had four views. And these four views were all from him and his roommate. There wasn't a single outside viewer.

"We can't leave it like this. No one is watching the video!" Wang Jiahao was helping He Xingzhou edit the second episode of the video.

"Maybe everyone saw the title and thought it was fake. There are no fans, and the algorithms won't recommend it," He Xingzhou said. "Forget it. Let's release the second episode first."

"The second episode is called 'University student's homemade nuclear reactor - Episode two, pressure cooker making an active reaction zone.'"

After the video was edited, He Xingzhou posted the video.

Since there were no fans, naturally, no one would watch the video when it was posted. However, all new videos posted were to be reviewed by a video editor. Video editors who see a particularly interesting video would give some of their resources to help promote it.

He Xingzhou's video was put into the queue of one of the video editors of the technology video channel.

"Recently, the uploaders of the technology channel are getting more and more ridiculous!" The video editor "Xiao Mu" complained to his colleagues as he worked.

"Back then, there were a lot of content in videos. Now, it's all about mobile phone reviews and electric car reviews. Moreover, there aren't any viral videos."

For editors, the more viral videos there were, the better their performance would be.

"It's always like this." replied his colleague, Ant. "The main reason is that there is no creativity amongst the newcomers. They don't know how to shoot anything other than review videos and things that are already trending. Naturally, there won't be any viral videos."

As they were chatting, Xiao Mu suddenly saw a new video appearing backstage: "University student's homemade nuclear reactor - Episode two, pressure cooker making an active reaction zone".

"Huh?" Xiao Mu had an impression of this video. He had seen the first episode before.

He only watched it for a minute before turning it off because he thought that this uploader was just a clickbait fan. What was the point of making a nuclear reactor? Wasn't this a joke? Who had the ability to do that!

Moreover, the content of the first phase was also very boring. It was about refining the elements. At that time, Xiao Mu felt that it was boring and fake, so he did not give it any promotion.

Today, after seeing that there was actually a second episode, Xiao Mu curiously clicked in to take a look.

In the video, He Xingzhou's face appeared. He was in the laboratory, modifying a pressure cooker.

"Hello, everyone. I'm He Xingzhou. In the last episode, we have already refined Americium-341, the raw material for the neutron reflection layer. Today, we are going to make an active zone, which is where the nuclear reaction happens. The main materials that we will use include two stainless steel pressure cookers, a small water pump, an electric fan, a radiator, a small diameter plastic pipe, and a number of conductive wires."

"You can make a nuclear reactor with this? Are you kidding me?" Although the first reaction in his mind is not believe it, the video got Xiao Mu curious so he continued to watch.