Fifteen kilometres away.
The steel-framed tower stood tall in the middle of the white plain of snow. It looked as if it didn’t belong to this time period; its organized and dense structure, the icicles that hung from the beams and cables, and the layers upon layers of barbed wire wrapped around it couldn’t help but betray the beauty of the construction work.
Hundreds of people bustled around the tower, making the necessary preparations before the explosion.
Because the entire apparatus was almost ten tonnes and Hummingbird had gone to the front lines, they were unable to assemble the entire thing in Neverwinter; instead, the parts were transported to the test site separately and then assembled onsite.
Fortunately, it’s structure was very simple. They had considered the need for transportation during the design process, so the requirements for workers were not high.
This was also where “Glory of the Sun” differed from the other weapons—even though they had already completed setting up the site and the equipment, they still needed to spend one or two days to complete the final preparations.
At this moment, Roland and Anna were standing at the top of the tower, giving out instructions for the assembly work.
“Next is the No. 3 core component, pay attention to the direction of the connector, be careful not to bump it!”
“Everybody follow my command! Three, two, one!”
Following the construction captain’s call, a long, silver-white cylinder was slowly pushed into the apparatus.
Only after the completion of this step did Roland slowly heave a sigh of relief.
Inside the body of the round cylinder was the main energy source of the test explosion: two separate Uranium-235 cylinders, each weighing 20 kg. When the two were combined, they formed a total mass of 40 kg. The mass had to be below the limit of 53 kg, the critical mass. Theoretically, an extremely intense fission reaction would not occur but it would resemble something like he described previously. After all, the critical mass was not a set, unchanging number.
Conditions such as shape, temperature, and pressure could all affect this number. This was also why a nuclear weapon created from just purely piling the materials had basically no practical value in war. For example, a spherical 52kg Uranium-235 seemed pretty stable, but in reality it was like a volcano on the brink of eruption. Even a small bump or jolt would push it over the limit.
Similarly, although using several small pieces of Uranium was safe, it would multiply the difficulty in triggering the explosion. It would indeed exceed the critical mass in the instant all the pieces combine into one, but the high temperatures produced from the fission reaction would cause the pieces of Uranium to rapidly expand and the distortion would reduce its density. The intense explosion would push the original materials outwards, causing the reaction to stop in the middle.
In summary, a suitable configuration not only needed the Uranium to reach a supercritical mass, it had to be able to maintain this state for as long as possible, in order to release the full power of the fission reaction.
The gun configuration was called the ‘gun’ configuration because its principles were extremely similar to an old-fashioned cannon. Through the detonation of an explosive, a Uranium bullet would be violently smashed into another piece of Uranium. Under immense pressures, the density of the Uranium piece would rapidly increase. Even if the mass of the Uranium was a little lower, it would still be able to become supercritical.
When the outer shell of the apparatus was connected, Anna personally inserted a can with a radioactive warning label into the designated tail port.
That was the last essential component of this test explosion trial.
There was a moment when Roland almost felt like he got pricked by something in the face, he even stopped breathing for a half a beat.
“Polonium Beryllium neutron source”.
Just like its name described, it provided the fission reaction with a large amount of free neutrons, which was the most direct way to lower the critical mass. Inside the metal canister that resembled a ring-pop can was a row of hollow spheres—every sphere was around the size of a table tennis ball and at their core was a polonium ball shaped like a marble wrapped firmly in gold foil surrounded by a ring of honeycombed beryllium sheets.
When the Uranium pieces collide, it would also smash the small can at the bottom of the barrel and all the hollow spheres would be compressed to be thinner than paper by the detonated explosive fuel gas. After the gold foil breaks, the beryllium sheets would stick closely to the polonium balls and accept the alpha particles from the latter, firing several times as many neutrons in turn.
These neutrons participated in the Uranium-235 fission reaction and, if lucky, the system would be able to use up more materials before the reaction stopped and dramatically increase the power output of the nuclear weapon.
Because the half-life of Polonium-210 was only 138 days, providing a replaceable port was an essential design. Moreover, leaving neutrons in the weapon for too long was extremely dangerous, as after all, Polonium released neutrons just from contact. As soon as there was a rupture in the gold foil, the consequences would be unthinkable.
After the Polonium Beryllium neutron source was loaded into the principle device, the apparatus would turn from a mild and harmless object to a monster that could engulf every single person present at any moment.
Even though Roland knew that what he felt was just his imagination—it was impossible for humans to sense the change in the number of neutrons in the environment—nevertheless, his breathing still relaxed subconsciously.
Only at this step had all the pre-detonation preparation been completed for the experimental device.
Anna held his hand tightly.
“You can pass the command now.”
Under her calm and stable gaze, Roland gave a very slight nod of his head.
No matter what the result, at least the “Glory of the Sun” plan had come this far.
And after they took this step, humankind would advance to a whole new frontier.
He looked towards personal guard. “Pass my command: Notify the command post that we will begin the six-hour countdown until ignition!”
[6:00]
“Wu—wu—wu—wu—”
“Unit One has entered the firing stage, I repeat, Unit One has entered the firing stage. All staff in the site, please immediately pack your belongings and leave the site as practiced in the drill! Attention, this is not a drill, the test explosion site will close down in one hour. All personnel must evacuate to the safe region within an hour!”
Very quickly, evacuation announcements and sirens filled the entire site.
“Hurry, everybody gather in the open area in front of the tower, do not leave a single person behind!”
“Construction Team 2 reporting numbers, one, two, three…”
“Locking the main gate of the test explosion site!”
“All members of the God’s Punishment Witches team are present, beginning group evacuation.”
The silent snow plain was now rowdy as people shouted in the midst of the repeated warnings and sirens. It made the atmosphere turn tense and serious. Everybody knew that they were about to witness a never-seen-before experiment.
[3:00]
Inside the command post, Roland and Anna dug out two pairs of keys and opened the lid of the console together.
They pressed down all of the switches and the corresponding green lights on the console lit up.
“Sending power from the main cable!”
“Mystery Moon No.1 is working normally, the load is rising stably.”
“Switch to Line One now.”
“Understood, Line One is connected, current flow to the device is normal!”
The observers loudly reported the situation of the detonation system until the last green light lit up, which meant the current had already passed through several booster cycles to a platform fifteen kilometers away.
[1:00]
An alarm also sounded over the command post, which meant that there was only one hour left till detonation.
All the doors and windows of the bunker were closed and candle lights pinched one by one in order to avoid accidents due to the shaking from the explosion.
The higher-ups from Neverwinter entered their designated observatories. According to Roland’s instructions, its exterior was made into a trapezoidal shape to better withstand shock waves, while the interior end was deepened to accommodate the massive body of the original carrier.
Pasha and the other Taquila witches had already waited for a long time.
[0:15]
The sky had gradually turned dim.
The last wave of urgent warning alerts finally arrived.
Whether it was the higher-ups, soldiers or construction workers, all followed their previous training and wore black sunglasses to block the bright light, despite many of them being puzzled over the reason why they needed to wear glasses that obstructed their vision in such a dark and snowy day.
Now they couldn’t see a thing.
[0:05]
“Five-minute countdown!”
When the warning notice sounded once more, the surroundings had already become deadly silent.
All conversation and discussion stopped. Everybody stared at the murky blackness in front of them without averting their eyes and subconsciously held their breaths.
“Three-minute countdown!”
Roland felt sweat ooze out of his palms
Anna glanced at him with a smile and lightly held his hand.
“One-minute countdown!”
Another hand reached over from his other side and entangled its fingers with his.
“Ten-second countdown!”
“Nine!”
Although it was a pity that he couldn’t press the detonation button himself, Roland knew that the long road of history was only just beginning.
“Three!”
“Two!”
“One!”
“Detonate!”
The snowy plain in the distance was quiet, as if nothing had happened—time seemed to freeze at that moment. It felt like a long time had passed, but at the same time it felt also like only a brief moment.
Afterwards a dazzling streak of blue light expanded from the horizon and in an instant, ripped apart the darkness before them!