Chapter 235 The First Phase of Results
Compared to the uneasiness of others, Xu Chuan was basically not nervous.
All he had was expectation, expectation of what the ‘crystalline erbium zirconate’ anti-radiation material made with the ‘atomic cycle’ theory as the core and using special nanotechnology could achieve.
He was actually very clear about the anti-radiation effect of ‘crystalline erbium zirconate’. But what he knew was from his previous life.
In the previous replica experiment, he used mathematical methods to recalculate and adjust some things in this technology and optimized this material to a certain extent.
Theoretically, the optimized ‘crystalline erbium zirconate’ has better radiation resistance or radiation stability.
However, he was not sure how much it could be improved compared to the previous ‘crystalline erbium zirconate’ material.
Radiation resistance or radiation stability refers to the ability of a substance to maintain its inherent physical and chemical properties after receiving a certain dose of radiation.
The radiation resistance of a material is related to its molecular structure, relative molecular mass and aggregation state.
For example, isotactic polypropylene with tertiary carbon atoms will undergo noticeable changes when exposed to 1.2×10Gy radiation energy, while 8×10Gy will cause serious changes, such as becoming brittle and breaking easily by hand.
The doses required for polystyrene with aromatic rings to undergo similar changes are 8×10Gy and 3×10Gy respectively.
Radiation-resistant rubber used in nuclear power projects has higher radiation resistance.
As for lead metal, radiation-resistant steel plate materials and other things, they have almost reached the peak of radiation resistance in the current material industry.
And the radiation resistance of ‘crystalline erbium zirconate’, according to the materials developed in the previous life, is strictly speaking not as good as that of ultra-high-density materials such as lead metal.
The two are a little different, and it is at a critical node.
But compared with lead metal, it has its own unique advantages.
The first is weight, it is lighter than lead.
Under the same volume, the weight of the protective material made of ‘crystalline erbium zirconate’ is only about one-fifth of that of lead.
The second is durability.
Because of atomic circulation, under the same radiation intensity, the protective material made of crystalline erbium zirconate can definitely last longer than the protective material doped with lead metal.
Using radiation energy to complete the self-repair of the grain boundary can enable crystalline erbium zirconate to maintain a long atomic cycle.
Although lead metal can rely on its own density to resist nuclear radiation, once the internal lead grain boundary is destroyed, it will cause a chain reaction and cause the grain boundary to collapse.
The time required for irradiation confrontation test can be said to be very long or very short.
Long-term confrontation test requires at least ten or fifteen days to complete the radiation curve and the drawing of the material change curve, so as to relatively accurately determine the limit of this confrontation material.
However, radiation intensity confrontation test does not require it.
Through instruments and equipment, strong radiation sources of different intensities are created, and the intensity of radiation energy is gradually increased to determine where the limit of this material is.
This test is enough to complete in one morning.
For Xu Chuan, the material he made himself knows his limit very clearly.
For the radiation intensity confrontation test, he started directly from the intensity of 2 Gy·h-1, which is the bottom line of high-level nuclear waste.
Below this number, nuclear waste will be classified as medium-level nuclear waste, and above this standard, it is the most difficult to handle high-level nuclear waste.
The larger the value, the higher the radiation intensity.
If it can't even withstand this standard, how can it be used for nuclear waste treatment.
Of course, the radiation intensity confrontation test is not simply judged from the radiation intensity index.
In addition, there are various aspects such as the thickness of the material and the confrontation time.
After all, any material, even water or air, has a certain radiation resistance.
Ordinary concrete cement, if the thickness can reach more than 1.5 meters, can also isolate most of the nuclear radiation.
After the explosion of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, Hongsu used thick and dense concrete cement to build a cement sarcophagus outside the No. 4 reactor as an isolation protection cover.
But the disadvantages are also huge. Under the strong radiation of nuclear waste, ordinary concrete cement, even if the thickness can reach two or three meters, only has a lifespan of 20 to 30 years.
The sealed sarcophagus outside the current Chernolibel was actually rebuilt in 2011.
The sarcophagus built by Hong Su before had been corroded by nearly 200 tons of high-intensity nuclear waste for 20 years.
So putting aside the thickness of the material and the resistance time, it is a very unreliable thing to talk about resistance performance.
This is like talking about toxicity without considering the dose.
For example, bananas contain the radioactive element "potassium-40", which can release ionizing radiation, but it takes about 50 million bananas to get the radiation that kills a person.
Before that, you would have been eaten to death, or died of potassium imbalance.
However, on this basis, the thinner the material thickness, the higher the radiation intensity it resists, and the more it can explain the performance of this material.
For the protective material made of "crystalline erbium zirconate", Xu Chuan's requirement is to have the performance of resisting high-level nuclear waste within a thickness of two centimeters.
Only when this standard is met can it be widely used in various nuclear engineering and aerospace engineering, and have corresponding value.
Under Han Jin's chairmanship, the first round of radiation intensity confrontation test with an intensity of 2 Gy·h-1 took nearly an hour, and a total of five groups of confrontations were conducted.
The confrontation data was flipped in Xu Chuan's hands, and the confrontation structure on it brought a smile to his mouth.
Judging from the current inspection structure, the radiation intensity confrontation test is quite satisfactory.
When facing the same intensity of simulated nuclear irradiation, the 'crystalline erbium zirconate' protective materials of different shapes and thicknesses all showed high-intensity stability and shielding rates for α rays, β rays, γ rays, X-rays, and neutron radiation.
Under different irradiation environments, the shielding rate of α rays and β rays of the 'crystalline erbium zirconate' protective material reached 100% when the thickness was one centimeter.
The average shielding rate of γ rays and X-rays reached 90.4%; the frequency of neutron radiation reached 84.5%; and the gamma shielding rate reached 60.3%.
If this shielding rate is replaced with ordinary concrete cement, it will take about half a meter thick to achieve it.
Fifty centimeters compared to one centimeter is enough to reflect its shielding performance.
What is more critical is its grain boundary loss rate.
In the 30-minute radiation intensity confrontation test, even a one-centimeter-thick protective material did not suffer much damage to the internal grain boundaries when facing more than 30 minutes of radiation with an intensity of 2 Gy·h-1.
If the grain boundary integrity of a piece of material is compared to 100, after the first round of testing, the grain boundary integrity of the first batch of ‘crystalline erbium zirconate’ protective materials, the five groups of experiments, only decreased by 0.00032, 0.00019, 0.00028, and 0.00018.
The average grain boundary damage rate remained at about 0.2%, which was about 0.5% lower than the protective materials made in the United States in the previous life.
The improvement is not very large, but it is a great thing to exchange some not-so-complex modifications for a certain degree of performance improvement.
In fact, the value of 0.2% grain boundary loss integrity is already quite low.
You know, it is facing ionizing radiation at the level of high-level nuclear waste.
If a person is exposed to this intensity of simulated radiation, he will bleed to death within an hour. This shows the horror of nuclear radiation of this intensity.
However, when the protective material of 'crystalline erbium zirconate' is exposed to this intensity of simulated nuclear radiation, the grain boundary damage is only 0.02%.
Although this number will continue to increase over time, the self-healing property of the protective material of 'crystalline erbium zirconate' will eventually allow it to maintain a dynamic balance.
"Incredibly, in the face of 2 Gy·h-1 intensity simulated nuclear radiation for half an hour, the degree of damage to the grain boundary of the crystalline erbium zirconate material is less than 0.02%. This number is far lower than the ceramic material used to store nuclear waste."
In the laboratory, Xi Xuebo held the confrontation result in his hand and widened his eyes.
The data recorded in the experimental results and the performance shown made him unbelievable.
Not to mention the radiation shielding rate, although the performance is excellent, it is still somewhat different from top materials such as lead metal.
The important thing is the grain boundary damage rate, which is the key to how long the confrontation material can maintain its own stability when facing high-intensity nuclear radiation.
The strong ionizing properties of nuclear radiation can ionize all materials that come into contact with it, which will cause various problems in the material itself.
If the stability itself is not strong enough, even if the radiation shielding rate of this material is excellent, it cannot be applied to industry.
According to the data calculated above the test results, the crystalline erbium zirconate material can resist the intensity of 2 Gy·h-1 simulated nuclear radiation exposure for more than 100 days.
This simply refreshed his understanding of the material.
Although 100 days is a short time, it also depends on the intensity of radiation.
As a researcher in nuclear energy, he has a clear understanding of nuclear radiation protection materials.
Whether it is shielding materials made of lead metal, nuclear radiation protection cement, or rubber, they will show different damage when facing high-level nuclear waste.
According to his calculations, the grain boundary loss rate of a half-centimeter thick lead plate facing 2Gy·h-1 simulated nuclear radiation is about one in ten thousand.
That is to say, after about two hundred days, the lead plate will lose its protective effect.
Considering that the thinner the lead plate, the weaker the protective shielding effect, the protection time needs to be further shortened.
This crystalline erbium zirconate material will not, although according to current data, it can only last for a hundred days. But the most critical atomic cycle theory will cause the grain boundary to reconstruct, and a hundred days is far from its limit.
In other words, if the speed of grain boundary reconstruction can keep up with the speed of destruction, then it can be maintained forever and seal nuclear waste.
Of course, this is only theoretical.
In fact, due to various external environmental interferences, grain boundary reconstruction cannot be infinitely cycled, but the value it embodies at present has far exceeded traditional nuclear radiation protection materials.
Looking at Xu Chuan standing aside indifferently, Xi Xuebo's eyes are full of admiration.
Is this the strength of a Nobel Prize winner? Even if he crosses the border to the materials industry, he can easily break the boundary.
If he had developed this material himself, he would have jumped up with excitement, but Xu Chuan remained calm, as if it was just a trivial matter.
After receiving the results of the first round of radiation intensity confrontation test, Xu Chuan held the results in his hand with a smile on his face.
As he expected, the modified and optimized 'crystalline erbium zirconate' material showed stronger performance in radiation resistance or radiation stability.
The grain boundary loss rate of 20,000th in the first round of tests is the best proof.
Nuclear radiation, a sharp ion scalpel, has ushered in a shield that can restrain it.
Using the optimized 'crystalline erbium zirconate' material to make storage containers, if there is no other interference, nuclear waste can be stored for at least 100,000 years.
When this time passes, nuclear waste will no longer be highly polluting.
After all, it takes time for atomic decay to release harmful radiation.
Although some nuclear waste takes 200,000 years or 300,000 years, or even longer, to completely decay, most of the spent fuel rods in nuclear power plants only need a few thousand years.
In other words, thousands of years can reduce its harm to a minimum.
If this project is just to develop a new type of nuclear waste preservation material, it can be said to be successful at this point.
As long as the optimized 'crystalline erbium zirconate' material passes other tests, it can be applied to the preservation of nuclear waste.
However, Xu Chuan's goal is not to develop a new type of nuclear waste preservation material. Instead, it is to reuse nuclear waste and turn it from an extremely difficult-to-treat pollutant into a new energy source!
For this goal, the successful development of the 'crystalline erbium zirconate' material is only the first step.
After handing over the subsequent testing of the 'crystalline erbium zirconate' material to Han Jin, Xu Chuan returned to his laboratory with three researchers.
For others, the successful development of the 'crystalline erbium zirconate' material is a huge good news, but for him it is only the first step.
There are still many difficulties waiting for him in the future.
"Xi Xuebo, your job is to oxidize the gadolinium material in a pure oxygen environment, and then grind it into powder with a diameter of less than ten nanometers."
"Lu Shun, your job is to purify the boron carbide material, and the purity must reach above 99.99"
"Zhou Zhu, your job is..."
In the laboratory, Xu Chuan assigned the preliminary preparations one by one.
The success of the 'crystalline erbium zirconate' material proves that atomic recycling technology is feasible in the face of high-intensity nuclear radiation. The next task is naturally to follow this idea to develop a strong protective clothing that can be used for nuclear waste experiments.