Chapter 8: Live Broadcast!
In a large lecture hall of the Physics Department, several professors and hundreds of students were waiting. Zhang Boyan took the stage and announced, “Today we are going to have a very meaningful class. Student He Xingzhou has designed a miniature nuclear reactor experiment, which is about to begin.”
“This class will be conducted through a live broadcast so we can all watch the experiment unfold.”
After Zhang finished speaking, he turned on the projector screen in the classroom, prompting the students to start murmuring among themselves.
“Is He Xingzhou really doing that experiment? I thought it was a joke!”
“Yeah, I almost forgot since the professor didn’t mention it earlier.”
“There are some school leaders here today—this is quite the big event!”
“He really dares to do it! I wouldn’t even dare to imagine it!”
Some even asked He Xingzhou’s roommates, “Do you think his experiment will succeed?”
“It should work; didn’t you see the professor personally guiding him?” Wang Jiahao and others replied.
Not only in the classroom but also on Bilibili’s livestream platform, He Xingzhou had opened his live channel. The footage was being filmed by one of Zhang Boyan’s students and showed He Xingzhou wearing protective gear.
“Is the streamer starting now?” Early followers crowded into the livestream.
“I’m here to learn!”
“Why watch girls when a nuclear reactor experiment is more exciting?”
“Why hasn’t it started yet? It’s been ten seconds already!”
The livestream had just over a thousand viewers after ten minutes—not a huge number, but quite respectable for a first-time broadcaster.
The site operator had placed He Xingzhou’s livestream in a recommended slot so that visitors could easily find it.
“Hello everyone, I’m He Xingzhou. I’m currently preparing for the final stage of the nuclear reactor experiment, refining thorium-232, which will become uranium-233 under neutron bombardment—the nuclear fuel!”
Before him was a pile of ash.
This ash had been scraped off the coating of an old-fashioned car headlight, containing thorium-232, though it was not yet “pure” enough.
“Now I need to purify it.” He held up a lithium battery. “I’m going to cut open this lithium battery, mix the lithium with the thorium ash, and place it into an aluminum foil ball to heat it. Doing so will increase the thorium’s purity by at least 9,000 times!”
“Please note, this purity level exceeds the limit set by the International Atomic Nuclear Regulatory Commission by 170 times! Such an experiment requires official permission!”
As He Xingzhou spoke and worked, viewers in the chat were furiously typing.
“I’ve learned something! Going to try purification now (just kidding)!”
“I want to try too, but my brain says no.”
“666! Live purification of nuclear material—I’ve never seen anything like this!”
“I was skeptical watching the video, but now seeing the streamer’s operation, I realize he’s the real deal!”
Within minutes, the number of viewers in He Xingzhou’s livestream doubled.
Back in the classroom, professors and students watched and discussed.
“He Xingzhou is truly a genius to think of such a method to obtain nuclear material!” said Professor Cai Hao of the Physics Department.
“Indeed, a promising talent,” the dean of the Physics College, Dong Chen, said with satisfaction. “We approved just a small amount of funding, and he managed to conduct a nuclear experiment—rare and impressive.”
“He Xingzhou is something else!” the students murmured in admiration.
“Is this even possible? If you learn this, can you make an atomic bomb yourself?” someone asked.
“The principles of the atomic bomb are in physics textbooks. The main issues are materials and design. It’s like knowing how a plane flies but not being able to build one. The amount of nuclear material He Xingzhou refined is only enough for a miniature experiment—not enough to do anything dangerous!”
“But honestly, I’m impressed. I certainly couldn’t do this myself!”
He Xingzhou quickly finished purifying the thorium and said, “Now we will officially start the experiment.”
Near the nuclear reactor stood a fish tank housing a deformed black sea bream, but the livestream never showed this detail, so no one knew.
He first shaped the nuclear fuel into blocks and placed them inside Pressure Cooker One, then covered it with a lid. He fashioned the control rods into sticks and inserted them vertically through circular holes in the lid and cover, leaving parts exposed for adjustment.
Next, he filled Pressure Cooker One with boric acid solution for heat resistance, fire prevention, and cooling.
With that, all preparations were complete, awaiting only the activation of the small water pump to start circulation, adjustment of the control rods, and initiation of the nuclear fission reaction!
“I’m about to start this reactor now!” He said calmly, confident because the entire procedure had been tested multiple times. Given the limited nuclear material, there should be no danger.
But the viewers and students watching on-screen could hardly remain calm.
“Damn, suddenly I’m nervous!”
“I’m inexplicably excited!”
“What if something goes wrong? An accident in an ordinary experiment is one thing, but this is a nuclear test. By the way, how powerful is a miniature nuclear bomb?”
“This is the moment of truth!”
At that instant, everyone tensed, feeling as if they themselves were conducting the experiment rather than He Xingzhou.
He started the water pump, adjusted the control rods, and used pure water to fine-tune the boric acid concentration, initiating the nuclear fuel’s fission reaction.
Inside the miniature nuclear reactor, nuclear fission was underway.
The radiation detector in the lab flashed a red warning: “Warning: Radiation levels exceeding safe limits!”
“The reaction has started!” Everyone’s spirits lifted, eyes wide with anticipation.
They could not see the atomic-level changes directly, but through other instruments He Xingzhou had set up, they knew the reaction was proceeding normally.
The heat generated by the nuclear reaction warmed the boric acid solution, which the water pump circulated through a radiator. The system exchanged heat with the water inside Pressure Cooker Two and outside the radiator before returning to Pressure Cooker One, continuously removing heat from the nuclear fuel.
Steam pushed a fan, causing it to spin rapidly, which in turn drove an electric motor. This motor functioned as a generator, converting nuclear energy into electricity and sending it via wires to energy storage equipment.
All watched clearly as the fan spun at high speed and the motor roared. The indicator lights on the storage device suddenly all lit up, and the electricity meter showed the charge increasing!
“The nuclear reaction has begun! It’s converting to electricity!” a student shouted in the classroom.
“Oh my god, he did it! A miniature nuclear fission reactor!”
“The electricity’s rising fast! The radiation detector keeps alarming—there really is nuclear radiation!”
“He Xingzhou is incredible! He built a nuclear reactor himself. To put it plainly, he made a nuclear reactor, but if we look at it oddly, if he ignited this reactor, it would be a miniature atomic bomb!”
The entire classroom erupted in excitement!
Several of He Xingzhou’s roommates even shouted out in joy, “Nice! The experiment worked!”
Having witnessed the entire process of He Xingzhou’s miniature nuclear fission reactor, they felt a profound sense of pride and involvement.
“It’s a success!” Zhang Boyan smiled broadly, the wrinkles around his eyes smoothing out.
He had strongly supported this experiment, and its success proved his judgment in people and matters had not been mistaken.
“This student will likely become a celebrated story for our university in the future!” Dean Dong Chen laughed, knowing that this event would surely attract social attention and greatly enhance the university’s reputation.
While they were all so delighted, the viewers in the livestream were even more ecstatic. Just moments ago, they had witnessed a content creator successfully operate a homemade nuclear reactor!