In the autumn of 2021, the TV series "Meritorious Service" was broadcast, and there was a unit "Unsung Hero Yu Min", which told the story of Yu Min, the "father of China's hydrogen bomb".
In the TV series, Lei Jiayin played Yu Min 丨 @ TV series Merit
Looking at the eyes of today's people, cross-viewing artistic processing and historical materials, you will find some wonderful corners, some small things in the play and outside the play.
The real "father of China's hydrogen bomb" Yu Min
There are a few key moments in everyone's life. It may be a shake of an idea, and from then on the world becomes different in the eyes, it may be a choice, and from then on fate turns in a different direction.
For Min, the moment occurred on January 12, 1961, on a snowy day.
On that day, he was called into the office by Qian Sanqiang, then director of the Second Machine Department and director of the Atomic Energy Research Institute: "After studying in the institute and submitting it to the superiors for approval, it was decided to let you participate in the advance study of the thermonuclear weapons principle. ”
Yu Min felt sudden. He was interested in basic theoretical research at the time, and had previously given up his most interested in quantum field theory and had been engaged in nuclear theory research at the Institute of Modern Physics for ten years. Before being called to the office, he was discussing his next steps with his colleagues. Because the mechanism of the hydrogen bomb and the atomic bomb is not different, the transfer to the hydrogen bomb research at this time means abandoning the results to be produced and starting from scratch.
But Yu Min knew exactly what the offer meant. He decided to obey the assignment and change careers.
From then on, like many of his companions, his name went into top-secret archives and was not declassified until 1988.
Screenshot of the TV series "Meritorious Service"
In the TV series, Yu Min faced the invitation of the leader and responded: Good, I can go to work tomorrow.
The other person said: Will you?
Yu Min said: You won't either.
The early 1960s were a tough period for China's atomic bomb development. The background at that time was: economic difficulties, backward technology, the withdrawal of Soviet experts, and everything depended on themselves.
The base camp for the development of nuclear weapons was the research institute of the Second Machine Department at that time. Liu Jie and Qian Sanqiang, leaders of the Second Machine Department, believe that hydrogen bombs are much more complex in science and technology than atomic bombs, and after breaking through the atomic bombs, hydrogen bombs should be faster, make preparations early, and do pre-research as early as possible.
In order not to distract efforts, the pre-study of the hydrogen bomb was arranged at the Atomic Energy Research Institute. In December 1960, a secret group code-named "Neutron Physics Research Group" was formed to carry out basic research on hydrogen bombs.
After Yu Min joined, the first question to face was: deuterium-deuterium fusion, deuterium-tritium fusion, and tritium-tritium fusion Which thermonuclear reaction is suitable for hydrogen bombs.
Both deuterium and tritium are scarce and difficult to obtain materials. If you want to do experimental verification, for China at that time, there was no electricity, and it could not afford to spend money and time.
Yu Min chose to use a pen and scratch paper for theoretical verification.
The probability of a reaction between atomic nuclei is expressed in physics as a "cross-section". A new cross-sectional data has been reported abroad, which is very ideal and surprisingly high - if this is true, it will be good news for the development of hydrogen bombs. The question is: Is this true? To verify, it still costs money and time.
Yu Min negated this data through calculations: "No matter who can not reach such a cross-section, and no other reaction cross-section can reach this result." We simply don't need to repeat this experiment with so much manpower, material resources and time. Later foreign periodicals reported that someone abroad repeated the experiment and proved that the original data was wrong.
China's hydrogen bomb manufacturing avoids a detour.
On October 16, 1964, China's first atomic bomb was successfully detonated. After that, the state clearly put forward the requirements for accelerating the development of hydrogen bombs. More than 30 people from the hydrogen bomb pre-research team of Yu Min's Institute of Atomic Energy were transferred to the theory department of nuclear weapons researchers, merged with the main battlefield, and concentrated on conquering the hydrogen bomb principle.
Yu Min was appointed deputy director of the Theory Department. The director is Deng Jiaxian, in addition to seven deputy directors, collectively known as the "Eight Directors of the Theory Department". Yu Min was the only one of them who had never been abroad.
Yu Min in his youth
Yu Min once received a label "Domestic Soil Expert No. 1". In 1955, Asahaga Zhenichiro (who later won the Nobel Prize in Physics) visited the Institute of Modern Physics and was impressed by Yu Min, who participated in the reception, and published an article after returning to China, saying that Yu Min was China's "domestic soil expert No. 1". Yu Min feels that he is an expert cultivated by our country itself, which is a fact, but this "soil" is not good, there are limitations, scientific research needs extensive academic exchanges, and it needs the collision of various ideas.
For "labels", Yu Min has a lot of push-off records:
Yu Min likes to recite the "Table of Renunciation" before and after, and there is also a painting in the living room that reads "Indifferent to Mingzhi, Quiet and Far Away". Some people called him a Zhuge Liang-like figure, and Yu Min's reply was: "I am just the light of fireworks, how can I compete with Haoyue for glory." ”
In the TV series, Yu Min included the "recitation of the "Later Teacher's Table" into the group recruitment of new exam questions 丨 Screenshot of the TV series "Meritorious Service"
As for the "father of China's hydrogen bomb", Yu Min said: "This is not in line with science, and I have always disapproved of it. "The development of hydrogen bombs is a large scientific system integrating science, technology and engineering, which requires a variety of disciplines and multi-faceted forces to succeed, and I have only played a certain role." Hydrogen bombs can't always have multiple 'fathers'. ”
The process of concentrating on the theoretical department was not smooth, and the models proposed by several groups proved to be unfeasible.
At that time, there were two best computers in China, both of which were computed 50,000 times per second, one in Beijing and one in Shanghai.
The Theory Department decided to divide the troops into 2 groups: one group stayed in Beijing to continue to explore the breakthrough hydrogen bomb, and the other group, Led by Yin Min, some researchers from 13 research laboratories to Shanghai, used the J501 computer of the East China Institute of Computing Technology to complete the optimized design of the enhanced nuclear aerial bomb.
On September 27, 1965, Yu Min led the team to Shanghai, a business trip that came to be known as the "Battle of the Hundred Days".
In the "Hundred Days Battle of Yu Min and the Breakthrough of the Hydrogen Bomb Principle", a detail is recorded:
At that time, the computer performance was unstable, the machine time was very precious, as soon as the machine jumped, the calculated result was not right, it would be abandoned, and a lot of machine time was wasted.
The solution is that every once in a while, the calculation results are stored in the computer's magnetic drum, and once the machine jumps, the calculation results of the previous moment in the magnetic drum are taken out as the initial conditions and recalculated by the computer, called "drum redoing", and this method is used to reduce the loss of machine time.
But in this way, the machine is inseparable from the person, the machine works 24 hours, and the person also has to open his eyes and look at the calculation results printed on the paper tape. At that time, physicists and mathematicians mixed groups, together to the computer room to calculate the problem, mathematicians are responsible for transporting the program in the tape to the machine, and always pay attention to the operation of the program, the physicist is responsible for monitoring whether the calculation results printed by the printer are reasonable, and find problems solved in time.
Relying on the calculation results on these paper tape rolls, Yu Min found the key to the full combustion of thermonuclear materials.
Screenshot of the "Hundred Days Battle" scene presented in the play 丨 TV series "Meritorious Service"
Yu Min recalled in his self-report: "Later we grasped this key, tried two models, and got very good results. At that time, the mood was very enthusiastic, and it was decided to work overtime while completing the original task of optimizing the design of the reinforced atomic bomb, opening up another front, and exploring the technical way to break through the hydrogen bomb. ”
In the TV series "Meritorious Service", Yu Min called his direct leaders to report the good news, and the code word came from Peking Opera:
- Have you seen a play lately?
- Zhuge Liang of Ma Lianliang, I am waiting for you to come back and go to see it together.
- I'll be able to go back soon.
- Beijing Peking Opera Troupe, which arranged a new play "Zhuge Liang's Expedition". Judgment Question: Did he win or lose?
- Not yet won, but one step away from winning in the end.
- Waiting for me, we'll see you in Shanghai.
In reality, the other end of the phone is Deng Jiaxian.
Yu Min and Deng Jiaxian
Peking opera is a common hobby of Deng Jiaxian and Yu Min. Once, on the way to the academic venue, Yu Min heard someone in front of him humming and singing "Female Solution": "The rain is too big, I can't see the person clearly, getting closer and closer, I heard him still playing a sonorous and powerful drum with his mouth, and my addicted head was also hooked, I came loudly to drag the cavity, and the big man in front of me turned his head violently." Haha, it turned out to be old Deng! ”
However, this code transmission in reality seems to be more interesting than Peking Opera:
- A few of us went hunting... Hit a squirrel.
- Did you eat a beautiful meal of game?
- No, it's not cooked yet... To be kept as a specimen... But we have a novel discovery, its body structure is special, it needs to do further anatomical research, but... We don't have enough manpower.
- Well, I'll rush to you immediately.
With a basis in principle, it is also necessary to undergo nuclear testing. Yu Min led the team to the Gobi Desert in the great northwest. Here, the steamed buns are sandy, the water is bitter, the people are stained with coal stove ashes, and they can't take a bath.
The night before the test, in order to ensure that an important test project got the data, there was a place that also needed to be blocked by a shield, and Yu Min and Cheng Kaijia climbed the 102-meter-high test tower together at night to properly lay out the shield.
Nearly thirty years later, Yu Min once mentioned in an interview how the experiment felt: even if he saw the mushroom cloud and knew that the explosion yield was good, his heart was still hanging.
"Every time I do this kind of experiment, my heart mentions the throat eye. I remember one experiment, how did the equivalent amount be known at that time, the specific results of the physical test will be known the next day, will there be no results? I couldn't sleep that night, it churned so much, I was so worried! Panic, heartbeat, nervousness, uneasiness, very uncomfortable! I lay in bed, did not dare to move or be embarrassed to call people, forced to endure, now that I think about it, I am really afraid, at that time I was in my 40s, if it was a few years later, my heart would not be able to stand it, and I would die there. Fortunately, the next day, most of the results were obtained, and the heart was better... It seems that all the internal organs and thirty-six thousand pores are very comfortable..."
In the TV series, the ending is when the hydrogen bomb successfully explodes: victory, celebration, and the voiceover sounds "After the Master Table": "... Raising an army to march north, Xiahou gave the head, this exercise was a miscalculation, and the Han Affairs would be Chengye. ...... As things are, it is difficult to reverse them. The subject bowed down to exhaustion, and died after that. ”
Screenshot of China's first hydrogen bomb explosion scene丨 TV series "Meritorious Service"
However, for Yu Min and his companions, this is just another starting point.
After the breakthrough of the hydrogen bomb, Yu Min continued to lead the team to continue to break through the miniaturization of nuclear weapons and neutron bullet technology, which brought the development of China's nuclear weapons technology to a new level.
Why do you want to do this?
In the TV series "Meritorious Service", before and after Yu Min joined the development of the hydrogen bomb, he used "wontons" and "playing cards" to play analogies:
"You have a bowl, I have to have a bowl, you have, I have to have." Nuclear balance is equality. ”
"I have a card in my hand, I'm afraid of something."
In 1999, in an interview with Southern Weekend, the reporter asked: Some people do not understand your career and think that they are making murderous weapons.
Yu Min answered:
"It's not actually killing people, it's that people are going to kill me, and I can't help but be prepared to defend myself."
...... Our nuclear strategy is of a strategic defensive nature, so as soon as an atomic bomb is present, we will immediately issue a statement that we are all for self-defense, that we bear the obligation not to be the first to use nuclear weapons, not to use nuclear weapons in non-nuclear countries and regions, and not to threaten with nuclear weapons. "
Mr. Yu Min passed away on 16 January 2019 at the age of 93. Today marks the third anniversary of his death.
For most people, the name associated with the hydrogen bomb is more widely known as the "founder of the two bombs" Deng Jiaxian - in fact, there is a list behind it, all of which are meritorious figures.
In the part of "Unsung Hero Yu Min" in the drama "Meritorious Service", there are several epitomes in the details: it was Qian Sanqiang who invited Yu Min to participate in the hydrogen bomb research and help him win the plane; it was He Zuoxiu who sat together in the office and argued about the problems; it was Guo Yonghuai who used his body to protect the top-secret documents in the briefcase when the plane crashed; the body was exposed to nuclear radiation, deng Jiaxian, or more unknown behind-the-scenes heroes...
In the historical record, the timeline of China's two bomb developments is as follows:
On October 16, 1964, China's first atomic bomb was successfully detonated; on December 28, 1966, the hydrogen bomb theory experiment was successful;
On June 17, 1967, China's first hydrogen bomb exploded successfully, becoming the fourth country in the world to independently develop a hydrogen bomb.
From the breakthrough of the atomic bomb to the breakthrough of the hydrogen bomb, it took 7 years and 4 months for the United States, 4 years and 7 months for the United Kingdom, 4 years for the Soviet Union, and 8 years and 6 months for France - China took 2 years and 8 months, which is the fastest in the world.
Between the historical nodes, many people's lives are entangled. They are ordinary people, and they are not ordinary.
bibliography
[1] Famous Contemporary Chinese Scientists Series: Yu Min, by Zheng Shaotang and Zeng Xiancai, Guizhou People's Publishing House
[2] "National Meritorious Album", "National Meritorious Album" Compilation Group, Edited by the Integrity Research Committee of the China Behavioral Law Society, Xinhua Publishing House
[3] "The Power of Example", Editor-in-Chief of Global People Magazine, Oriental Publishing House
[4] The Biography of Deng Jiaxian, by Xu Luxi, Deng Zhidian, Deng Zhiping, and Deng Yuyou, China Youth Publishing House
[5] Deng Jiaxian: Meritorious Zerenren, by Shen Junfeng, China Science and Technology Press
[6] "Yu Min's Self-Description: The Difficult Years, the Mission of the Times", by Yu Min, Contemporary Labor Model, No. 003, 2015
[7] "Yu Min, the Father of China's Hydrogen Bomb", by Liu Zhaofu, Party History, No. 9, 2015
[8] "The Hundred Days Battle of Yu Minhe's Breakthrough in the Principle of Hydrogen Bomb", by Ying Yangjun and Li Shaomeng, Modern Physics Knowledge, No. 004, 2014
[9] "Yu Min: The Secret of China's Hydrogen Bomb Secrets", by Peng Jichao, Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, No. 21, 2019
[10] "Yu Min, how powerful is it?" ", public number: see micro-knowledge
Author: Malt Yang
EDIT: odette
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