#Tribute to the ordinary you #Five elderly people who have struggled in the cause of nuclear weapons for decades Wei Yuzhang
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China's nuclear weapons are the crystallization of national wisdom and the collective dedication of many scientific and technological personnel, and the role of individuals in its successful research and development is very limited, and it only does what should be done, just like workers and farmers farming. My younger brother Wei Qi (Yuping) repeatedly encouraged me to write memoirs about what work I had done in this career, because they had always been mysterious about my work. Now, the stories of relevant parties have gradually been declassified, and there have been many public reports. Now, I will briefly dictate some of the things I have personally experienced to comfort my family and villagers.
China's Nuclear Weapons Research Institute was initially called the Ninth Academy of the Ministry of Nuclear Industry, and later called the China Academy of Engineering Physics, and officially launched scientific research in 1960. I graduated from college in 1961 and was assigned to this unit.
Nuclear weapons development is a systems project that involves many professions. I majored in detonation physics. One of the key technologies of the atomic bomb is the design of a sophisticated detonator, through the polymerization detonation effect, the nuclear fissile material is instantly compressed to a supercritical state, to achieve a chain reaction of fissile material, and the research group I participated in undertook this task. At that time, we were in Beijing, building a small detonation test site next to a small hill outside the Great Wall. At that time, it was a three-year famine, and for the sake of the prosperity of the motherland, we endured hunger and worked overtime. Experiments are done during the day, data is analyzed at night, and sometimes an all-nighter is done. This experimental field is called No. 17, located in the wind outlet, when the wind blows in winter, the wind and sand are blowing, and the mouth and nose are full of sand. After two years of hard fighting, we have made a breakthrough. Later, some people called this place the cradle of the atomic bomb. There is a book "Witnesses Say, Cradle of the Atomic Bomb" that records the scene at that time. After retirement, recalling this experience, I posted in the WeChat group of my old colleagues: Outside the Great Wall, the seventeenth, the research and research are exploding. Fighting day and night, grumbling with hunger.
In 1963, the Ninth Academy moved to the Qinghai Plateau, and under the environmental conditions of high cold and oxygen at an altitude of more than 3,000 meters, we had the enthusiasm to develop the sophisticated weapons of the country as soon as possible, and we raced against the clock to work hard and meticulously and conscientiously. In more than a year, a series of large-scale detonation experiments simulating nuclear materials were carried out, and due to the meticulous work, each experiment was a complete success, laying a solid foundation for the next step of nuclear testing.
In August 1964, we took a special train from Qinghai to the Xinjiang Gobi Desert. The engineers have built a 100-meter-high tower topped by a blast chamber where the first atomic bomb test was placed. About 100 meters north of the tower is the basement where the atomic bomb is assembled, and I work there, responsible for the control and detection of the accuracy of the total assembly of the atomic bomb. The members of the assembly team and I worked hard and with precision. In the underground assembly room, it took a long time to practice simulated specimens so that the formal assembly could be more skillful and foolproof. At the beginning of October, the atomic bomb parts for the official test were airlifted to the test site. We carefully inspect and carry out meticulous assembly work out of the box. On October 14, the final process was successfully completed by assembling the nuclear material components into the overall structure as planned. According to the meteorological conditions, after the approval of the central government, it was decided that 15:00 on October 16 would be "zero hour" to carry out the first atomic bomb explosion test. On the evening of October 14, night fell. This "fat boy", who has been painstakingly raised by an unknown number of people, is loaded into a lukewarm tin insulation cylinder, slowly hoisted from the basement to a flatbed truck on the ground, pushed by several people along the special track to the tower, and then pulled by the elevator to the detonation chamber. I looked at the fat boy who was far away and silently wished him a blockbuster.
Outside the People's Daily
At 3 p.m. on October 16, 1964, we saw a fireball appear in the distance behind a small hill pack dozens of kilometers away from the explosion center, and the mushroom cloud gradually rose. Everyone couldn't help but jump up, people cheered and jumped, and China's first atomic bomb exploded successfully! Years of hard work have not been in vain, I feel that I have made a contribution to the strength of the motherland, deeply gratified!
Some of the vignettes of that time were also deeply imprinted in my mind. In 1964, although it had been fifteen years since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the living conditions of ordinary people were still difficult. When the operation team assembled the first test explosion atomic bomb in Gobi Beach, it was necessary to record each process in the assembly process in a regular numbered record book, including the detection data of the process, what problems occurred, how to deal with it, and also record when these work began and how long it lasted. But none of the seven or eight of us had a watch, so I took a small alarm clock with me on departure and used it to look at the time. During the assembly drill, a leader came to the underground assembly room, saw me using the alarm clock to remember, and took off his watch for me to use, and the leader's meticulous care was very grateful. After the successful detonation of the first atomic bomb, we returned to Qinghai.
Shanwen Village, Wutai County
Soon I went back to my hometown to visit my relatives, and I bought my first watch, which was a domestic Shanghai watch. I took this shiny watch with me, went to the famous Daoxiang Village to buy a few pounds of high-end snacks, and returned to Shanwen Village in Wutai County, Shanxi Province, to visit my parents who had not been seen for many years. At that time, secrecy was strict and did not allow anyone, including relatives, to disclose the nature of their work. Neither my parents in my hometown nor my wife, a middle school teacher in Taiyuan City, knew what I was doing without returning home for two years. They also told me that they had heard on the radio that the mainland had successfully exploded an atomic bomb. I nodded and said, "Yes, I heard that too." Where do they know that I'm doing this job.
China's first nuclear test was on October 16, 1964, and less than three years later, a hydrogen bomb was developed, and the mainland's strategic nuclear weapons have reached a new level. Later, we moved from the Qinghai Plateau to the deep mountains and dense forests of Sichuan, doing more delicate work in another harsh environment, and greatly improving the performance of the hydrogen bomb. In 1996, the mainland successfully conducted its last nuclear test, achieving a new breakthrough in the design technology of the mainland's hydrogen bomb. The research work involved in this experiment won the first prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award, and I was the second among more than ten winners of this award. On December 28, 1996, it was my 60th birthday, and on this day I was honored to receive the first Deng Jiaxian Science and Technology Award. Deng Jia was a two-bomber and died in 1986. When I received the award certificate from the president of the China Academy of Sciences, I was deeply pleased that I had made due contributions to the development of China's nuclear weapons by inheriting Deng Jiaxian's cause!
The spirit of pioneering spirit, innovation, hard struggle and selfless dedication will always inspire China's scientific research workers and strive to make their own contributions to the strength of the motherland. At present, the research institutes scattered in different ravines in Sichuan have been concentrated on the banks of the Fujiang River in the northern suburbs of Mianyang City, and a beautiful and livable science city has been built, and the working environment and living conditions of the personnel of the science and technology have been greatly improved.
The first hydrogen bomb exploded into a huge mushroom cloud
Decades have passed, and I and my old colleagues who struggled together for China's nuclear weapons cause have become elderly people one after another. On the 55th anniversary of the explosion of China's first atomic bomb, I posted "Chronicles of The Years" in the WeChat group of my old colleagues: Saiwai Shuo Wind, Vast Plateau, Gebi Smoke Clouds, Deep Mountains and Dense Forests. Like water flowing for years, the past is like smoke. Looking back, the Shaohua years are gone, and it is already the sunset year. Gushing rivers and waters, long dreams of years.
The family took a group photo at the former residence of Wutai
(On November 3, 2020, Wei Qi compiled the text based on Wei Yuzhang's oral description, and the photo editor Hu Licheng)