"Two Bombs and One Star" Founder: Zhu Guangya, distant sky, he is the brightest star

Source: Voice of China National Defense Time and Space - PEOPLE's Liberation Army News and Communication Center Rong Media Production Author: Wang Ruitao

"Carry forward the national spirit and the spirit of struggle" "Famous People Talk about the Military" series of programs, today please listen to the seventh part of "The Founder of "Two Bombs and One Star", Zhu Guangya: Distant Sky, the Brightest Star.

Speaker: Dong Preservation Producer: Wang Ruitao

Zhu Guangya, a famous nuclear physicist, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, is one of the main pioneers of China's nuclear science cause, a pillar scientist in China's engineering science community, and a recipient of the "Two Bombs and One Satellite" Meritorious Service Medal. He participated in organizing and leading the development of China's atomic and hydrogen bombs and successive nuclear tests, participated in the organization and leadership of the formulation and implementation of the national high-tech research and development plan, and the research on the development strategy of national defense science and technology and weapons, and made major contributions to the development of China's nuclear weapons cause and the cause of national defense science and technology.

Speaking of Zhu Guangya, where do we start? Let's start with the victory in the War of Resistance Against Japan. Shortly after the victory in the War of Resistance Against Japan, China's physicist Wu Dayu, the chemist Zeng Zhaoyu, and the mathematician Hua Luogeng discussed going to the United States for an inspection. It is to learn the technology related to the atomic bomb. During this expedition, the very young scholars Zhu Guangya and Li Zhengdao were selected by Wu Dayu, a scientist, to accompany them.

In September 1946, Zhu Guangya entered the University of Michigan, while doing physics as Wu Dayu's assistant, while pursuing a doctorate and studying experimental nuclear physics, which is also the closest field to the dream of the atomic bomb. During this period, he received a full scholarship for four consecutive years, with A's grades in all subjects, and the professors at the school praised him, saying that his examination papers were very neat and seemed to be a kind of enjoyment.

In early 1947, he published a series of Papers in English in the world-renowned physics journal Physical Review, and the frontiers of the emerging science of nuclear physics began to have Chinese name from this time. In the fall of 1949, Zhu Guangya passed the defense of his doctoral dissertation, when he was only 25 years old.

When new China was founded, the news spread to the United States, and the students in the United States at that time were very happy. Before the end of 1949, Zhu Guangya and many progressive students organized a symposium for Chinese students. At the meeting, Zhu Guangya introduced some of the situation in China at that time, encouraged the students to go back together, and everyone organized to return to China. Zhu Guangya took the lead in organizing the drafting of the very famous letter, "An Open Letter to Students Studying in the United States", and sent it to international students around the United States for circulation. By the beginning of 1950, 52 international students who had decided to return to China had signed their names on it. We see today that there is still this letter in the yellowed newspaper, which says: "Students, the motherland is calling to us, forty-five million fathers and brothers are calling to us, the glory of five thousand years is calling to us, we In China are going to come out, our nation is no longer a nation that has been insulted, we have stood up, go back, hurry back!" ”

In February 1950, Zhu Guangya resolutely gave up the preferential treatment abroad and embarked on a ship returning to China, becoming one of the first overseas wanderers to return to China to participate in the construction of New China. Before returning to China, Zhu Guangya's open letter among students studying in the United States caused strong repercussions, and a large number of outstanding young scholars were inspired to return to China one after another.

In 1950, just four days after his return to the motherland, 25-year-old Zhu Guangya stood on the podium of the Physics Department of Peking University, the youngest professor at Peking University at that time, teaching optics and general physics. During this period, the Commercial Press published his monograph "Atomic Energy and Atomic Bombs", which can also be said to be China's academic work on nuclear weapons at that time.

In the midst of the heavy teaching tasks, this young man has not forgotten his dream of the atomic bomb. The Korean War reminded him once again. In 1952, he was selected as the translator of the Panmunjom negotiations, and saw first-hand the arrogance and arrogance of the AMERICAN representatives at the negotiating table. At that time, although he could no longer fight on the conventional battlefield, he wanted to start talking with us, but because he had nuclear weapons in his hands, the tough attitude he represented was really intolerable to us.

Zhu Guangya knows deeply that if our young republic is to be free from bullying, it must have a strong modern national defense. As soon as Sino-Soviet relations deteriorated, China had to do it itself and start from scratch at this time, and in this context, the Institute of Nuclear Physics was in urgent need of a leader in charge of science and technology for atomic bomb products. This year, Zhu Guangya was 35 years old, and he took up this burden without hesitation. Whether it was Wang Ganchang, Peng Huanwu, Guo Yonghuai, or Cheng Kaijia, all of whom were already very famous scientists at that time, joined our young golden team for the development of nuclear weapons at the suggestion of Zhu Guangya.

In the days that followed, we can now see in the archives that Zhu Guangya personally drafted two programmatic documents known as the development of the atomic bomb, on which there were important instructions made by Chairman Mao Zedong, and there were only four big and powerful characters, "Very good, do as you please." How many difficulties have been overcome, how many blockades have been broken, we will not say it here. On October 16, 1964, when we exploded the first atomic bomb, Zhu Guangya was on the car retreating from the atomic bomb test site, and when he saw the mushroom cloud rising in the air, Zhu Guangya burst into tears for the first time. That night, he had seldom spoken or drunk, and he was drunk at this feast, the only time in his life that he had been drunk.

After the successful explosion of China's first atomic bomb, Zhu Guangya immediately presided over the explosion tests of airborne nuclear aerial bombs and missiles carrying nuclear warheads, as well as the development and explosion of hydrogen bombs, and successfully realized the "triple jump" plan for the development of China's nuclear weapons. In the following decades, Zhu Guangya participated in the organization and leadership of the preparation of the Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant, the application and development of radioactive isotopes, and made significant contributions to the national high-tech research and development, national defense science and technology development strategy and other fields.

We're going to tell you a little-known story here. Just after New Year's Day in 1983, the Soviet Union's TASS news agency issued a proclamation saying that a nuclear-powered reconnaissance satellite in orbit in the Soviet Union was out of control and would soon fall, and it is not known where it fell. After this news came out, it caused an uproar in the world, and everyone knew that it was a nuclear-powered satellite, and if this satellite fell to anyone's land, any country would encounter a nuclear crisis. At this time, our central leaders immediately organized forces to follow up and instructed the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense to take charge of this matter. After receiving the order, the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense set up a leading group with the main responsibility for Zhu Guangya, and China's first thrilling nuclear crisis blockade war began.

At that time, Zhu Guangya immediately summoned all the systems of our Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, and we wanted to find it, and we had to deal with it. During the observation process, Zhu Guangya sat in the command center, insisting on being in that place every day for a minute and a second without daring to leave. Finally our satellite monitoring center has found the data and tracked the satellite that has disintegrated into two pieces. In the midst of intense observations, everything was prepared, and when on the last night, Zhu Guangya saw a message in that place and measured two pieces of the satellite, one that might land in the Indian Ocean and one in the Atlantic Ocean. At this time, Zhu Guangya lit a cigarette.

As we all know, we in China later had the construction of nuclear power plants, such as the Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant, etc., and the research plans for projects such as the application of isotopes were organized and implemented by Zhu Guangya. At the same time, the formulation and implementation of the state's 863 Plan, as well as the preparatory work of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, were all handled by Comrade Zhu Guangya. By 1994, he was unanimously elected as the first president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

In 2011, he was elected as one of the top ten people who moved China, and the award speech said: "Life is a big thing, he has done one thing in his life, but it is the most majestic force in the blood of new China. "Only do one thing in a lifetime, who is the original of this sentence?" It was Zhu Guangya. He said: "I have mainly done this one thing in my life, engaging in China's nuclear weapons. "Just such a thing, we can now say, this is an earth-shattering thing, a thing that changes the world, and it is also a thing that we Chinese straighten our spine."

(Produced by the Voice of China National Defense Time and Space, PLA News and Communication Center)