In no man’s land, there is such a group of "underground" workers
——Record the research team of high-level radioactive waste geological disposal of China National Nuclear Corporation Nuclear and Geoscience Research Institute
Photo courtesy of interviewees at Beishan No. 4 borehole camp in 2003
Photo courtesy of Beishan team members during field investigation
"We are not that great, we just do our job well. The development of the nuclear industry and the disposal of high-level radioactive waste have to be done by people... We cannot leave this tricky problem to the next generation. It just so happens that our business can do well. Contribute to this matter."
Produced by Deep Eye Studio
Written by: our reporter Chen Yu
Planning: Chen Lei
When the dog squatted at the door and barked, the desert felt like home.
Just past the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day, Wang Ju, deputy dean of the Beijing Institute of Geology of Nuclear Industry of China National Nuclear Corporation (hereinafter referred to as the Institute of Nuclear and Geosciences), collected names for ten newborn puppies born on the 25th in Beishan, Gansu in the WeChat group.
Beishan No. 25 is the location of the Beishan Underground Laboratory in China.
From the start of site selection in 1985 to the approval of the underground laboratory project in 2019, generations of high-level radioactive waste geological disposal researchers in China have worked hard for more than 30 years.
In summer, the temperature of the camp is as high as 40℃, and going in is like a sauna; in winter, it is sometimes like an ice cellar, with three beds covered with three beds and barely able to withstand it.
But why are a group of Ph.Ds and returnees willing to stay away from their relatives and take root for a long time in this no-man’s land, where living materials are extremely scarce, even if pickles are just buns?
Squeeze 5000 yuan from other projects as the first pot of gold in my country's nuclear waste disposal research
Wang Ju, who loves music, likes the symphony "Destiny" most.
Beethoven's unyielding spirit conveyed in "Destiny" has a high degree of agreement and resonance with Wang Ju.
Sometimes the change of fate is due to a seemingly accidental event.
Wang Ju's involvement in the field of high-level radioactive waste disposal was purely accidental.
In 1992, Wang Ju's paper on the genesis of gold and uranium deposits was selected for the 29th International Geological Congress.
He went to the conference in Kyoto, Japan.
However, what surprised him most was that many internationally renowned uranium mining experts have a special liking for the subject of radioactive waste disposal.
In fact, Xu Guoqing, an expert from the Institute of Nuclear and Geosciences who visited the French Uranium Geology Research Center in 1983, was keenly aware of this new trend.
After returning to China, he did a lot of research work and reported the situation to the former Ministry of Nuclear Industry. The 5,000 yuan squeezed out of other projects became the first pot of gold in my country's nuclear waste disposal research.
In 1993, by chance, Wang Ju met Chen Zhangru, an expert in Xu Guoqing's team, and the other party directly shouted: Wang Ju, join the research on high-level radioactive waste disposal.
Hearing that "destiny" knock on the door, Wang Ju agreed.
Disposal of nuclear waste, in layman's terms, is to dig a deep pit to fill the nuclear waste.
It's just where to dig the pit, what kind of pit to dig, how to dig, how to bury, how to manage after burying, how to ensure safety?
They are all very knowledgeable.
In 1993, Wang Ju became the sub-project leader of the “Research on Geological Disposal Technology of High-Level Radioactive Waste in my country”, but the funds obtained at the initial stage were very limited. Everyone was doing desk work, such as investigating foreign disposal technologies and reading the national geology. Data, occasionally go to the field to survey, collect geological samples and bring them back to the laboratory for analysis.
After conducting a series of surveys on geology, geography, and hydrology, Wang Ju and his team gradually focused their attention from the six national pre-selection areas to the Beishan pre-selection area in Gansu.
The Beishan preselection area located in the northwest is 1500-2500 meters above sea level, with bare mountain bedrock, annual rainfall of about 70 millimeters, and evaporation of up to 3000 millimeters, with an area of thousands of square kilometers uninhabited.
In 20 years, 97 deep and shallow holes were drilled, totaling 40 kilometers
Today, starting from Jiayuguan Airport, along National Highway 312, turn right at a fork in the road. There are already many washboard dirt roads that have been rutted. Wind power companies are busy building infrastructure.
Since 1996, Wang Ju, Jin Yuanxin, Chen Weiming, and Guo Yonghai entered the Gobi from here.
The difference was that there was no road at the time, and every time I entered and exited, I could only rely on the memory of the driver.
Initially, the scientific research team stayed in the guest house of the 404 factory of China National Nuclear Corporation in the mountain.
The Gobi is like the sea, and the car is like a boat.
The hills seem to be flat, but in fact ravines are vertical and horizontal, especially to avoid the intensive camel puncture and tire puncture. During the car traveling, it is like a flat boat in the wind and waves. When the turbulence is severe, the internal organs are almost thrown out of the body.
Every day at around 7 o’clock in the morning, the team set off from the foot of the mountain in a jeep to the destination. Under the scorching sun, they collected geological profile information, collected rock samples, had some dry food at noon, and had to rush back at two or three in the afternoon. Continue to organize the data of the day.
The road time was too long and the working hours were too short. Wang Ju and his team began to set up tents on the mountain to do geological surveys and fill maps. At the same time, they submitted application reports for drilling and deep geological environment research to their superiors.
The turning point came in 1999, when the first phase of the TC (technical cooperation) project of the IAEA's geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste was launched.
In the same year, Beishan Phase I "Preliminary Study on the Deep Geological Environment of Beishan, Gansu" was approved by the National Atomic Energy Agency.
For Wang Ju and the others, they have not only received funds equivalent to the sum of the past ten years, but more importantly, they have to start high-level radioactive waste disposal scientific research.
There is a well named "BS01 Hole" (Beishan No. 1) in the valley. Only a short concrete column is left on the ground. In fact, this well is 703 meters deep underground.
Standing at the place where this dream started, Wang Juqing couldn't help taking out a pile of precious materials, including old photos from 20 years ago.
Today, from Phase I to Phase 7, the Beishan Project has been implemented for 20 years, with 97 deep and shallow holes drilled, totaling approximately 40 kilometers.
Behind the numbers, there are too many hardships and pains that are hard to tell.
The rock core was broken, the desert and the Gobi were anchored...Too many difficulties and twists and turns have made the scientific research team feel that the mountains are exhausted for a time.
However, Wang Ju said that using Fan Zhongyan’s poems, whenever a new core is punched out, new geological data is obtained, and granite bodies with excellent integrity are discovered, the “underground workers” engaged in geological disposal are “innate joy and joy”. .
Now that the project has been approved, Wang Ju is leading the team at the new site to start the construction of my country's first high-level radioactive waste disposal underground laboratory with a depth of 560 meters, which is of international advanced level.
Putting on a suit is a scientist, returning to Beishan is an all-round talent who has broken the boundaries of work types
In May 2009, Chen Liang, the current deputy chief designer of the Beishan Underground Laboratory Project of CNNC, was in Hong Kong to participate in the International Rock Mechanics Conference. He heard Wang Ju's special invitation report on the R&D planning and development of high-level radioactive waste disposal. Surging.
After the meeting, he was the first to rush to the podium, expressing his willingness to return to China to participate in high-level disposition research.
After returning to France, Chen Liang read a lot of stories about the Beishan team of China National Nuclear Corporation, and there was one detail that moved Chen Liang deeply.
On November 30, 2001, Beishan No. 2 borehole was drilled to more than 200 meters underground. Suddenly, the drill rod broke in the hole, and the drill could neither be pulled out nor drilled down.
At this time, Beishan was freezing cold and dripping into ice, so drilling had to be stopped.
In a corner of the tent, Wang Ju took out his treasured half-barrel Erguotou and went to the well, and used three glasses of wine to sacrifice the heavens and the earth to the well, blessing the drilling next year.
He and everyone drank the rest of the wine.
"In this era, there are still a group of people who are quietly struggling for real scientific research ideals and national needs. This is where I belong." In 2011, Chen Liang resigned from his tenure as an associate professor at the Central University of Technology in Nantes, France. I came to the front line of Gobi scientific research from France.
Among the 58 employees in the Beishan team of China National Nuclear Corporation, 29 are doctors, 20 are masters, and 5 are overseas returnees.
Putting on a suit and tie is a scientist who talks with the world; returning to Beishan, he is an all-round talent who has broken the boundaries of work types.
Su Rui, general manager of the Beishan Underground Laboratory Project Department of China National Nuclear Corporation, said: "To carry out scientific research in no man's land, the first thing to do is to create scientific research conditions, move stones, repair water pipes, dig ditches, cook, and pitch tents... "
In 2016, Ji Ruili, an expert in the hydrology team who used a shovel to repair the dirt road that was washed out by heavy rain the first day, was praised by visitors who did not know the truth: This migrant worker is a good one.
After going out in the wild these years, Chen Weiming has seen foxes and yellow goats, heard howling wolves at night, and was even awakened by a wild donkey arching a tent at night.
After that, lighting a string of firecrackers in the iron bucket to be bold, became a reserved item.
Chen Weiming described the Beishan team as a "band" and Wang Ju as the "lead singer", but no one can do without the "lead singer" and "accompaniment".
The bare rocky Beishan is a "paradise" for geologists, because you know what geological structure is at a glance.
Wang Ju teased that the Beishan team has a similar temperament, that is, directness.
Today, the living conditions of the Beishan team have been greatly improved compared to the past, from tents to colored steel houses with bunk beds to new buildings.
But this is still not covered by mobile signals.
In the past, in order to make it easier for telecommunications users to find mobile phone signals, everyone built a wooden pile more than one meter high on the mountain near the camp and named it "phone booth".
In June 2000, he went down the mountain to pull supplies, just in time for Jin Yuanxin's birthday.
Chen Weiming was sitting in the passenger cabin. In order to prevent the bumps from breaking the cake, he held it with his hands all the way and "escorted the driver" all the way, bringing a complete birthday cake back to the camp.
After a few years of marriage, Zhao Xingguang’s wife chatted with her lover and colleague who lived in the same community, only to realize that Zhao Xingguang not only had a high temperature vacation, but also had a supplementary vacation after returning from the field, and he did not have to go to work on the seventh day of the first month.
But Zhao Xingguang was all "waste".
In the face of complaints, Zhao Xingguang said: Anyway, I can't stop, telling you is not annoying?
In the softest place in the hearts of Beishan people, family members live.
It is not easy to find a partner because it is not easy to gather less and more, and to protect a good home requires wisdom.
Ji Ruili, who says he doesn't like wearing gold and silver, wears a goldware specially bought by his wife on his right wrist for the safety and health of his family. He has set a record of 45 days without going down the mountain or taking a bath.
"Be good after you go back, don't work overtime on weekends, go shopping around the suburbs, and come out after you are almost coaxed."
From the post-60s to the post-90s, the Beishan team members have long been "suffering and knowing nothing."
During the interview, the reporter got a "Handbook of Identification of Common Animals and Plants in Beishan".
The plants and birds of Beishan, which are recorded in this manual with pictures and texts, were all taken by the team during work in the field.
There is a sky full of stars in the wild that is invisible to the noisy metropolis. Wang Ju bought a horoscope for this purpose. Under his influence, the team members can comment on the constellations on their heads with one mouthful.
In addition to the perseverance of scientific researchers, Wang Ju also has the passion and romance of Chinese literati.
Influenced by his father who was a history teacher, he loves ancient Chinese history.
The unmanned road into Beishan from Subei County, Gansu Province, he named after historical figures of the Han Dynasty: Hanwu Avenue, Weiqing Road, Huo Qubing Road, Li Guang Road...
In the past 30 years, the Beishan team’s camp has changed many places, but every time a tent or sleeping car is set up in a Gobi, Wang Ju insists on hoisting a national flag at the station.
In Wang Ju's eyes, when everyone returned to the camp from the wild in all directions, from hunting the red flag, it seemed that they could read the call of the motherland.
Wang Ju said that what supports everyone is the simple feelings of the country's major needs.
"We are not that great, we just do our job well. The development of the nuclear industry and the disposal of high-level radioactive waste have to be done by people... We cannot leave this tricky problem to the next generation. It just so happens that our business can do well. Contribute to this matter."
As the deputy commander-in-chief of the Beishan Underground Laboratory Project of China National Nuclear Corporation, Li Ziying, Dean of the Nuclear and Geoscience Research Institute, has led and witnessed the arduous process of the Beishan team in the scientific research field of high-level radioactive waste disposal for many years.
"The Beishan team will assume the responsibility and responsibility for the national strategic research needs, and combine it with its own exploration and pursuit of scientific issues, resulting in the love and loyalty to engage in business, and this love gives them the courage and motivation to overcome difficulties. I think this is the spirit of Beishan—rooted in the Gobi, united and dedicated, striving for first-class, permanent security."
Populus euphratica that will not die for a thousand years, will not fall after a thousand years, and will not rot after a thousand years, is a unique landscape in the Gobi.
Coincidentally, there is a Populus euphratica forest in front of the underground laboratory building in Beishan, China.
The site selection, construction and operation of the geological repository for high-level radioactive waste is a century-old scientific research and a ten-thousand-year project. The people engaged in this undertaking are like Populus euphratica in the vast uninhabited area of the northwest. They are friends with the Gobi desert, friends with Camel Splendens, and endure the wind and sand. Fighting drought, fighting the severe cold and scorching heat, promoted the continuous development of my country's high-level waste geological disposal.