The miracle of innovation behind the two years and eight months from the atomic bomb to the hydrogen bomb
Written by: Intern reporter Du Peng Sun Yu Planning: Chen Yu
The successful explosion of the hydrogen bomb not only "exploded" the perseverance and self-reliance of Chinese scientific and technological workers in extremely difficult circumstances, but also "exploded" the courage, confidence, wisdom and strength of the Chinese people to climb the world's scientific and technological peaks. , and the spirit of "two bombs and one star" condensed from it has become a spiritual food for people to make progress.
A red good news from the People's Daily was posted on the ground at the gate of the No. 3 courtyard on Huayuan Road, Beijing.
After 55 years, Du Xiangwan, an 84-year-old academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, still remembers the experience of June 17, 1967.
That day, the 29-year-old was working in Building 14, No. 3 Garden Road, as usual.
In the face of the good news, due to the need for confidentiality, his face seemed calm, but his heart was already turbulent.
On that day, a fighter jet dropped a "cannon battle" over Lop Nur, Xinjiang. With the rising mushroom cloud and a loud noise, the dazzling light caused a second "sun" to rise over the desert.
China solemnly declares to the world: China's first hydrogen bomb exploded successfully!
From breaking through the atomic bomb to breaking through the hydrogen bomb, it took my country only two years and eight months to get ahead of France and become the fourth country in the world to have a hydrogen bomb.
The successful explosion of the hydrogen bomb not only "exploded" the perseverance and self-reliance of Chinese scientific and technological workers in extremely difficult circumstances, but also "exploded" the courage, confidence, wisdom and strength of the Chinese people to climb the world's scientific and technological peaks. , and the spirit of "two bombs and one star" condensed from it has become a spiritual food for people to make progress.
"In the Gobi desert, people who wear military uniforms and those who don't wear military uniforms hide their names, go through hardships and twists, and do useful things for the prosperity of the nation and the people. This is a sense of family and country, and it is also a mission." Du Xiangwan said.
If there is an atomic bomb, the hydrogen bomb must be fast
One day in January 1961, a young man came to the office of Qian Sanqiang, the then deputy minister of the Second Ministry of Machinery Industry (hereinafter referred to as the Second Machinery Ministry).
Qian Sanqiang did not go around with him, and told Min seriously that after research by the Institute of Atomic Energy and approval from his superiors, he was decided to appoint him as the deputy head of the light nuclear theory group to lead and participate in the pre-research work of the hydrogen bomb theory.
Yu Min was 35 years old at the time.
The "Light Nuclear Theory Group" is called the "Light Nuclear Reactor Theory Exploration Group". The light nuclear reaction is nuclear fusion. This group is responsible for pre-research on the theory of the hydrogen bomb.
In the 1950s, the newly born New China faced the nuclear blackmail and nuclear threat from the Western nuclear powers.
In January 1955, Chairman Mao presided over an enlarged meeting of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China to study the issue of developing atomic energy. The meeting made a decision on the development of an atomic bomb.
He pointed out at the enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in April 1956: "We are now stronger than in the past, and we will be stronger in the future. Not only do we have more aircraft and artillery, but also atomic bombs. In today's In the world, if we are not to be bullied by others, we cannot do without this thing.”
The United States detonated the world's first hydrogen bomb in 1952, and the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom successfully tested hydrogen bombs in 1953 and 1955.
With the huge power of the hydrogen bomb, the nuclear blackmail against our country by Western powers has intensified.
At a meeting in June 1958, Mao Zedong proposed, "If there is an atomic bomb, the hydrogen bomb must be fast."
At the end of 1960, when the development of the atomic bomb was gradually on the right track and major breakthroughs were progressing smoothly, the pre-research work of the hydrogen bomb was officially put on the agenda.
Hydrogen bombs are true thermonuclear weapons.
Unlike atomic bombs that rely on nuclear fission to generate energy to cause damage, hydrogen bombs rely on nuclear fusion reactions to generate dozens or even hundreds of times the power of atomic bombs.
If we say that when China began to develop the first atomic bomb, there was still some information. Under the severe situation of blockade and containment by nuclear countries at that time, there was no information for reference in the development of China's hydrogen bomb. Start exploring.
One morning in December 1960, under the organization of Qian Sanqiang, a group of young scientists secretly started the theoretical exploration of hydrogen bomb technology.
Yu Min, who joined in early 1961, is the soul of the team.
This is another career change for Yu Min.
In 1951, when he was transferred from Peking University to the Institute of Modern Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the first task Yu Min accepted was to study nuclear theory.
After 10 years of hard research, Yu Min has published more than 20 monographs and papers.
Different from the last time, this time Yu Min has moved from a very basic scientific research field to a very applicable field of the hydrogen bomb principle.
This turnaround means a huge sacrifice for a young scientist who has just emerged. The development of nuclear weapons is highly collective, and he needs to run around incognito all year round. Since then, his name has disappeared from the field of nuclear theory research.
In December 1960, before Yu Min was appointed as the deputy team leader, Qian Sanqiang also called Huang Zuqia to the office.
Qian Sanqiang told him in the same serious tone that the organization decided to appoint him as the leader of the light nuclear theory group, and repeatedly told him to "pay attention to confidentiality."
In addition to the team leader Huang Zuqia and the deputy team leader Yu Min, there were also Cai Shaohui, Sa Benhao, Liu Xianhui and others when the theoretical team was initially established.
Later, He Zuoxiu, who is good at particle physics, also joined in to lead the specific business.
Since then, the team has gradually grown, and at most there are more than 40 people, most of whom are young people in their thirties.
At that time, in addition to the light nuclear theory group of the Institute of Atomic Energy where Huang Zuqia and Yu Min belonged, there was also a team that was also carrying out the pre-development of hydrogen bombs, namely the Beijing Ninth Research Institute of the Second Ministry of Machinery (hereinafter referred to as the Ninth Research Institute).
In 1963, shortly after the theoretical design of the atomic bomb was completed, the nine-institution team, which had not had time to rest, immediately moved closer to hydrogen bomb research.
Li Deyuan is one of them.
He once recalled that he did not know the existence of the light nuclear theory group at first. In order to find out what the hydrogen bomb was, some of the practices at that time could be described as "naive".
Unable to find any academic papers, the team arranged a special group to get a thick stack of The New York Times and the Soviet Pravda to try to find clues about the hydrogen bomb from the news reports.
In 1965, Du Xiangwan, who returned to China after graduating from the Soviet Union's theoretical nuclear physics major, had a similar experience: "Flipping through the newspaper was the first task I received, but the result was as expected, and I couldn't find any relevant and valuable technical information."
There are very few external reference materials, and all the data and models can only be explored by himself. Du Xiangwan deeply realized at that time that "to develop a hydrogen bomb, we can only rely on self-reliance and independent innovation."
For the prosperity of the country and the rejuvenation of the nation, countless young students who are in their prime have closely linked their personal ideals with the destiny of the motherland.
The world's fastest speed from breaking through the atomic bomb to breaking through the hydrogen bomb
On October 16, 1964, my country's first atomic bomb exploded successfully.
A few months later, in the early spring of 1965, the No. 3 courtyard of Huayuan Road, Beijing, where the Ninth Institute of the Second Machinery Department (the ninth institute was renamed the Ninth Institute in 1964), welcomed a group of new guests.
Shortly after the successful detonation of China's first atomic bomb, the study of the hydrogen bomb was immediately elevated to the forefront.
At this time, the central government decided that the light nuclear theory team should be transferred to the theory department of the Ninth Academy of Sciences, and the two teams that had been engaged in the pre-research work of the hydrogen bomb were combined into one, and they cooperated vigorously, gathered intelligence to tackle key problems, and jointly launched a charge towards the development of the hydrogen bomb.
In 1965, Beijing Garden Road was still surrounded by wasteland.
At night, it is dark all around, but only Building No. 14 in the No. 3 courtyard is brightly lit all night.
The research materials of the hydrogen bomb are top secret, and even a scratch paper cannot be taken out of the office building.
Documents cannot be taken away, and if you want to work overtime, you can only work in the office.
Every day, the branch secretary had to “hide and seek” with the key personnel, knocking on the doors of each office one by one, persuading them to go home early to rest.
Some people agreed verbally, pretending to leave the office, looking for a place to go around, and then came back and sat at the desk to continue researching the key points.
Theoretical research did not go well, and the researchers were anxious one by one.
In order to concentrate the wisdom of all people, the research team began to hold academic seminars day and night, which was called the "Mingfang Meeting" at the time.
Du Xiangwan still has a fresh memory of the scene at that time: "At that time, they didn't call each other their positions, they were called 'old and young', even Deng Jiaxian, Zhou Guangzhao, Yu Min and other great scientists were called Lao Deng, Lao Zhou, Lao Yu. Everyone sits together for a meeting, and whoever has ideas and ideas will go up and talk. After listening to the discussion, leave the more feasible ideas."
Whether it is the guides Peng Huanwu, Yu Min, or fresh graduates, everyone is involved.
Peng Huanwu especially encouraged young people to express their opinions more, and the academic atmosphere was very enthusiastic.
The spark of innovation continues to burst.
After the collision of ideas again and again, more than a dozen ideas have been proposed.
In September 1965, Yu Min and others led a team to the East China Institute of Computing Technology in Shanghai, and used the high-performance computers there to conduct computational verification of the enhanced atomic bomb.
The Hundred Days Battle begins.
After careful analysis, Yu Min believes that although the addition of fusion materials to the atomic bomb can increase its power, due to the insufficient combustion of the fusion materials, although the power has been improved, it is still far from the hydrogen bomb.
Yu Min was busy giving lectures to researchers and improving everyone's physical concepts and analytical abilities, while thinking day and night to find a feasible way to greatly improve the burnup of thermonuclear materials.
Finally, he came up with a plan, and immediately organized the force for computational verification, and soon saw signs of success.
After researching a large number of calculation results and repeatedly numerical simulation of multiple possible models, Yu Min and his team discovered the relationship between several characteristic quantities and the energy released during the combustion of light nuclear materials, and found the key conditions for the realization of self-sustained thermonuclear reactions. , and gradually formed a complete hydrogen bomb physical design scheme from principle, material to configuration.
As soon as Yu Min got the results, she immediately called Deng Jiaxian, then director of the theory department of the Ninth Academy.
All the code words were used on the phone: "We're holding on to the 'bux's nose'!" Deng Jia knew it was good news as soon as he heard it, and immediately flew to Shanghai by plane.
The Hundred Days Battle achieved a major breakthrough in the theory of my country's hydrogen bomb.
But it's not enough just to pass the theory.
Although Yu Min's plan is the best in theory, but no nuclear test has been carried out, no one can be sure what the real effect will be.
Therefore, the Ninth Academy decided to conduct a principle test of the new scheme proposed by Min at the end of 1966.
At the test site in the vast Gobi desert, Du Xiangwan, who was responsible for the theoretical calculation of nuclear test diagnosis, used a hand-cranked computer and a slide rule that could only count several times a second to repeatedly verify the theory.
"Science can't be faked. We don't have any information to develop a hydrogen bomb, so we can only keep repeating theoretical calculations and experiments. If there is a little bit of cheating, it will be impossible to succeed in the end." Du Xiangwan concluded.
On December 28, 1966, there was a loud noise over Lop Nur. After analyzing the obtained explosion data, the researchers concluded that the hydrogen bomb principle test was successful.
"Two bombs and one star" Zhu Guangya commented afterwards that this is the actual beginning of my country's mastery of hydrogen bombs.
According to this point in time, it took my country only two years and two months from the breakthrough of the atomic bomb to the successful hydrogen bomb principle test.
"This kind of mood can only be known by those who have experienced it. From the heart to the throat to the success, the mood cannot be summed up... It is an indescribable mood. I was very nervous before, knowing that I succeeded, it seems like I have internal organs. , 36,000 pores are all very comfortable..." Yu Min recalled the mood at that time decades later.
On the night of the successful experiment, Deng Jiaxian was so happy that he got drunk.
Half a year later, on June 17, 1967, also at Lop Nur, a bomber driven by Xu Kejiang's crew dropped a parachute-carrying hydrogen bomb from the sky.
After a flash of dazzling light that covered the sun, there was a loud bang, and a strong shock wave swept across Lop Nur. my country's first hydrogen bomb airdrop explosion test was successful.
In two years and eight months, my country has created the world's fastest speed from breaking through the atomic bomb to breaking through the hydrogen bomb.
The glory of that day is never far away
One year after my country successfully detonated the first hydrogen bomb, in August 1968, France, which started earlier than my country, successfully detonated the first hydrogen bomb.
It took France 8 years and 6 months to break through the atomic bomb and the hydrogen bomb.
"It is said that de Gaulle was very angry and lost his temper - how did the Chinese get ahead?" Du Xiangwan recalled to reporters.
For those who have witnessed it, it is not without reason that the Chinese are ahead.
The hydrogen bomb, a symphony that changed the fate of new China, was made by tens of thousands of people working hard.
Yu Min also kept saying, "Don't call me the 'father of the hydrogen bomb', I'm just one of the 'little pawns'."
Like Yu Min, there are many people whose fate has been changed by the development of the hydrogen bomb.
Du Xiangwan originally wanted to study astronomy, but his research object changed from the big universe to small atoms.
In order to participate in the experiment, he slept in Datong Shop, which only consisted of planks and canvas, and pitched a tent on the Gobi Desert at minus ten degrees Celsius.
"Taking national rejuvenation as our own responsibility is the common spiritual pillar and spiritual strength of everyone." Du Xiangwan said.
From nuclear physics research to laser technology, to energy strategy and climate change, Du Xiangwan specializes in Shuyi.
Du Xiangwan said frankly that he did not want to "shift positions" frequently, and that "national needs" were the reasons for his choice.
As early as when he participated in the hydrogen bomb development mission, Du Xiangwan's feelings of home and country and mission have been integrated into Du Xiangwan's bones.
"The needs of the country and the nation, and the individual's interest in scientific exploration, when the two wheels turn together, will there be stronger power."
In 1958, Hu Side graduated from the Department of Physics of Fudan University and was assigned to the Second Engineering Department together with five other students.
In 1962, as the theoretical scheme for the first atomic bomb was nearing completion, he was appointed head of the newly established Theoretical Linkage Experiment Group.
At the end of the following year, he led the group members westward to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
In the cold and desolate Gobi, Hu Side worked hard for four years.
With a solid theoretical foundation and a hard-working attitude, he has grown rapidly and has served as the vice president and president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering Physics.
When summarizing his 54-year career, he quoted Peng Huanwu's couplet "collective, collective, collective; new, new, new".
He said that a person is like a drop of water.
If water is in the sea, it can participate in the formation of huge waves; but if this drop of water leaves the ocean, it evaporates instantly on the beach by the sun.
In his mind, this is the relationship between the individual and the collective.
On July 13, 2018, General Secretary Xi Jinping presided over the second meeting of the Central Finance and Economics Committee. The meeting pointed out that the key to breaking through key core technologies lies in the effective use of people's enthusiasm.
It is necessary to carry forward the spirit of "two bombs and one star" and form a good mental outlook.
At present, the great changes unseen in a century and the strategic overall situation of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation have formed a historical intersection. The technological revolution and industrial transformation are surging, and technological innovation has become the focus of the international strategic game.
Carrying forward the spirit of "two bombs and one satellite" has become an important support for condensing innovation forces and stimulating innovation power.
On May 2, 2022, General Secretary Xi Jinping wrote back to encourage the vast number of aerospace youths, and hoped that the vast number of aerospace youths will carry forward the spirit of "two bombs and one satellite" and the spirit of manned spaceflight, be brave in innovation and breakthroughs, and show the dazzling brilliance of youth on the journey of chasing the dream of space. , and make new contributions to the realization of high-level self-reliance and self-improvement for my country's aerospace science and technology.
Looking back at history, the loud noise and beam of dazzling light 55 years ago not only left an indelible mark in the long river of scientific and technological innovation in our country, but also the spirit of "two bombs and one star" created by it has long since passed through. Time and space shine on generations of scientific and technological workers to continuously create new miracles and climb new peaks.