432 The Mystery of the Mysterious Nuclear Radiation
"Definitely a bad thing."
Xue Taikang stood up from the chair, walked to the window with his hands behind his back, looked at the lawn outside and said slowly: "Fortunately, you didn't bring the skull fossil with you, otherwise you wouldn't be able to sit here with me now.
Speak."
Tang Peng was even more puzzled: "Where could that be?"
"in hospital."
Xue Taikang said without looking back: "You and all the people who have been exposed to skull fossils and dozens of tons of gold for a long time will be in the hospital and receive chemotherapy treatment."
Tang Peng was shocked and slowly stood up from his chair: "Vice Chairman Xue, I don't understand what you mean by that."
Xue Taikang turned around and looked at Tang Peng: "In your heart, you must think that those treasures were swallowed up by the Yan family and hidden in the Golden Triangle area, right?"
Tang Peng nodded: "Isn't it?"
Xue Taikang did not answer and continued to ask: "Then do you know why the Yan family hides the treasure in that ancestral hall far away from people?"
"It turns out that you have known for a long time that those treasures are hidden under the Martyrs' Shrine of the 93rd Division. I thought it was a big secret."
Xue Taikang's way of talking, where he only asked questions but did not answer them, made Tang Peng a little confused. He smiled bitterly and asked: "Vice Chairman Xue, could you please tell me the answers to these questions directly?"
"Okay, fortunately I have a day off today and don't have to deal with official duties, so I can have time to talk about that period of history with you."
Xue Taikang sat back on the chair, put his hands on the table and looked at him and said: "The reason why the Yan family hid those treasures under the ancestral hall far away from people and did not retrieve them for so many years is because they have never been found. How to cancel the treasures?"
Xue Taikang exhaled a puff of smoke and said in a positive tone: "Yes! To be precise, the skull fossils of the Awa Maru treasure contain a mysterious nuclear radiation power, including the gold."
Although Tang Peng is not an expert in nuclear weapons research, he also knows what kind of harm nuclear radiation can cause to people and the environment.
…
In the history of "nuclear" known to mankind, the "Little Boy" nuclear bomb dropped by the United States on the island nation of Long Island in the late World War II is definitely the most famous.
However, if we talk about the harm caused by "nuclear" to humans and the environment, the Chernobyl nuclear leakage incident in the former Soviet Union is undoubtedly the first.
Before dawn on April 26, 1986, Reactor No. 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded. 30 people died on the spot from the blast, fire, or fatal radiation.
The shell of the destroyed building burned ragingly for 10 days, and its radiation contaminated 142,000 square kilometers of land in northern Ukraine, southern Belarus, and the Bryansk region of Russia.
The radioactive fallout produced by the accident was 400 times more powerful than the radiation caused by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan. It forced one-third of a million people to flee their homes and triggered a large-scale epidemic of thyroid cancer among children.
Early assessments after the explosion that tens or hundreds of thousands of people were expected to die from the accident have now proven unconvincing, but the genetic damage caused years ago is slowly taking its toll.
Today, the ferocious and terrifying radioactive residue of Reactor No. 4 is still smoldering under the so-called 'sarcophagus'.
Alexei Okonov of the International Sakharov University of Environment in Minsk, Belarus, is committed to studying the impact of the accident on health. He said that this nuclear leak is a fire that we will not be able to extinguish in our lifetime!
Whether it was the atomic bomb explosion in Hiroshima or the Chernobyl nuclear leak in the former Soviet Union, they were all major nuclear-related and tragic events in human history.
Although Tang Peng knew that he was pursuing Teacher Xiahou when he was in school, he also knew about the two nuclear disasters.
But then again, these two nuclear disasters, and even the word "nuclear", although scary in Tang Peng's eyes, are still very far away from him, just like a beggar who wanted to be as far away as Fan Ye Chunfeng once...
…
But he never expected that Xue Taikang would actually tell him at this time that the Awa Maru treasure he found contained nuclear radiation!
The reason why the Yan family placed these priceless treasures in the Golden Triangle is because they have never overcome the problem of how to 'eliminate the core'.
But he was very 'lucky' and got this treasure by accident, and dreamed of using it to create his own business empire.
Tang Peng's daze had long been expected by Xue Taikang, who knew that he had to give him some buffering time, so he didn't say anything more and started drinking water with his teacup in hand.
When the cigarette Xue Taikang lit turned into a cigarette butt, Tang Peng finally spoke, his voice a little hoarse: "Vice Chairman Xue, are you lying to me?"
Xue Taikang frowned slightly: "Tang Peng, do you think I need to lie to you?"
Tang Peng blinked, shook his head and said, "It doesn't seem possible - but why does it sound like I'm listening to a story? How could those gold and skull fossils contain nuclear radiation?"
"These things may not have had nuclear radiation before they were transported by the islanders to the oil tanker Awa Maru in the latter part of World War II."
Xue Taikang said in a low voice: "But later, after being torpedoed by a US submarine in the Fujian Strait, it happened."
Tang Peng immediately retorted: "No way? At that time, American submarines did not seem to have nuclear submarines, and submarines did not have nuclear warheads. How could they contaminate the treasure with nuclear weapons?"
In addition to knowing the major events of the two nuclear disasters, Tang Peng also knew that the world's first nuclear submarine was built by the United States in 1952 and launched in 1954. It was called the Nautilus nuclear submarine.
At that time, World War II had ended ten years ago, and the Awa Maru had been sleeping underwater for ten years. It was impossible for it to be attacked by a nuclear warhead from a nuclear submarine that would only appear ten years later.
"You know a lot."
Xue Taikang smiled slightly, and it was hard to tell whether it was ridicule or appreciation.
However, Tang Peng was sure that it was sarcasm.
Xue Taikang played with the teacup and sighed: "But you are right. Before the sinking of the Awa Maru, nuclear submarines were not born, and there were no nuclear missiles in the world - but what I said is also right, because these are countries
confidential."
…
According to Chinese official announcements, the salvage of the Awa Maru began in early 1977 and ended in 1980, which took three years.
Although this salvage took a long time, it attracted worldwide attention.
According to an official statement issued by China, from the beginning of salvage in 1977 to the end of 1980, more than 600 divers participated in underwater operations. Each ship operated for an average of 332 days, with a total of 3,604 dives and 2,379.1 square meters of underwater cutting.
650 blasts were conducted, and a total of 5,418 tons of tin ingots, rubber, mercury, niobium, tantalum, mica, actinic glass and other materials were recovered, with a total value of more than 50 million RMB. In addition, 368 bones of islanders were recovered——
However, during this salvage operation, no gold storage place was found, nor was there a single tael of gold found.
As for the legendary Peking Man skull fossil—no gold has been found, how could this priceless treasure be discovered?
The official statement made by the Chinese government aroused doubts in the archaeological and exploration circles around the world. Many people suspected that the Chinese authorities had covered up the truth.
In fact, the Chinese authorities did cover up the truth.
In the second year of the three-year salvage period, the salvage team discovered dozens of tons of gold and the extremely precious skull fossil of Peking Man from the Awa Maru on the seabed!
But when the first group of salvagers who discovered the treasure were extremely excited, they all suffered from skin ulcers of varying degrees the next morning!
The physical abnormalities of the salvage workers immediately attracted the attention of relevant departments.
After rigorous investigation, we finally determined some bad news: the gold in the sunken Awa Maru ship actually contained strong nuclear radiation!
As for the skull fossil of Peking Man, the nuclear radiation reached the most intense ‘y’ level!
How could gold and fossils, after being silent on the seabed for so many years, contain strong nuclear radiation?
This issue was something that nuclear experts were pondering over at the time, but it took more than a year to overcome this problem.
Otherwise, even if China's salvage technology was not very good at the time, it would not have taken three years to salvage the sunken Awa Maru.
During this period of time, experts have actually been searching for the reason why the treasure has nuclear radiation capabilities.
But whether they took water samples from local deep sea areas or studied the construction materials of Awa Maru itself, nuclear experts have not found an answer, even if it is far-fetched.
In this way, although the Awa Maru treasure is extremely valuable, once it is salvaged, not only will it not be used by the country, but it will bring disastrous consequences to the country.
However, the Chinese authorities cannot let the treasure sleep on the bottom of the sea forever. It must be salvaged——
As for how to store or simply dispose of this treasure after it is salvaged, it has become the most important research topic for nuclear experts.
After more than a year of research, nuclear experts finally handed over the research data to the top authorities: In order to eliminate the nuclear radiation carried by the treasure itself, the treasure must be stored in a sparsely populated area with high soil and air humidity and lush jungles.
The place depends on the surrounding environment and possibly decades to dilute the nuclear radiation of the treasure.
China has a vast territory and abundant resources, with sparsely populated areas, high air and soil moisture, and lush tropical rainforests. Unfortunately, there is no soil suitable for diluting nuclear radiation in the entire southeast.
In the end, after several investigations by nuclear experts, it was determined that a certain area in the Golden Triangle was the most suitable place to store the treasure. It is hoped that in a few decades, the surrounding environment will be able to dilute or even completely remove the nuclear radiation from the treasure.
It is true that treasure is a good thing, but if it contains harmful nuclear radiation, it will not be cute. This is a fact.
With the approval of the supreme leader of the Chinese authorities, the treasures of the Awa Maru were finally 'settled' in a certain area of the Golden Triangle.
The details of this matter were left to Mr. Yan and others to work together.