In a large classroom in the Physics department, several physics professors and hundreds of students were waiting.
Zhang Boyan announced on stage: "Today we have a particularly meaningful class. Student He Xingzhou has designed a Miniature Nuclear Reactor experiment which is about to begin."
"In this class, we will watch his experimental process through live streaming."
After Zhang Boyan finished speaking, he turned on the projector screen in the classroom and the students immediately started discussing.
"Is He Xingzhou really doing this experiment? I thought it was a joke!"
"Yeah, I would have forgotten if the professor hadn't mentioned it."
"There are several university leaders here today, such a grand audience!"
"He really dares to do it! I can't even imagine doing it myself!"
Some people asked He Xingzhou's roommates, "Can his experiment succeed?"
"It should be fine, didn't you see the professors personally guiding him?" Wang Jiahao and others said.
Not only in the classroom, but on the Bilibili live streaming platform, He Xingzhou also opened a live broadcast room. The footage was shot by a student of Zhang Boyan, who was also wearing protective gear.
"The show has started, hasn't it?" At the beginning, some fans who had been following before squeezed into the live room.
"Little brother here to learn!"
"Why watch girls when you can watch a nuclear reactor experiment? Isn't it tempting?"
"How come it hasn't started yet? It's already been ten seconds!"
The number of people online in the live room reached more than a thousand in ten minutes, which isn't a lot, but for a first-time broadcaster, it's quite good.
The site administrators placed He Xingzhou's live broadcast in a featured spot, so even visitors could watch.
"Hello everyone, I am He Xingzhou. I'm currently doing the final preparations for the nuclear reactor experiment, refining thorium-232. Under neutron bombardment, it will turn into uranium-233, which is the nuclear fuel!"
In front of He Xingzhou, there was a pile of ash.
These ashes were scraped from the coating of an old car headlight and contained thorium-232, although it wasn't "pure" yet.
"Now I am going to purify it." He Xingzhou took out a lithium battery and said: "I will cut open this lithium battery, mix the lithium with the thorium ash, and put it in an aluminum foil ball for heating. This way, the purity of thorium has been increased by at least 9000 times!"
"Please note, this level of purity has already exceeded the International Atomic Energy Agency's allowed value by 170 times! To attempt such an experiment, one must obtain permission!"
While He Xingzhou spoke and worked, viewers in the live room were frantically typing.
"Learned it, learned it, going to refine now (dog head for protection)!"
"I also want to do it, but my brain disagrees."
"666, live streaming of refining nuclear material, this is my first time seeing it!"
"I had some doubts watching the videos, but now seeing the host operate, realized you're really awesome!"
The number of viewers in He Xingzhou's live room doubled within a few minutes.
In the classroom, professors and students were also watching and discussing.
"He Xingzhou is truly a genius, to think of such a way to obtain nuclear material!" Physics professor Cai Hao remarked.
"He's indeed promising." Dong Chen, the Dean of the Physics School, said with relief, "Giving him just that bit of funding, and he's able to carry out a nuclear experiment, rare indeed."
"He Xingzhou's got something!" the students also marveled admiringly.
"Is this even possible? If we learned this, could we make our own atomic bomb?" someone said.
"The principles of the atomic bomb are in physics textbooks; it's mainly about materials and design. You know the principles of an airplane, can you build one? The nuclear material refined by He Xingzhou is only enough for a miniature experiment, it's not possible to do something dangerous!"
"But having said that, I am now convinced, at least I can't do these things myself!"
He Xingzhou quickly purified the thorium, and said: "Now we will officially start the experiment."
Next to the reactor, there was a fish tank with deformed black porgy fish, which the live camera did not show, so the audience was unaware.
First, he shaped the nuclear fuel into blocks, placed them inside a pressure cooker, and then covered it with a lid. He shaped the control rod material into rods, inserting them vertically one by one through the round holes in the lid and curtain, leaving a section sticking out for lifting and insertion.
He then filled the pressure cooker with a solution of boric acid, used for heat resistance, fire prevention, and cooling.
At this point, all the preparatory work for the experiment was ready, just waiting for He Xingzhou to start the small water pump, open the circulation, and adjust the position of the control rods to initiate the nuclear fission reaction!
"Next, I will officially start the reactor!" He Xingzhou said. He was calm because all the experimental procedures had been verified several times before, and due to the scarcity of nuclear material, it should not cause danger.
But the audience and students in front of the screens couldn't stay calm.
"Damn, I suddenly got nervous!"
"Kind of unexpectedly excited!"
"What if there is an accident? It's okay for ordinary experiments to go wrong, but this is a nuclear test. I want to ask, how powerful is a miniature nuclear bomb?"
"The failure hinges on this moment!"
At this moment, everyone became tense, as if it was not He Xingzhou in the laboratory, but themselves!
He Xingzhou continued to operate, he started the water pump, adjusted the control rod positions, and used distilled water to adjust the boric acid concentration, initiating the nuclear fuel to undergo fission.
Inside the Miniature Nuclear Fission Reactor, the nuclear fission reaction was being generated.
The laboratory's radiation detection equipment lit up with a red warning, "Warning, radiation intensity exceeds the standard!"
"The reaction has started!" Everyone was energized, eyes wide open watching.
They couldn't see the atomic-level changes, but they could tell from other devices set up by He Xingzhou whether the reaction was proceeding normally.
The heat generated by the nuclear reaction heated the boric acid solution, and the small water pump transferred the hot boric acid solution into the radiators, exchanging heat with the water inside and outside the second pressure cooker, then returned to the first pressure cooker, constantly cycling and carrying out the heat from the nuclear fuel.
The steam drove the fan, turning it continuously, which drove the motor, turning it into a generator that converted nuclear energy into electrical energy and transmitted it to the energy storage device through wires.
Everyone could clearly see the fan spinning rapidly and the motor roaring. The lights on the energy storage device lit up in an instant, and the meter showed the electricity was increasing!
"The nuclear reaction has started! It's converting into electricity!" A student in the classroom shouted.
"My god, he did it! A Miniature Nuclear Fission Reactor!"
"The electrical output is increasing so fast! The radiation detection equipment is constantly alarming, there's really nuclear radiation being produced!"
"He Xingzhou is too powerful! He made his own nuclear reactor, to put it normally, he made his own nuclear reactor, to put it abnormally, if he turns on this reactor, it's like a miniature atomic bomb!"
The entire classroom erupted into excitement!
He Xingzhou's roommates even started shouting excitedly, "Nice, the experiment succeeded!"
They witnessed the whole process of He Xingzhou making the Miniature Nuclear Fission Reactor, and a sense of pride in participating rose in their hearts!
"It succeeded!" Zhang Boyan also wore a smiling face, the wrinkles at the corner of his eyes all smoothed out.
He had guaranteed this experiment, now that it was successful, it proved that his judgment of people and projects was not wrong.
"This student will probably become a glorious talk of our school!" Principal Dong Chen laughed, knowing this would definitely arouse social attention, which would greatly enhance the school's reputation!
They were so happy; the live viewers went even crazier, just now, they watched a UP host succeed in operating a homemade nuclear reactor!