"Others?" asked the old lich Afu.

"Yes, something else. Richard nodded, "In addition to what I've said, one thing to consider is that in some cases, private forces can be counterproductive to individuals.

If the starting point of the development of private forces is to help themselves, then after development, they will definitely let the private forces provide themselves with certain services and be responsible for what they have done. Let's not talk about whether the private forces are doing well or not, it is undeniable that once there is any problem with the other party, it will greatly affect themselves.

The larger the private forces, the more likely they are to have all kinds of problems, and even if they put a lot of effort into avoiding them, they may be deliberately attacked by the enemy because of the struggle for certain interests. ”

"So, you're never going to develop private power?" the old man frowned, "You can't say that private power is of no use, can you?"

"Of course not. Richard shook his head, "I know very well that sometimes, the role of private forces cannot be ignored, and they can act as multipliers and shorten the distance they have taken to success." Eventually, I will develop private power, even on a large scale, but until then, I have chosen to take the research route. ”

"Research route, what is this?"

"To put it simply, I'm exploring the world and trying to figure something out. It was only at the end of the exploration that I could determine what I needed to do with my private powers.

For example, a few years ago, I might have just asked them to help me make some simple chemicals, now I might have asked them to help me purify uranium, and then I might have asked them to help me use exhaustive methods to parse some rules.

The goal of a private force determines the positioning of a private force to a large extent, and will affect its structure, the quality of its personnel, and the number of personnel.

For now, I can handle a lot of things, and building a private force is helpful, but it's not necessary. For example, when my research reaches a certain bottleneck that cannot be broken through by an individual, I will try to create a private force and forcibly break through the bottleneck.

All in all, it's not time yet, and I'm just planting a few seeds once in a while, or throwing money at it to create a loose business organization to serve myself. It's only when it comes to the critical moment that I put a lot of energy into it. ”

"Therefore!" said the old man the lich, his eyes widening a little, and he said angrily, "Therefore, you can call me back with peace of mind and give you a hand, right?" ”

"I'm not to blame for that. Richard spread his hands, "Originally, I didn't plan to trouble you, but when there was an accident in the mine before, you told me very clearly, 'let me deal with it casually', so what can I do?"

"This—" The old lich's expression froze, and he was speechless, for Richard was telling the truth.

After being silent for a long time, the old man of the lich stepped forward, sat back on the easy chair next to him, and said angrily: "Okay, okay, okay, I am at a loss." But then again, even if I lose money, I should help you, and I have to give you time to rest. I'm an old man, I don't know how many hundred years old I really age, I'm okay with a little more rest, right? I've decided, I'm going to lie down and help you out. ”

"It's good if you're happy. Richard said, shaking his head lightly and stepping to the side.

Now, there's really no work for the Old Lich to do.

The old lich man saw Richard go away, stretched out his body, lay down on the easy chair with his eyes closed, "squirmed" a few times, and exclaimed, "Comfortable." "Race against the clock to enjoy the few leisure moments.

On the other side, Richard walked to the end of a full row of chemical instruments, glanced at them a few times, and began to adjust them with the lever again.

A few minutes later, with a "rustling" sound, substances began to form in a special glass container more than one meter high.

It's a colorless, transparent particle, kind of like salt.

But Richard knew very well that, in a sense, it was more dangerous than the most dangerous grain of salt he had ever made, spell salt.

Because the name of the other party is uranium hexafluoride, the chemical formula UF6 is a substance formed by the combination of six fluorine elements and one uranium element, and it is also the product of the third stage of uranium purification.

In order to get the other party, it is necessary to use the ion exchange method to remove the neutron-absorbing impurities in the uranium salt from the yellowcake (U3O8) obtained in the previous stage, so as to ensure that the impurity content does not exceed the equivalent equivalent of 8 parts per million of boron (that is, in 1 million parts of uranium, 8 parts of boron absorb slow neutrons).

After that, the metal elements iron, aluminum, nickel, etc., which may form non-volatile fluorides, are removed to form uranium dioxide (UO2), a high-purity uranium oxide.

Uranium dioxide (UO2), a black powder, is then reacted with hydrofluoric acid (HF).

Hydrofluoric acid (HF) is an aqueous solution of hydrogen fluoride, which is called bone erosion water, bone water, and white bone acid, which is highly corrosive. Because the ability to bind between hydrogen atoms and fluorine atoms is relatively strong, it cannot be completely ionized in water, and is theoretically only a weak acid, but it can dissolve many substances that other strong acids cannot dissolve, such as ruthenium, rhodium, tantalum, etc.

It is combined with uranium dioxide (UO2) to form uranium tetrafluoride (UF4).

Uranium tetrafluoride undergoes an oxidation reaction with fluorine to produce uranium hexafluoride (UF6).

Uranium hexafluoride is a raw material for nuclear weapons that goes further than yellowcake, and has many special properties.

For example, it has a melting point of 64.8 °C (338.0 K) and a lower boiling point of 56.5 °C (329.7 K).

As a result, when the temperature reaches 64.8°C, it can be converted into a liquid without melting, and can be directly evaporated into a gas, which is called sublimation.

In addition, it is highly toxic and needs to be avoided as much as possible in direct contact with the human body. It can also react violently with water and can corrode most metals, so the best way to store it is in a gas steel tank.

Richard looked at the meter and determined that the temperature in the product container at this time was 35°C, the air was zero, and the moisture was zero, so he was relieved. After that, all the uranium hexafluoride produced was put into gaseous steel tanks and stored in warehouses.

This can be regarded as the complete conclusion of the third phase of the nuclear weapons research and manufacturing program.

This is followed by the fourth stage, the final purification of uranium.

In a sense, this is the only real purification, because it is no longer aimed at the broad element of uranium, but the more precise uranium-235.

That's right, uranium-235.