The Great Nuclear Industry (8) Hidden Treasures in the Underground

Once upon a time,

Uranium was mined in the steamer

In March 1959, Liu Jie, Vice Minister of the Second Machinery Department, and his party were welcomed at Xujiadong Railway Station. As soon as they got off the train, they climbed to the top of Jinyinzhai mountain to inspect and determine the location of No.1 well. This is the first uranium mine in China.

Developing uranium mines is something that China people have never done before. It uses new technologies and encounters new problems. The mine started from scratch, and there is a shortage of technical talents in all aspects, materials and equipment, and there is no complete mine design. Builders can only rely on themselves to cross the river by feeling the stones, while exploring, designing and constructing.

in October, 1961, Qian Sanqiang, then vice minister of the second machinery industry and director of China Institute of Atomic Energy, and Wu Youxun, vice president of China Academy of Sciences, came to Jinyinzhai for on-site inspection and technical guidance, and personally taught professional knowledge to technicians in the corridor of the mine office building, which inspired the enthusiasm and enthusiasm of technicians to study science and technology hard and overcome difficulties.

At that time, the tunnel operation was very bad. Calcium carbide lamps were used for lighting and natural wind was used for ventilation. Some tunnels are only 1.5 meters wide, and you have to bend over to work after entering. The workers used a sledgehammer to drill the rock, and when the hammer started, sparks splashed and the sound was deafening. Shoot and detonate with a fire detonator. In order to catch up with the progress, the workers wore skin on their hands, oozing blood and getting cocoons, so they did it, and no one complained or shouted tired! There is a revolutionary enthusiasm burning in everyone's heart for the cause of national defense. No.711 Mine pumped hot spring water, the water temperature was as high as 54 degrees Celsius, and the daily inflow of hot springs reached 7,2 tons, resulting in an underground working environment temperature of about 5 degrees Celsius. The underground has become a flaming mountain and a steamer, which is wet, hot and stuffy, making it difficult to breathe. People ignore it, go through fire and water, go naked, pour cold water, and work bravely ...

indigenous uranium smelting

In a simple shed next to the pit of No.1 main shaft in No.711 Mine, a group of young people gathered, some of them wielded hammers, some of them screened, and put pieces of ore. The whole process is as primitive as a workshop.

"what is this?" Several curious workers asked.

nobody answered? Just smiled and bowed their heads and worked.

"We want to build an atomic bomb!" A resounding oath struck young hearts. These young people who have just left school are working day and night to refine uranium raw materials for the first atomic bomb of the motherland. Some people say that they are looking for a needle in the sea, but it is actually more difficult than finding a needle. 2 grams of ammonium diuranate, a dozen people, worked for half a month. Some people also say that they are panning for gold, and only 2 grams of 2 tons of uranium ore have been produced. Isn't it more expensive than gold? Everything comes to him who waits, ammonium diuranate is finally refined!

spiritual dinner

Chenzhou has been called the land of barbarians since ancient times, and it was still very closed until liberation. There is a local folk saying that "the boat stops in Chenzhou, the horse dies in Chenzhou, and people go to Chenzhou to sway." It is said that the forests in Chenzhou area are deep and heavy, tigers and wolves are infested, mosquitoes are rampant in summer, and malaria is prevalent. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, it took the party and the government 37 years to completely eliminate this plague that has been rampant for thousands of years. )

at the beginning of the business, the conditions were particularly difficult. The builders lived here with a touch of mud inside and outside, covered with dry bases of fir bark, and each person made a floor paved with three pine boards. Squeezed in a shed made of Chinese fir vines, mine builders worked out a construction plan for the mine, planned a grand blueprint and looked forward to a bright future for the mine. Due to the harsh natural environment and the insufficient supply of food and non-staple food, it is recorded in the history of the mine that about 8% of the workers suffered from diseases such as malaria, edema and dysentery. Because of the difficulty in seeking medical treatment, everyone went up the mountain to collect herbs, cure them by indigenous methods, dig wild vegetables up the mountain and eat salted water to soak rice. Whenever hunger strikes, they get together to talk about their yearning for a happy life and their responsibility for mine construction. People call this conversation a "spiritual dinner" humorously.

The main well No.1, the former "Flame Mountain" of hot spring water, is the most representative landmark in the former site of the 711 meritorious uranium mine. Here is no longer out of the box, but through the water pipe to the residential area at the foot of the mountain, hot spring water is continuously transported, and the water temperature is as high as 54 degrees. This hot spring, which now brings good news to residents, was a flaming mountain underground in those days, resulting in an underground working environment temperature of more than 5 degrees.

standing underground, although the wellhead is covered with a thick iron plate, you can still feel the heat waves coming from all directions, which makes you feel hot and hard to breathe. I can't imagine how the nuclear workers in those days worked hard in the hot and stuffy underground, day after day and year after year.

In the underground, water seepage, roof caving and electric shock happen from time to time, and every sudden accident will bring danger to young people's lives. In the early prospecting and mining, 74 martyrs gave their precious lives, most of them were between 2 and 3 years old when they died.

Castle Peak is fortunate to bury loyal bones, while Green Water Long song praises heroic souls. The older generation of nuclear workers filled the protective net of uranium mine safety production in China with flesh and blood, provided valuable uranium raw materials for two bombs and one boat, and paved the way for the development of nuclear industry.

History is reborn under the lens

-Notes on Shooting

In September, Chenzhou, the southern part of China, was in autumn, but the heat was still hot. Under the scorching sun, four crew members and six extras, a group of ten people, stepped into the Jinyinzhai Valley.

After eight years of retirement, Jinyinzhai is full of trees and birds contend, and everything is quiet and safe. No one will believe that this ordinary valley contains amazing secrets, and the first large-scale uranium mine in China is hiding in it!

As the hot spring water needed for the lives of tens of thousands of people in the living area of 711 Mine is taken from No.1 main shaft of 711 Mine, it is fortunate to keep this only roadway and wellhead, and it is also fortunate for us to follow the only remaining ruins and pursue the past time.

Pushing open the heavy roadway door, you are greeted by the moss-covered roadway wall, winding track, abandoned mine car, rusty but still standing tall derrick, and the wellhead has been covered with a thick iron plate. The hot spring water keeps coming up from the underground, through the gap, and the whole roadway is hot. After standing for a while, you will feel hot and dry, sweaty and have some difficulty breathing.

In order to get the best effect, the movements and expressions of the characters, the light and the angle of shooting should be properly controlled. According to the director of the film crew, we practiced walking again and again in the warehouse with steel bars and hammers, and pushed the harvesters back and forth. Every time you take a shot, look back. If you are not satisfied, come again. In this way, I took the trouble to adjust my posture, angle, polishing, shooting again, adjusting again … Repeated cultivation and thinning.

In the isolated lane, time seemed to stand still. More than three hours passed unconsciously, and everyone's clothes were soaked with sweat. The group performers couldn't help running out of the stuffy lane to get some air and cool off, but no one in the film crew shouted tired and hot, and they were nailed to the shooting scene all the time.

It was from this wellhead that thousands of people once went down to the depths of the stratum of two or three hundred meters. They are in the wet, hot and stuffy underground "steamer cage", facing the high temperature of more than 4 degrees, pouring cold water on their bodies, drilling, shooting, tunneling, transporting ore and slag day and night. Guns rumbling, drilling rigs roaring, wheels rolling and dust flying. Sweat is spilled over and over again, the roadway extends one meter, and the ore is transported out one car at a time. Those dark and pure faces covered with mud, those young lives waving steel hammers, and those production scenes that are in full swing are constantly flying in my mind.

Just after lunch at noon, when the scorching sun was at its peak, the film crew set off with the group performers to climb up the Jinyinzhai, looking for the best site and perspective for shooting the ore-prospecting lens in the forest. Jinyinzhai Mountain is densely forested with thorns and mosquitoes. Soon, we uninvited guests attracted swarms of mosquitoes, and in a short time, people's faces and necks were covered with itching and unbearable redness. In the middle and late 195s, the first batch of entrepreneurs settled in Jinyinzhai. They were also attacked by mosquitoes, but they were the most horrible Anopheles mosquitoes, which infected malaria and filariasis, causing more than half of the employees to suffer from malaria and filariasis. The thousand-year-old notoriety of "a horse dies in Chenzhou, and a man shakes his head in Chenzhou (malaria)" is not a false rumor!

It's already dusk after shooting the prospecting scene, and the next shot of digging a cave is the highlight. In order to restore the scene of miners working in the dark mine, we skillfully use the natural darkness at night as the background. Under the guidance of the director of the film crew, the hammer swing and the group performance of supporting piles closely cooperated, and the hammer of more than ten kilograms was raised high again and again and fell heavily on the steel bar. In order to highlight the texture, the director poured cold water on the rock. When the background lights and spotlights hit, the rocks reflected the luster of black metal, which reflected each other with the miners' dark cheeks and sweaty arms. The impact of the steel hammer met with the insects everywhere. In a trance, people really crossed into the years when they were struggling to start a business ...

Carrying heavy photographic equipment, the film crew of four young people flew around Dai Yue every day, leaving early and returning late, in the No.1 main well. Looking at the highly focused and absorbed figure of every member of the film crew in front of me, and feeling their almost pious professionalism, I can't help but believe that the thick history will be condensed into a flash moment and reborn in the camera!

Planning the Propaganda and Cultural Center of the Party-mass Work Department

Thanks to Hunan Mining Bureau of Nuclear Industry

Author Zheng Xin Tan Xiaoyun

Editor Wang Yuxiang

Reviser Lian Min.