One day in July, Yuan Gongpu entered the house in frustration and threw the plastic bag with medical records on the bed.
"What's the matter?" My lover Guo asked.
"Nothing." He said grumpily, "I'm tired. I'll go to bed first."
After falling asleep, Guo got up and flipped through his medical record book, knowing that the data of cancer review was not good.
The next day, ex-Gompra's lover went to his locker. "Come, I tell you, this drawer can be made public. This drawer should be handed over and kept secret! "
These materials are the technical summary of his work in 404 factory for decades, before and after 10 times, processing a core component of our country, and one carried by flat explosion, air explosion and submarine-launched trajectory.
It seems that he has predicted his fate. When our reporter visited his home in May this year, he carefully took out this stack of materials, all handwritten, combined with pictures and texts, marked with pens of different colors. "An American reporter came to see me and wanted to have a look. I have never shown it to them. These are confidential! " He said.
Guo said that this was Yuan Gongpu's last interview before his death. Three months later, on August 22nd, Yuan Gongpu, the operator of one of China's core components, died of illness at the age of 87.
On August 24, at the memorial service of the former public servant, Guo looked at the elegiac couplet one by one with the help of his eldest daughter. Photo by Wendy Wang
"This is confidential."
On the morning of August 24th, 2022, the memorial service for former public servants was held in the lobby on the first floor of Longhua Funeral Home. On-site representatives, former colleagues of CNNC, former workers and ordinary citizens.
With the help of his eldest daughter, Guo went to see the elegiac couplet on the wreath one by one.
She said that the most gratifying thing is that her wife left Shanghai. At the beginning of July, Yuan Gongpu was referred for treatment because his cancer pain could not be relieved. He planned to go back to Shanghai by train on August 7, but he suddenly came on August 6. After waking up, he said several times that he would return to Shanghai. However, due to the epidemic, some ambulances are not allowed to leave the city.
On August 19, under the arrangement of CNNC, Suzhou Nuclear Industry General Hospital sent an ambulance to Beijing, which was escorted by the medical staff of the Nuclear Industry Hospital. After three drivers drove for about 14 hours, the former public servant was sent back to Shanghai.
On August 24, at the memorial service of the former public servant, the former colleagues of the former public servant and the citizens who came to pay their respects crowded the hall. Photo by Wendy Wang
Contrary to the sudden surge behind him, the original public shop was actually unknown for a long time.
In the early 1990s, when the former public servant family was about to retire from Gansu 404 factory and return to Shanghai, the Shanghai Federation of Trade Unions searched the files of the Shanghai factory and could not find the name of the former public servant.
Back in Shanghai, the former public servant and his lover received retirement wages in Gansu province, and both of them were not paid well. In order to subsidize his family, he went out to work, made sales promotion, looked at the cold storage and moved 70 to 80 kilograms of goods.
Therefore, when someone later found the community to ask about the "home of the original owner", the neighbors didn't quite believe that this old man who looked short, hard of hearing and had bad eyes could actually be related to the processing of core components.
And the original palace pu is used to this unknown. Based on the discipline of keeping the task secret, he seldom mentioned his glorious deeds to others.
In 2004, he was interviewed by CCTV. At that time, China had a file that had been decrypted and asked him, "How big is your ball?" Without thinking, he "can't say that this is confidential."
Taking Deng Jiaxian as an example, he told reporters: "Deng Jiaxian designed one in our country, and his wife and parents didn't know it. One day, one after another, his father-in-law asked others,' Who made it for China?' People say,' Ask your son-in-law!' "
"And at that time, the key steps in manufacturing were code words, such as braiding, jumping in line and getting on the sedan chair. You will know what this level of confidentiality is like. " Yuan Gongpu told reporters.
Guo, a retired worker in 404 factory, and her wife who has lived all her life, are also used to not asking about her husband's work.
Years of confidentiality discipline have shaped the low-key and introverted character of the original public servant. He seldom says "disgusting" words to Guo. Only one night this year, he suddenly said to her, "old lover, I can't accompany you anymore."
As important as life.
Guo still remembers the first time she saw the original Gongpu.
1951March, Yuan Gongpu was introduced by his brother to be an apprentice in a factory in Shanghai from Shandong.
He is a young man who has just arrived in a big city and doesn't even know how to turn on and off the lights. She is a real Shanghai girl. The two met because they worked in the same workshop.
He made progress, and achieved Grade 4 work (equivalent to intermediate title) in just three years, reaching the income of college students at that time; He is also very enthusiastic, negotiating with the boss on behalf of employees and striving for benefits: having a snack at 10 in the morning and handing out work clothes to employees.
He worked during the day and walked for an hour or two at night to go to night school until he went to high school. She still remembers his high spirits when he called on the workers to study in the workshop. "We have to go to junior high school to learn technology well."
In that interview in May, Yuan Gongpu told reporters that his favorite book was "Give Everything to the Party" written by Wu Yunduo. "Wu Yunduo is Paul of China, and he did it for the army. He didn't have a lathe, so he used a track to do it. I am particularly excited to see it. I think I am also a lathe worker. " At that time, the factory was divided into two floors, and the workers slept upstairs. "At that time, the factory was still using belt machine tools, and there was noise when it was opened. I feel so happy after listening to it. "
1959, Yuan Gongpu, who had just been married for four months, was elected as an outstanding mechanic representative in Shanghai and went to the northwest to take part in a "very important job".
According to the confidentiality requirements of his superiors, he didn't tell his wife about leaving his job until a week before he left home. At that time, he was already, and felt it was a kind of trust in him. When these technicians from all over the country were training, the Minister of the Second Machinery Department announced to them: "The Maoists will do it."
After the training, they went all the way west to the 404 factory.
There is only one mysterious factory with digital code left in this name, which is called "Jiuquan Atomic Energy Joint Enterprise". It is the address of a plutonium production reactor in China, which is selected at 1958, at the northern foot of Qilian Mountain, hundreds of kilometers west of Jiayuguan. There is no factory address, only a mailbox, and the left "Lanzhou # #" is in Gansu, but it is not in Lanzhou at all. At its peak, Factory 404 had 50,000 employees and their families, as well as thousands of troops.
Yuan Gongpu's precious notes. The figure shows the structure of the core components. Photo by Wendy Wang
The task of Factory 404 is to manufacture qualified balls before May 1964.
-235 is the only natural fissionable nuclear material known at present. The nucleus of -235 will split after being bombarded by neutrons. Every time it absorbs 1 neutron, it will release 2 to 3 neutrons and huge energy, thus triggering a chain reaction.
There are only three isotopes on the earth: -238, -235 and -234, of which -238 accounts for 99.275%, -235 accounts for 0.720% and -234 accounts for 0.005%. The production of nuclear materials is to separate this 0.720% -235 from three isotopes of minerals. 1 kg weapon-grade high concentration requires at least 200 tons of ore. The total weight of a nuclear material used in China is about 15 kg, so at least 3000 tons of high-quality ore is needed.
From ore geological exploration, ore mining, to purification into chemical concentrate, and then through various chemical reaction processes, the high concentration of -235 is finally separated by gas diffusion method. The whole process is extremely long and full of danger. It can be said that about 654.38+ten thousand people spent 10 years making cars.
But the machining accuracy of the ball is extremely high. A ball consists of two identical hemispheres and an inner ball. The hemispheres are not solid, and the inner ball is used to hold the ignition neutron source during a nuclear explosion. The concentricity of the inner spherical surface and the outer spherical surface of each hemisphere must be highly consistent, and the concentricity error shall not exceed 0.0015 mm. The smoothness of the outer ball is a higher standard, and the accuracy is required to reach one eighth of that of a human head. It is precisely because the hardness of the ball is as hard as steel and the accuracy is particularly high, so the depth of longitudinal feed during processing cannot exceed 20 wires, that is, 0.2mm；; The horizontal feed depth should not exceed 15 thread, that is, 0.15 mm.
Coupled with the nuclear pollution environment in the processing area, people can only operate from two small holes outside the whole machine through thick glass observation windows and wearing double-layer latex gloves. In those days when there were no precision CNC machine tools, only a few people in China could process this ball.
Factory 404 held a series of technical competitions, and the technical workers of Shanghai Automobile Chassis Factory were listed as one of the original workers.
1963 finally decided that the technical workers from Shanghai Automobile Chassis Factory would process the core parts of the original Gongpu main knife.
Before starting work, someone called him and said, "This is the most critical moment. As important as our lives. "
In the early days of starting a business, the former general manager and scientific and technological personnel engaged in scientific research in tents (pen on the left, former general manager). Respondents provide
The last three knives
On April 30th, 1964, it's time to handle the first sample ball.
In the morning, when the front shop went out, he said to Guo, who had been transferred to the 404 factory, "I'll go to work and you bring up your daughter." After turning around and going downstairs, I got on a Volga limousine.
After Yuan Gongpu left, Guo cried.
She came here specially from Shanghai. Despite the difficult conditions, Yuan Gongpu never talks about her tasks, and she seldom complains. What she wants is to live in peace with her husband. But this sentence made her feel that today seems to be the last moment of life and death test.
This is indeed a life-and-death test. "I don't know if I can finish this task before going to work." Haramiya later said: At that time, he felt that his pressure had reached its peak. Because I practice playing the same size ball all day, I walk and sleep with the ball in front of me. He is too thin to eat a steamed bun a day, so he can only be injected with glucose every day by a special person. "Because the accuracy of processing is a problem, in addition, there is a criticality accident problem." The main danger in criticality accident is the external irradiation of instantaneous emission line, which can cause large dose of irradiation and cause casualties.
Gong Yuan Pu's data photos during the operation. Respondents provide
After the blank comes, only three people can stay in the processing room, because it is a reflective layer, which may cause criticality accident.
One of these three people is the surgeon-Yuan Gongpu. The second person, as a guardian, reminds the original shop to operate by himself, and at the same time, he should pick up the chips under his car in time to prevent the chips from accumulating in the cutting disc and causing a fission chain reaction. The third person is responsible for the measurement. It turns out that the public servant has three knives per car, so he has to measure it once to see how much is still missing and how many knives are needed.
It takes about 12 hours to process a ball.
At eight o'clock in the evening, the original shop reported, "I want to process the last three knives."
As soon as the lathe started, the original shop became nervous. Something went wrong, and the casting suddenly fell off the vacuum chuck and fell into the cutting disc with a bang.
The processing stopped immediately, and the original Gongpu was sweating, his clothes were soaked, and he once lost confidence.
After being helped to the rest area, he drank a glass of milk, settled down, walked to the workbench again and slowly turned the handle of the machine tool.
At the last moment, Gong Yuan Pu was absorbed and stopped to take measurements. Then the second knife, and then stop to measure carefully; After the last knife, he almost collapsed.
"In fact, I even took off my protective glasses at the critical time, and I couldn't bear it. If I am irradiated, I will radiate. " He later said.
1, 65438, In the early morning of May, 0964, the inspector reported that the precision, concentric cavity and size of the core components all reached the design index.
Yuan Gongpu said that even then, he still felt like a rabbit in his heart. "I don't know if it is qualified."
It was not until 5 months 15 days later that he heard on the radio that a ball from China was successful, and he was very excited to learn that the ball really exploded on the tower in Lop Nur.
"I especially wanted to talk to someone, but I could only hold it in my heart. This is confidential and I must abide by the party's discipline. "
"I don't want to be special"
, is the word that Yuan Gongpu always talks about.
In the 45 nuclear tests conducted in China, the former general engineer participated in the processing of key components such as middle, middle and submarine-launched trajectory 10. Some schools and units invited him to give lectures. To some young people, his words sound very old-fashioned.
"I was born in 1956. At that time, the vice minister of Xuhui District talked to me and said,' I want to fight for my career all my life', and I cried in front of him. "
"The most familiar sentence we had at that time was' one soldier, one brick, where to move'. The construction of key areas in Shanghai starts from 1953, and I sign up every time. I also took part in every sport. I shouted slogans before May Day. "
"Our generation has deep feelings. I grew up under this kind of education. I can't figure out why many young people think of money first now. What, he has no concept. "
In May of this year 10, Yuan Gongpu recalled that year to reporters in his home. Photo by Wendy Wang
20 1 1, the former public servant was found to be sick in the physical examination. At first, he took part in a clinical trial of a specific drug, and the effect was good. However, after two years of clinical trials, the imported drugs that adapt to him are not within the scope of medical insurance, and the drug cost makes the two old people puzzled. Shanghai TV presented his difficulties in the documentary. He thinks this is "negative" information, which has brought trouble to reporters.
Part of his medical expenses can be reimbursed, but he needs to travel to and from Gansu and Shanghai, and the process is more troublesome. Someone suggested, "I don't want to be special."
Later, one of them gave relevant instructions on the matter, hoping that the relevant departments would actively explore similar problems in order to solve them from the system. Yuan Gongpu is looking forward to it. He thinks that he is not the only one who has encountered this problem.
Of course, there are also many warm memories of the last days of the original public shop.
The year before last, a junior high school student came to his home from Shenzhen after reading Yuan Gongpu's story in the newspaper. He said to Yuan Gongpu, "I just want to be like you." Then I gave an envelope to the original Gongpu and left. After the original pool was opened, it was found that there was 100 yuan in it. Go after it. He has already left.
A girl from Shanghai Experimental Primary School, after reading the story of Yuan Gongpu in a book, went to visit with her parents to buy new year's goods. An entrepreneurial college student sent a bottle of medicine similar to that taken by the former public servant.
A doctor in urology department funded the original public shop for more than a year at his own expense; Sent by the director of SAIC Volkswagen New Energy Automobile Factory 10000 yuan; Shanghai Baijiang Public Welfare Foundation included the drug expenses of the former Communist Party into their "two bombs and one satellite" funded project to pay for the self-funded part of the original Communist Party's use of genuine American anticancer drugs; There are also some retired milk powder and health products. ...
In 2022, the original palace pu cancer recurred and the cancer cells metastasized. Guo said that in his last days, when his cancer pain was unbearable, he sang "Dongfanghong" loudly. "If I sing, I will feel better." He said at the time.
Jacky, Yuan Gongpu's youngest daughter, said that many people helped her in her last days. Thank you for making so many people remember.
Editor-in-Chief: Zaifei Text Editor: Zaifei
* Wendy Wang
The above is 1964, the sharing about Wendy Wang. After reading 1964, were you born in the fire of life? I hope this can help everyone!