139. Seven all ninety seven
6 months later.
February 2004.
The West Sea near Yeongheungdo, Incheon.
“Jeong-ho, when the hell is this going to happen?”
At Incheol’s words, I checked the watch.
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Now 30 minutes have passed.
I turned my head and said to Incheol.
“Wait another 15 minutes. You said it would take 45 minutes.”
“men and horses! So far, I have waited six months.”
“haha-! So just wait a little longer!”
At my words, Incheol opened his mouth with a curious expression.
“I saw it earlier… You put a small piece of metal in the explosive hole, isn’t that a detonator?”
I nodded, and Incheol asked again.
“How does that piece of iron detonate TNT?”
“That’s not iron, it’s sodium.”
“salt? There’s a lot of salt in it.”
Incheol continued with an interesting expression.
“Hmm… When you see that our God made a catalyst with salt… Do you think the statement that Kim Il-sung made a grenade out of pine cones is not entirely a lie?”
At Incheol’s words, I smiled and started explaining.
Sodium in salt is sodium (Na+) in a very stable ionic state, and sodium used as an explosive initiator is sodium in an extremely unstable metallic state.
Metallic sodium reacts violently with water and turns into sodium ions, which creates hot heat and hydrogen gas (H2), causing a powerful explosion. This means that it can be used as an effective initiator to detonate low-purity TNT.
In response to my explanation, Incheol raised one eyebrow and said.
“But why does it take so long to make it?”
Solid state sodium is made by using an electrochemical reactor, and sodium ions (Na+) receive electrons from the reducing electrode of the electrochemical reactor and change into metallic sodium.
However, since metallic sodium reacts violently with water, it is impossible to make metallic sodium in an electrochemical reactor filled with water.
So the commercial production of metallic sodium uses a process called Castner. The Castner process first melts a lump of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) to the melting point, and then puts the molten sodium hydroxide into an electrochemical reactor to recover metallic sodium from the reducing electrode.
However, it is not an easy method to try because high heat of several hundred degrees is required to melt the sodium hydroxide lump. So the method I devised was to use mineral oil.
For reference, because of its high reactivity with water, metallic sodium causes a chemical reaction even with moisture in the air. So metallic sodium should be stored in mineral oil.
In-cheol interrupted while explaining.
“Mineral oil?”
I nodded, and In-cheol said with a strange smile.
“Maybe that… Is that right?”
“Is that what it is? What are you talking about? and… Why are you smiling with such a strange expression?”
“Chae Jung-ho, this child… Pretending to be naive! That’s a love gel!”
“Hey-! really-! As for thinking… !”
Anyway… The method I devised was to make metallic sodium by filling an electrochemical tank with mineral oil.
For reference, salt easily dissolves in water and becomes ions, but it does not dissolve well in oily solvents such as mineral oil. In the same principle, sodium ions (Na+) do not dissolve well in mineral oil, but this was not the case at all.
That is, since trace amounts of sodium ions are dissolved, if a small amount of caustic soda is put in an electrochemical reaction tank filled with mineral oil and electricity is applied, metallic sodium is produced at a very slow rate at the reducing electrode.
That’s why we’ve been waiting for the last six months.
When I finished my explanation, Incheol stared at me and opened his mouth.
“Jeong-ho, if it were you, I’m sure you know a quicker way than this… Is not it? Am I right?”
Of course, there are plenty of methods, and some of them have even been experimented with.
On one occasion, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and candles were used to prepare an initiator, a method for making solid fuel for rockets. It was a relatively risky method, but somehow… A small explosion occurred during the manufacture of the detonator.
Fortunately, he wasn’t hurt, but the moment he heard the explosion, his mind flashed. Because of the number of 400 billion, I was not able to make a complete judgment.
He immediately stopped making initiators using hydrogen peroxide as an oxidizer, and made up his mind to put safety first in everything.
When Incheol asked if there was another way, I shook my head.
“This is the only way to safely make a catalyst. Even if it takes time, we have no choice but to wait.”
At my words, Incheol took a deep breath, and then the sonar screen began to shake.
“It exploded… !”
Incheol said while checking his watch.
“Five… ! It really only took 45 minutes. It’s really great. This is delayed… Did you do it with the beads you put in the explosives earlier?”
Also, Incheol has good eyesight.
A 45-minute explosion time delay is really important. This is because it takes time to install the explosives on Lake Shigemitsu at a depth of 80 meters and retrieve the underwater drones out of the water.
A brief description of the 45-minute time delay device is as follows.
First, place 400 grams of TNT explosives in a waterproof spherical pouch. Then, a thin glass tube in the shape of a straw is inserted to the center of the explosive, and a metallic sodium initiator is placed inside the glass tube.
And finally, the entrance of this glass tube is blocked by inserting a polyacrylate bead.
Polyacrylate has the property of expanding when it absorbs moisture. So when this explosive goes into water, the polyacrylate beads start to expand as they absorb the water.
So, after about 45 minutes, the glass tube is broken due to the expansion of the polyacrylate beads, and seawater enters the cracks in the broken glass tube. And the moment the seawater that enters the gap in the glass tube meets the metallic sodium, it detonates and explodes with explosives.
It sounds simple when you explain it like this, but in fact, it was a method that was created through a lot of trial and error over the past four months.
At my explanation, Incheol nodded his head broadly.
“OK! I totally understand!”
“really?”
“Yeah, I fully understood the fact that our God Chae took care of everything and was doing well.”
I smiled bitterly, and Incheol said.
“So, have you achieved your goal today?”
Our goal today is to go out to sea… It was just to find out the purity of the TNT I had prepared. This is because, if the purity of the manufactured TNT is not known, the exact explosive force cannot be predicted.
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Note that the TNT explosive will be used to break the hatch door to the second basement level of the Shikemitsu. After all… If you fail to control the power of the explosives and the underground structure of the Shigemitsu collapses… Extracting the gold ingots is in vain.
The wave energy value was calculated based on the amplitude and frequency of the shock wave just received by the sonar, and the wave energy decreases in inverse proportion to the square of the distance… The energy released with the explosion is a total of 497 kJ.
Converting 497 kJ to TNT mass yields about 100 grams of TNT. In other words, the purity of the TNT produced by me is about 25%.
At my words, Incheol nodded and said.
“Oh oh! Goal achieved! So, are we going to Mokpo Port next time?”
“Well. But now I think we should look at where the explosives went off.”
“What are you going to do there?”
“I have one thing to check.”
So we sent the underwater drone down to the place where the explosives were installed, and the camera installed on the underwater drone sent a video of where the explosives were detonated.
Also… !
Incheol, who noticed my expression, said.
“What? Can’t we go to Mokpo Port next week?”
I said, pointing my hand at the monitor.
“Isn’t this where the explosives were?”
Incheol nodded, and I continued.
“Look how much dirt has been dug here.”
A small crater with a diameter of 30 centimeters and a depth of 10 centimeters was created on the bottom of the sea in the screen.
Incheol’s expression hardened as he looked at the screen.
“what… ! Did you only dig this?”
As the explosives explode, the energy of the explosion is not down… It was due to the upward direction. When a grenade detonates, it is the same principle as explosive fragments that scatter 45 degrees upwards from the ground.
To break the hatch door on the first basement floor of Lake Shigemitsu, you must find a way to direct the explosive energy of the explosives downwards.
I took out the underwater drone and raised it to Incheol.
“Is there an area in the West Sea with hard-bottomed rocks?”
Incheol thought for a moment and then opened his mouth.
“I have! About 30 kilometers west of here… It’s a complete reef.”
In-cheol smiled with a confident expression and continued.
“And there… I’m threading it so firmly, like looking at the palm of my hand!”
“Then before we go to Lake Shigemitsu… Let’s try one more time there.”
I’m thinking of making a device that directs the explosive energy of explosives downwards. And to test that the device would work, it needed a hard rock base.
At my explanation, Incheol nodded and said.
“Once that’s over, are you really going to get the gold bars?”
In the last six months, I’ve built seven metallic sodium initiators, and although still sloppy, the robotic arm that attaches to the underwater drone is also nearing completion.
I said with a smirk.
“It’s still a bit too much to take out… Can I still take a look?”
We headed to Yeongheungdo, where we rented a boat, and after about 40 minutes we were able to arrive at Jindu Wharf in Yeongheungdo.
In-cheol, who anchored the ship at the pier, said while checking his phone.
“what? what’s going on… Did you get 7 missed calls?”
Since cell phones cannot be connected at sea, it seems that they received a record of incoming calls.
In-cheol called his mother and Ji-eun in turn, and ended the call with Ji-eun and said as if muttering.
“Hmm… ! Who is it? If you made 7 phone calls, I think it’s important… .”
“Do you not have caller ID service?”
Hearing my question, Incheol said with tears in his eyes.
“Yeah, our carrier doesn’t have that yet.”
We got off the boat, and Incheol headed to the fishing boat rental shop to return the boat.
While I was waiting for Incheol, my phone started ringing.
“hello.”
“Hi Mr. Chae. This is Director Jackson.”
It was Director Jackson.
By the way… What’s wrong with this man? I haven’t been contacted since Liberation Day in August of last year, so I thought I had given up… .
I said in a low voice.
“(I should have said it before, but I wish I hadn’t called.)”
-(I know that. I’m sorry. I contacted your secretary first, but I didn’t answer the phone, so I did this directly to you.)
my secretary? What kind of nonsense is this?
Director Jackson’s voice continued.
-(Anyway… Thank you so much for last time.)
What else is this? Last time… !
For a moment, the conversation I had with Incheol on Liberation Day last year flashed through my head.
no way… … . In-cheol… You cracked the codebook of a terrorist group?
not. This is impossible. I’m not saying this to belittle In-cheol, this was absolutely impossible unless a terrorist group brought a code ticket.
While these thoughts ran through my head, Director Jackson continued.
-(Nothing different, I have handed over your name and contact information to the UN. You will be contacted from there soon.)
United Nations? Are you talking about the United Nations? no… Why did you hand over my name and contact information to the United Nations?
Choi In-cheol, what the hell has this kid done?
(It is the author’s imagination to produce metallic sodium by electrochemical methods using caustic soda and mineral oil. In reality, it is impossible.)