Talk about it after visiting 8 16.

On the banks of the Wujiang River in Chongqing, there is a small town, Baitao Town, which disappeared from the map for 25 years and was kept secret for another 35 years. In the past few decades, even those who used to be residents of Bai Tao Town could not get close to Baitao Town, except to look at the huge chimneys standing high on the mountain. Just because there is a nuclear raw material industrial base that once belonged to a state-level secret operation, it only has a simple code name "8 16 underground nuclear project".

8 16 Original intention of underground nuclear engineering construction

In the early days of the founding of New China, with the help of the Soviet Union, in order to make China gain its due international status and protect the people of China from oppression and coercion by any country, we began to study nuclear bombs.

At that time, nuclear bomb research was started simultaneously, as well as a number of equally important nuclear plants such as Gansu 404 Plant (responsible for producing "heavy water", that is, nuclear raw materials). Later, the Soviet Union almost quit, so we had to bite the bullet and work out the reactor equation.

That is, from this experience, we have summed up a lesson. We need to rely on ourselves to do everything, and we must be prepared to save ourselves in time in times of crisis. Therefore, in order to take precautions, the state decided to build another preparatory 404 plant, and the 8 16 project came into being.

8 16 Pre-construction of Nuclear Project

Nuclear processing plants are no joke. They should be confidential enough, safe enough and huge enough, and they also need to spend a lot of manpower and material resources. In the era of 1966, it is undoubtedly more difficult to complete such a task.

But China people have always been good at solving problems and creating miracles. If there are any problems, we will deal with them one by one.

In order to find an excellent construction site, the investigation team, mainly Han Zhiping, an old employee of No.404 Factory, ran back and forth all over China for a whole year and a half, and visited all the places where they thought it was possible to build a factory. Finally, from Barrow District, Hongya County, Sichuan Province, Ganluo, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture and Baitao Town, Fuling, Chongqing, Baitao Town was decided as the final site.

Since then, Baitao Town has disappeared from the map. Every resident of Baitao Town must undergo strict political censorship. Those who are qualified will stay as workers, and those who are unqualified will be placed directly in other places. Instead, there is only a 45 13 mailbox.

From then on, residents, workers and engineers, college students and soldiers in the town can only contact their relatives through this mailbox. Until the secrecy order is lifted.

8 16 Brilliance of Nuclear Engineering

8 16 project was built at the foot of Wuling Mountain. The factory in the cave alone is more than 400 meters deep and about 80 meters high. The whole cave is about 24 kilometers long and the building area is about100000 square meters.

If conversion is required, the amount of earthwork excavated in the original 8 16 project is enough to build another 1500 km Great Wall. And if completed, it can resist the power equivalent to 50 Hiroshima atomic bombs, and it can also resist an earthquake of magnitude 8, which is absolutely solid and safe.

From 1966 to 1984, during the whole 18 years, the number of soldiers, engineers and scholars who participated in the construction of 8 16 project reached 60,000 at most, and there were more than 5,000 experts in mathematics and physics who only conducted research and calculation. It can be said that at that time, an 8 16 project gathered less than half of the top talents in China.

In its heyday, Baitao Town had a perfect urban system: hospitals, schools, shopping centers and so on. Countless people thought that they would take root here and devote their lives to the country.

At that time, there was even a couple who were called by their own units to take part in the confidentiality work and asked to keep it secret from anyone. The couple lied to each other that they were going to work in other places, but in the end they didn't expect to meet at a celebration of the 8 16 project. Only when I knew that the other party was working here did I feel a lot and cried.

The 8 16 nuclear project was stopped.

When the 8 16 project has completed 85% of the engineering quantity and the investment amount has reached nearly 750 million RMB (its actual value has exceeded hundreds of billions today), the state suddenly stopped the 8 16 project. The reason is that the amount of funds needed to continue construction is too large (because the cost was enough to build another Three Gorges hydropower station at that time), the construction process is too long, and according to the equipment level after construction, it lags far behind the international nuclear processing technology.

It means that the 8 16 project, which cost a lot of money and was in big trouble at the beginning, will only be backward and eliminated products if it continues to be built. If you don't repair it, although the initial investment is huge, you will stop the loss in time.

No matter how reluctant the people involved in the project are, they can only clean up their mood, come empty-handed and leave empty-handed, hiding secrets about the 8 16 project in their hearts. Because the password has not been lifted, this place is still top secret.

1June, 1984, the 8 16 project was completely shut down, but such a large site could not be left vacant, so for a long time, it became a fertilizer plant, specializing in the production of urea fertilizer. Later, due to poor management, it had to stop.

8 16 project was transformed into a scenic spot.

Seven years later, Baitao Town was decrypted and reappeared on the map. This small town that has disappeared for 25 years has seen the light of day again. In 2002, after the state lifted the confidentiality of the 8 16 project, the 8 16 project was abandoned for several years. 20 10, as a scenic spot, is open to the outside world, full of mystery and greatness.

However, the whole cave body is too big and simple, giving the impression that the scenic spot is not good and its popularity is not high in recent years. Finally, after integrating a company with 20 15 investment, I finally meet you with a brand-new look. It has become a 4A scenic spot in Chongqing, with thousands of tourists every day.

There is only one condition for visiting the 8 16 project, and foreigners are not allowed to enter. After all, even if it is no longer a confidential project, foreigners can't go to see it.

Who would have thought that a top-secret project that once consumed so much manpower and material resources would eventually become a scenic spot? However, the 8 16 project has also become the first nuclear reactor project in China's history, and its selection in China's industrial heritage protection list is the final affirmation of its existence value. Only when it is used in patriotic propaganda and popular science propaganda, it is still very good, and it can be regarded as making the best use of everything.

References:

The First List of China Industrial Heritage Protection and the Secret of Chongqing Nuclear Project.

Decrypt the underground nuclear project of the world's first nuclear war crater 8 16.