"Done, sir," he said, and adjusted the flame to a spout of red fire. He
thrust the torch into the hole and quickly withdrew it as pieces of
thorium flew out. A stream of water hosed into the tube would have worked
the same way.
Rip took a block of plutonium from Dominico and handed it to Kemp. "Cut
a plug and fit this into it. Then cut a second plug for the other piece.
They have to match perfectly, and you can't put them together to try out
the fit. If you do, we'll have fission right here in the open."
Kemp searched and found a piece he had cut in making the tube. It was
perfectly round, ideal for the purpose. He sliced off the inner side
where it tapered to a cone, then, working only by eye estimate, cut out a
hole in which the wedge of fission material would fit. He wasn't off by a
thirty-second of an inch. Skillful application of the torch melted the
thorium around the wedge and sealed it tightly.
Koa was ready with a sheet of nuclite. Trudeau arrived with a pole made
by lashing two crate sticks together.
Rip gave directions as they formed a cylinder of nuclite. Kemp
spot-welded it, and they pushed it into the hole.
Nunez found a small piece of material in one of the earlier craters.
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