 | This article is a work-in-progress. |
Nuclear Reactor Guide
A nuclear reactor is a multiblock structure that is used to generate power for the IndustrialCraft 2 mod.
Necessary Gear
Talk about hazmat suit and give recipe.
Building a Nuclear Reactor
A nuclear reactor is constructed by placing a Nuclear Reactor block, and optionally surrounding it with up to 6 Reactor Chambers. Right-click on the reactor to access its internal inventory - a grid that is 3x6 (for a single reactor block) to 9x6 (for a full 6 reactor chamber build). Place Fuel Rods in the grid along with other reactor components. Apply a redstone signal to any part of the nuclear reactor will turn it on, and the Fuel Rods will start to generate heat and EU. Generated EU is not stored; if there is no cable, or EU storage device with free capacity attached to the reactor the generated EU will be lost.
Fuel Rods
Fuel Rods are crafted in a Fluid/Solid Canning Machine and can be crafted into Dual Fuel Rod (Uranium) or Quad Fuel Rod (Uranium). Fuel Rods have a damage value proportional to their lifespan in seconds. Uranium Fuel Rods have a starting damage value of 20,000. A single fuel rod in a reactor will generate 5EU/t and 4 HU/t and consequently produce 2,000,000 EU over its 20,000 second working life. Fuel Rods multiply both their EU output AND their Heat output as a result of being adjacent to other fuel rods or sources of neutrons such as Neutron Reflectors. The EU efficiency of a Fuel Rod starts at 1, and increases by 1 for each adjacent neutron source, and the Heat Output is computed as 2n(n+1) where n is the number of adjacent rods. (actually its: 0:4, 1:12, 2:24, 3:40, 4:60, 5:84, 6:112)
| Adjacent Rods | Efficiency (EU) | EU/t | Heat |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 1 | 5 | 4 |
| 1 | 2 | 10 | 12 |
| 2 | 3 | 15 | 24 |
| 3 | 4 | 20 | 40 |
| 4 | 5 | 25 | 60 |
| 5 | 6 | 30 | 84 |
| 6 | 7 | 35 | 112 |
Note that a Dual Fuel Rod counts as two fuel rods (that are each adjacent to a fuel rod), and a Quad Fuel Rod counts as four fuel rods arranged so each fuel rod can see two others. However, Dual and Quad fuel rods that are cardinally adjacent still only add "1" to the efficiency score of a fuel rod - which means the maximum achievable efficiency is 7: A quad fuel rod (with a base efficiency of 3) with another fuel rod or neutron source in each cardinal direction for an additional +4 to its efficiency.
Components
Building a MOX Reactor
MOX reactors are nuclear reactors that are fueled with Fuel Rod (MOX), Dual Fuel Rod (MOX), or Quad Fuel Rod (MOX). These fuel rods only have a damage value of 10,000 and hence last half as long as Uranium based fuel rods. However, they gain bonus efficiency from the Reactors Hull heat.
Simple MOX reactors can be made by pre-heating an empty reactor with a single quad fuel rod and no cooling. A single quad fuel rod generates 96 heat /s, and so takes 78 seconds to to add 7500 Hull Heat to the reactor. Which gives a bonus efficiency of x4 to EU production. Then, fill the reactor with a stable design that includes no components that cool the Hull.
Example: A single Quad Fuel Rod (MOX) produces a cumulative 96 Heat/s and 60 EU/t in a cold reactor. In a reactor heated to 75% it instead provides 240 EU/t.
The following components ar typically used for cooling in reactors that maintain a stable Hull Heat level.
| !Components to use in Stable MOX reactors |
|---|
| Advanced Heat VentComponent Heat ExchangerComponent Heat Vent |
Building a Fluid Reactor with Stirling Generators
Fluid Reactors are a 5x5x5 Multiblock structure In fluid Reactors do not care about the EU/t, but the heat output is doubled. Coupled to a Stirling Generator 2HU generates 1EU. e.g. A single quad fuel rod in a regular reactor produces 60EU/t and 96 HU/t. In a Fluid Reactor, it will generate 192 HU/t - which will require 2 Liquid Heat Exchangers (which transfer a max of 100 HU/t) - which will produce 96 EU/t in coupled Stirling Generators.
Building a Fluid Reactor with Steam Turbines
A properly heated and configured Steam Boiler will use 1mB of Water or Distilled Water to create 100mB of Superheated Steam per HU. For 'Superheated Steam' rather than just Steam set the Steam Boilers output pressure to at least 221kPA.
A Steam Turbine will produce enough Kinetic Energy per 100mB of Superheated Steam that when coupled to a Kinetic Generator - will produce 100 EU/t - converting the Superheated Steam into regular steam in the process that it will eject into an Adjacent Steam Turbine automatically. The second Steam Turbine will produce kinetic energy to produce 50 EU/t per 100mB of input Steam.
e.g. A single quad fuel rod in a Fluid Reactor is producing 192 Hu/s. Fed into a single Steam Boiler this will produce ??? mB/t of Superheated Steam generating 96 EU/t in the first Steam Turbine and an additional 48 EU/t in the second for a total output of 144EU/t. This is more than double the output of the same fuel rod in a regular reactor (60 EU/t).
MOX Fuel in a Fluid Reactor
In a normal reactor MOX fuel rods boost their EU output, but not heat, in response to reactor hull heat. In Fluid reactors the EU output is ignored, and getting MOX fuel rods to scale their output heat with the reactors heat would make for a dangerously unstable setup. However, MOX fuel rods DO double their heat output if the reactor is heated above 50%.
As an example, a single Quad Fuel Rod (MOX) in a Fluid reactor heated to 75% would be generating 432 Hu/s. This will create sufficient Superheated Steam to generate 288 EU/t.
See Also / References
- https://forum.industrial-craft.net/board/60-nuclear-engineering/
- https://github.com/MauveCloud/Ic2ExpReactorPlanner
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