Post by GotLag » Sun Sep 25, 2016 4:20 am

Technology Tree Nuclear fission

Requires: Advanced electronics, Sulfur processing

Unlocks: Reactors, cooling towers, fuel production recipes, along with recipes to consume depleted uranium



Spent fuel reprocessing

Requires: Nuclear fission

Unlocks: Reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel, plutonium core (used to re-enrich fuel or craft equipment and artifacts)



Mixed-oxide fuel

Requires: Spent fuel reprocessing

Unlocks: Mox fuel - use plutonium to recycle depleted uranium into enriched fuel



RTG equipment

Requires: Spent fuel reprocessing

Unlocks: Radioisotope thermal generator equipment - a 75 kW power source for your modular/power armour



Breeder fuel cycle

Requires: Nuclear fission, Alien technology

Unlocks: Breeder reactor cycle



Atomic locomotives

Requires: RTG equipment, Railway

Unlocks: Atomic locomotive - requires no refuelling but requires a significant amount of plutonium to produce

Fuel Cycle Basic cycle

Mine uranium ore Combine ore with acid in a chemical plant to form 8 units of uranium slurry Uranium slurry is separated in a chemical plant into 1 enriched fuel and 7 depleted uranium Burn 1 enriched fuel in the reactor to create 1 spent fuel Reprocessing

Reprocess 8 spent fuel with acid in chemical plant into 1 plutonium and 5 units of slurry Combine 1 plutonium with 3 depleted uranium in an assembler to create 4 enriched fuel Breeding

Burn 1 enriched fuel and 7 depleted uranium in the reactor to create 7 spent fuel and 1 plutonium Reprocess spent fuel as above

Reactor mechanics

IMPORTANT

Reactor signals

Example Reactor



The input pumps (left and right, from offshore pumps), are active when the reactor has <400 water (80% full).

The output pumps (to the turbines) are active when core temperature is >105°C. The reactor and engines work more effectively if the water is allowed to heat to boiling before being pumped out.

The cooling tower pump (top of reactor, left side) is active when it receives a 'C' signal. The left combinator outputs 'C' if the reactor is in overheat state, the right combinator outputs 'C' if the core temperature is >160°C. The cooling pumps therefore activate if the reactor core is over 160 degrees, or if the reactor is in the scram state, regardless of temperature. The input pumps (left and right, from offshore pumps), are active when the reactor has <400 water (80% full).The output pumps (to the turbines) are active when core temperature is >105°C. The reactor and engines work more effectively if the water is allowed to heat to boiling before being pumped out.The cooling tower pump (top of reactor, left side) is active when it receives a 'C' signal. The left combinator outputs 'C' if the reactor is in overheat state, the right combinator outputs 'C' if the core temperature is >160°C. The cooling pumps therefore activate if the reactor core is over 160 degrees, or if the reactor is in the scram state, regardless of temperature.

Example Fuel Processing

Spent fuel from the reactor comes in at bottom left, and is reprocessed at bottom right to DU and plutonium (with some buffer chests). This is a test setup and is running a Pu surplus, and the Pu buffer chest will eventually fill.

DU and Pu are moved up to the middle right to be recycled into enriched fuel via the MOX recipe, which is then belted down towards the reactor input stream at bottom left.

DU from the reprocessing buffer chest is also placed on the reactor input belt, alongside (re-)enriched fuel.

Reprocessing and MOX crafting result in a DU deficit, so when the buffer chest runs low the belt from the isotope separating plant (mid left) is enabled, to top up the buffer. This also produces small amounts of enriched fuel, which are placed on the empty lane of the belt from the MOX assembler. Spent fuel from the reactor comes in at bottom left, and is reprocessed at bottom right to DU and plutonium (with some buffer chests). This is a test setup and is running a Pu surplus, and the Pu buffer chest will eventually fill.DU and Pu are moved up to the middle right to be recycled into enriched fuel via the MOX recipe, which is then belted down towards the reactor input stream at bottom left.DU from the reprocessing buffer chest is also placed on the reactor input belt, alongside (re-)enriched fuel.Reprocessing and MOX crafting result in a DU deficit, so when the buffer chest runs low the belt from the isotope separating plant (mid left) is enabled, to top up the buffer. This also produces small amounts of enriched fuel, which are placed on the empty lane of the belt from the MOX assembler.

Optimisation

Reactors version history 1.6.0 - 2016/12/30 - Added low-priority "peak load" turbine, changed display name of existing turbine to "Base load steam turbine"

1.5.1 - 2016/11/26 - Fixed reactors not restarting if recipe changed while shut down

1.5.0 - 2016/11/01 - Reprocessing now produces slurry instead of DU, breeder reactor produces some Pu directly and some via reprocessing, added reactor throttle override signal

1.4.5 - 2016/10/29 - Reworked update algorithm to be more efficient and reliable, added custom reactor sound

1.4.4 - 2016/10/24 - Shutdown now continues until reactor power reaches zero, reactor emits status signal while in shutting down state

1.4.3 - 2016/10/16 - Added signal to turn off reactor, adjusted signal icons, added Russian localisation from kleho, reactor recipes now show duration at minimum power, actual duration at max power unchanged

1.4.2 - 2016/10/16 - Flow Control now optional again, reactors, turbines and cooling towers can be hand-crafted

1.4.1 - 2016/10/13 - Added blueprint support to the circuit interface - it should now keep wire settings

1.4.0 - 2016/10/09 - Fuel production now uses liquid slurry instead of uranium item, added RTG equipment, plutonium artifact crafting, uranium steel plate recipe and depleted uranium ammo

1.3.1 - 2016/10/04 - Turbines now primary output, ingot stack size changes, reactor power increased slightly

1.3.0 - 2016/10/03 - Improved fuel sprites, fixed bugs in control script, adjusted processing recipes, added turbine

1.1.1 - 2016/09/28 - Fixed error in reprocessing recipe, changed fuel consumption to increase linearly with power output

1.1.0 - 2016/09/26 - Reactor and cooling tower sub-component entities are now indestructible (but will still be removed if the reactor/tower is destroyed). Fuel processing and consumption speed adjusted.

1.0.0 - 2016/09/25 - Initial release.

Atomic Locomotives version history 1.0.0 - 2016/11/06 - Initial release.

Discussion/feedback/suggestions thread for Reactors and Atomic Locomotives Flow Control (or a similar mod that adds high-speed pumps) is required. Reactors need aof water.Reactors adds nuclear reactors, uranium and plutonium, along with recipes and technologies to make use of them. Each reactor produces 26 MW, enough to run 50 steam engines or 2 steam turbines (the turbine is a compact shortcut for 25 steam engines, it's no more or less efficient except in terms of space).Turbines come in two types, base load (primary priority) and peak load (secondary priority).Atomic Locomotives adds a heavy, powerful locomotive that's filled with plutonium at the factory and needs no further refuelling.Initially, an inefficient simple fission cycle produces power, marginally-useful byproducts and also waste. Subsequent research provides for reprocessing this waste into byproducts so it can at least be used rather than merely stored. Further research allows recycling of byproducts to fuel, and finally a breeder cycle that can be used (along with fission) to re-enrich processed waste and result in a zero-residue fuel cycle. Or you might deliberately run a surplus of one or more byproducts.Reactors have a 500-unit fluid tank, and when they are active (with a recipe set) they heat fluid in this tank, which you can use to power steam engines/turbines. Reactors produce up to 26 MW (slightly more than needed to run 50 steam engines or 2 turbines).Reactors will attempt to maintain an internal temperature of 150°C by increasing/decreasing their power production. Water in the core is heated to a maximum of 100°C, cooling the core in the process. Thus the more hot water you're using, the more power the reactor will have to produce to maintain its temperature. Reactors will not reduce power below 20%.If a reactor core's temperature rises above 200°C, it will enter emergency shutdown mode. In this mode, power output is set to 0, and will not be enabled again until the core temperature has been reduced to 16°C (through water cooling).Cooling towers can protect your reactor from overheating. They accept water of any temperature, and output (slightly less) water at 15°C. Using pumps and circuit conditions, you can set up your cooling towers to only activate when the reactor is beginning to overheat (or is in emergency shutdown). I prefer to set mine to activate at 160°C.: If your reactor is full of fluid, your cooling towers will not be able to push their cold water back in. For this reason I set my water intake pumps to only turn on if the reactor is <80% full.All signals are emitted/read from the circuit interface on the front of the reactor.Reactor core temperatureReactor coolant temperature - the temperature of the fluid in the heat exchangerReactor power output - as a percentageReactor shutting down - emitted while the reactor is throttling down after receiving a shutdown command, sending this signal to the reactor has no effectReactor overheated - this signal will be output while the reactor is in its emergency shutdown state, sending this signal to the reactor has no effectReactor target output (percentage) - Overrides automatic throttle if this signal is greater than zero. Does not remove minimum throttle of 20%. The main use of this signal is to force a reactor to run at max speed for faster production.Shut down reactor - If the reactor receives this signal it will reduce power to zero and halt operation. It will continue shutting down even if the signal is removed, until its output reaches zero.A reactor using the fission cycle produces only half as much plutonium (via waste reprocessing) as it needs to re-enrich its fuel. A reactor using the breeder cycle produces twice its own plutonium needs. If you use only basic fission, you will produce large amounts of depleted uranium. If you only use breeders, you will run a slow but steady plutonium surplus.Note that reactors don't have to be used to produce power - you might find it simpler to produce all your power from basic fission, and have a breeder reactor forced to run at full speed through the attachment of two actively-pumped cooling towers.Sometimes you may notice your reactor is not outputting water at 100°C. This is due to the order in which pipes, tanks and pumps update their volume and temperature.To get reliably hot output, make sure your reactor and its pumps are within the same chunk (use the F4 menu to show tile grid, and note the thicker black lines), and build your output pumps (i.e. pumps sending hot water to the engines) before the input pumps (i.e. cold water intake) and reactor.