If you are looking for an easy to build - fuel efficient - passively cooled Big Reactor this might help.
This is my Big Reactor, and showing you why it is the way it is might help you build your own Big Reactors.
Basically the reactor is made up of layers. Each layer contributes up to ~5000RF/t - so you simply build it with as many layers as your power requirements need. For example, add two layers for each MFS mining laser you wish to power (using AgS configs).
In terms of width and breadth, I build mine as an 11x11, but ideally it should be a 13x13, and you can probably get away with 9x9:
Here is the layout of the interior of the reactor:
.'s represent blocks that can be filled with air, or anything.
c's represent coolant. Cryotheum.
x's represent fuel rods.
Comments:
The core is designed for maximum fertilization: The core is NOT an 'x' or a '+' - it is densely packed with as many fuel rods as possible directly adjacent to each other: This ensures the maximum amount of radiation reaches adjacent fuel rods for fertilization. If you look at each fuel rod ('x') you can see that each one has 3-4 other fuel rods lined n/s or e/w with it.
The core is designed to stay cool: The hollow shape means every fuel rod has 2 faces adjacent to a coolant block. This facilitates the rapid flow of heat out the fuel rods into the reactor interior.
The reactor is big: There are at least 3 blocks of coolant between any fuel rod and the edge of the reactor. 3 blocks means that most of the radiation is captured and turned into RF. This also means the volume of the reactor is large, which keeps the casing temperature down.
It does look like it takes a lot of cryotheum to build: 36 per layer. As flowing cryotheum works just as well as a coolant/moderator/absorber, its quite easy to cut that down to 24 per layer by not filling the middle row of each 3x3 coolant filled area. If you are willing to use the glass pillars to support source blocks, you can possibly get by with as few as 4 cryotheum blocks to fill the entire reactor however high by teasing the flow over blocks that you then destroy.
My 11x7x11 reactor gets 25kRF/t with 0% moderation. Rod temp of 1277. Fuel burn of 0.238 for an efficency of 105MRF/ingot.
Moderated to 50% the output is 14kRF/t @ 121MRF/ingot (so there is a lot of benefit to building it 2x higher than you need).
One day, when I am finished playing with this design, I might build an actively cooled reactor.
This is my Big Reactor, and showing you why it is the way it is might help you build your own Big Reactors.
Basically the reactor is made up of layers. Each layer contributes up to ~5000RF/t - so you simply build it with as many layers as your power requirements need. For example, add two layers for each MFS mining laser you wish to power (using AgS configs).
In terms of width and breadth, I build mine as an 11x11, but ideally it should be a 13x13, and you can probably get away with 9x9:
Here is the layout of the interior of the reactor:
Code:
...ccc...
...ccc...
...ccc...
cccxxxccc
cccxcxccc
cccxxxccc
...ccc...
...ccc...
...ccc....'s represent blocks that can be filled with air, or anything.
c's represent coolant. Cryotheum.
x's represent fuel rods.
Comments:
The core is designed for maximum fertilization: The core is NOT an 'x' or a '+' - it is densely packed with as many fuel rods as possible directly adjacent to each other: This ensures the maximum amount of radiation reaches adjacent fuel rods for fertilization. If you look at each fuel rod ('x') you can see that each one has 3-4 other fuel rods lined n/s or e/w with it.
The core is designed to stay cool: The hollow shape means every fuel rod has 2 faces adjacent to a coolant block. This facilitates the rapid flow of heat out the fuel rods into the reactor interior.
The reactor is big: There are at least 3 blocks of coolant between any fuel rod and the edge of the reactor. 3 blocks means that most of the radiation is captured and turned into RF. This also means the volume of the reactor is large, which keeps the casing temperature down.
It does look like it takes a lot of cryotheum to build: 36 per layer. As flowing cryotheum works just as well as a coolant/moderator/absorber, its quite easy to cut that down to 24 per layer by not filling the middle row of each 3x3 coolant filled area. If you are willing to use the glass pillars to support source blocks, you can possibly get by with as few as 4 cryotheum blocks to fill the entire reactor however high by teasing the flow over blocks that you then destroy.
My 11x7x11 reactor gets 25kRF/t with 0% moderation. Rod temp of 1277. Fuel burn of 0.238 for an efficency of 105MRF/ingot.
Moderated to 50% the output is 14kRF/t @ 121MRF/ingot (so there is a lot of benefit to building it 2x higher than you need).
One day, when I am finished playing with this design, I might build an actively cooled reactor.
