@Pyure since you have experience with it, how are you liking it? Do you like the progression? And how do you feel about the fuel consumption and/or energy produced? Also, are you using default configs or what did you change?
I haven't tackled Nuclearcraft yet, since the configs updated a version or two ago, and I'm curious to know the opinion of someone who has actually used it.
Bear in mind I'm not the best person to ask...I like things to be more complex than the average players so your mileage may vary.
Also, bear in mind that the mod's in early development and the dev has demonstrated that he'll completely overhaul mechanics from version to version. Some stuff is clearly of the placeholder variety.
So far my experience has been mostly positive. The reactors are closest in comparison with BigReactors rather than ReactorCraft or IC2.
In terms of shape, they're more limited: you can strictly do cubes of vary sizes. That said, a 17x17 sounds a lot smaller than it is: its an absolutely massive structure to look at, and you'll need to do some serious quarrying just to build the structure, never mind actually filling it.
Speaking of filling it: the fuel rod mechanic is way more limited. You have a central fuel rod in the middle of the multiblock which is strictly structural. There's no placement of rods to work with neutron chain reactors or anything like that. Fuel in, power out. Other than the rod placement itself, this is very much like early Big Reactors (prior to turbines).
The fuel is where the mod shines at this point. You can mine various radioactive ores and reduce them to various isotopes. There's now a "decay hastener" block which I feel wasn't a great idea: I would have preferred to see this rolled into the reactors themselves. A sort of decay-breeder perhaps. But it lets you decay one element/isotope into another if you prefer a fuel farther down the chain.
As far as power output goes, its nothing shocking. Its deliberately following the benchmark of "other mods" (as per his videos), which means Big Reactors. I have a 13x13 LEU (low-enriched uranium, a weakass fuel) which is packed tight with graphite and produces....I think 39k RF/t if memory serves. Critically, the mod is rather configurable, so I believe you can tweak these values to taste on a pack by pack basis. My wiring capabilities wouldn't be able to handle any of the good fuels (of which there are oxidized, mox, plutonium and HEP.)
Unlike Big Reactors, heat is dangerous. Its mindlessly simple to deal with (don't turn on your reactor if it says it generates any heat) but if you're up late after a night of serious drinking and aren't paying attention, an errant graphite block can erase your base and possibly your neighbor's.
I haven't tried fusion yet because its under severe construction.
I feel that the mod needs more reactor "types". Something that lets me "transmute" fuels somehow at the cost of severe energy potential. (in other words, plutonium might have higher energy potential than LEU, but if all I want to run is LEU, then somehow transmuting plutonium to LEU at a shitty conversion ratio...and doing this via an actual reactor process, not the hastener...would be coolies.)
Which means breeders of some sort, which I happen to know is already on the list.
Pic1: Yep, 39k rf/t
Pic2: Might make sense to have multiple reactors (pictured: a pair of 9x9s and a 13x13 in the back-right.
Pic3: Close-up of the 13x13. The interior is just shy of 2200 blocks. You don't want to fill this without a builder's wand if you can help it. Filling it with a good balance of graphite and coolant meant a 20k difference in energy output if memory serves.
My original plan is a spherical tokomak, rather than the, as you say, commonly used ring tokomak, as there is already going to be a ring in the form of the particle accelerator in the mod , so I want there to be some variation - I'll look into possible other designs such as the stellerator as well, though.
I have no idea if the stellerator makes sense from a "fun" perspective, it was just the only alternative that came to mind.
Thorium is a tricky one - nowadays, players care more about power than 'energy per fuel cell', or whatever - I had considered halving the Thorium lifetime and doubling the heat and power, but with the introduction of the speed upgrades, I didn't feel it was necessary - Thorium is now a good source of U-233 in speed reactors, which in turn is a better source of Pu-242 (and Pu-239) than U-235.
There's a bit too much fuel in the world gen for people to care about fuel efficiency, which makes that worse. When did you add speed upgrades to reactors? I thought I saw you use them several videos ago but I don't see a slot for upgrades in the reactor.
If nothing else ever works in your mod, I am perfectly happy as long as the Nuclear furnace exists.
If anyone hasn't made one, it's so fast, it does a full stack in the time a normal furnace takes to make one item. It's so fast that only translocators are capable of matching it's throughput speed. (Maybe Maxed AE buses, but I've not tried those.) Best Furnace Ever.
Its also (and fairly) the least energy-efficient furnace ever. 1 uranium = 8 coal
But yeah, every once in a while I'll be in a big rush and I'll toss something into the nuker.