Fuel Efficicent big reactor

[mattp_12]

I was wondering if anyone knew of a good big reactor design. I know about the big reactor simulator websites, but I don't know how to design a reactor.
I have all the materials to make a huge one besides the gelid cryotheum. All suggestions are welcome

 

[rhn]

Size? Active or passive? Power required?
You need to set up some sort of parameters for us or we have no idea which end of the ballpark we are in.

Huge reactors are overrated IMO.

 

[mattp_12]

Size? Active or passive?

Pretty much any size (I have like 31k iron ore plus 21k coal ore and a TON of yellorium). The reactor is the one without the turbine... Forgot if it's passively or active.

 

[rhn]

Pretty much any size (I have like 31k iron ore plus 21k coal ore and a TON of yellorium). The reactor is the one without the turbine... Forgot if it's passively or active.

I usually always recommend against building huge passive reactors(without turbines) as it is so inefficient. Turbines are approx 10x as efficient(as long as you have a constant power need).

Without Cryotheum your best and only option is Ender. You usually want to use those two in combination as they are mutually opposites. But I tried putting together a few example reactors using only Ender:
http://br.sidoh.org/#reactor-design...ertion=87&layout=O5EOE5X2E5X2E5X2E5X2E5XEO5EO

http://br.sidoh.org/#reactor-design...X2EXEXEXEX2E7X2EXEXEXEX2E7X2EXEXEXEX2E7XEO7EO

Now, I design reactors with the mindset of: Give me a volume of space and I will strive to design the best possible reactor in that space. This is because I always incorporate my reactors into builds.
It is also very important to know the size of reactor, since the placements of conductive materials and fuel rods needs to be optimized against that size. If you change the size of a reactor then you cannot simply use the same design as a different sized reactor and expect it to hit the "sweet spot" as well.

Note: Some people will argue that you need multiple layers of Ender/whatever on the outside of the fuel rods to catch radiation. This is a sound idea as this is how the mechanic work. But in reality in every single case I have seen, it have always been more efficient to use that space for more fuel rods(irradiate each other for increased fuel efficiency) and cooling there of.

If you end up finding a specific reactor size you would prefer, just post it and I can give it another go.

 

[mattp_12]

I usually always recommend against building huge passive reactors(without turbines) as it is so inefficient. Turbines are approx 10x as efficient(as long as you have a constant power need).

Without Cryotheum your best and only option is Ender. You usually want to use those two in combination as they are mutually opposites. But I tried putting together a few example reactors using only Ender:
http://br.sidoh.org/#reactor-design...ertion=87&layout=O5EOE5X2E5X2E5X2E5X2E5XEO5EO

http://br.sidoh.org/#reactor-design...X2EXEXEXEX2E7X2EXEXEXEX2E7X2EXEXEXEX2E7XEO7EO

Now, I design reactors with the mindset of: Give me a volume of space and I will strive to design the best possible reactor in that space. This is because I always incorporate my reactors into builds.
It is also very important to know the size of reactor, since the placements of conductive materials and fuel rods needs to be optimized against that size. If you change the size of a reactor then you cannot simply use the same design as a different sized reactor and expect it to hit the "sweet spot" as well.

Note: Some people will argue that you need multiple layers of Ender/whatever on the outside of the fuel rods to catch radiation. This is a sound idea as this is how the mechanic work. But in reality in every single case I have seen, it have always been more efficient to use that space for more fuel rods(irradiate each other for increased fuel efficiency) and cooling there of.

If you end up finding a specific reactor size you would prefer, just post it and I can give it another go.

Thanks for the long reply :3. I actually just started production of cryotheum dust and will soon semi automate it going into a magma crucible and into a flood gate that will fill the reactor.
Could you find/ make reactors that use both liquids..?

 

[rhn]

Thanks for the long reply :3. I actually just started production of cryotheum dust and will soon semi automate it going into a magma crucible and into a flood gate that will fill the reactor.
Could you find/ make reactors that use both liquids..?

Well to use both materials you really need to go up in size for it to be worth it. The extra layers added by it are usually not worth it compared to simply having more Fuel rods. This is probably is probably just on the verge on where it is worth doing:
http://br.sidoh.org/#reactor-design...O5C2OEC5XC2EC5XC2EC5XC2EC5XC2EC5XCE2O5C4O5E2O
You can compare its stats to something simple like this:
http://br.sidoh.org/#reactor-design...X2CXCXCXCX2C7X2CXCXCXCX2C7X2CXCXCXCX2C7XCO7CO

If you go bigger it becomes a more valid solution due to the fact that you end up needing more and more cooling in the "fuel rod/cooling" balance. It is then better to fully take advantage of the radiation instead as you cannot keep removing fuelrods to add more cooling (as it will impact the fuel rod breeding mechanic(fuel efficiency) too much).
http://br.sidoh.org/#reactor-design...CXC2EC11XC2ECXCXCXCXCXCXC2EC11XCE2O11C4O11E2O

Bear in mind that mixing the Ender and Cryotheum like this is EXTREMELY tedious and expensive as it have to be build up manually layer by layer. You could use solutions where the two fluids doesn't touch each other, but those would not be nearly as efficient.

But if you really need this much power, you should really consider turbines IMO
I prefer a moderate turbine setup as backbone for my power network. Then different renewable power sources, passive BR reactors etc. set to "kick in" in sequence if the turbines are not enough. Super easy to do with a EnderIO Capacitor Bank and Power Monitors.

 

[Zarkov]

My advice would be to not build the reactor too big, if you want to use turbines. Like rhn says, they increase efficiency a lot, but you also need several of them to handle the steam from a large reactor since they can only use 2000 mB/t each.

What I usually do is build a big passively cooled reactor and skip the turbines. I'm currently getting 100k RF/t out of a passively cooled reactor which is getting fueled by 15 industrial apiaries with yellorium bees. I'm getting a small surplus of yellorium. I wouldn't recommend going for a similar setup unless you have Gendustry.

When yellorium is renewable (without causing too much lag), fuel efficiency basically doesn't matter any more.

 

[Inaeo]

I also recommend using a turbine as soon as feasible. The boost to both efficiency and power generation makes it a no brainer. The idea of centralized main power with multiple on-site and/or backup systems is also highly recommended for more reasons than I care to count.

If you want the challenge of creating a reactor, play around with it. Power output and fuel consumption are modified in the configs, so what some people come up with as super reactors may not do it for you. The number of hours I spent in a creative world testing reactors for my Monster server is just shy of criminal, and I had ton of fun tweaking setups for our particular needs at the time. IMO, this is truly where the fun in BR lies.

If you just want power, I recommend ditching the passive reactor and moving straight to turbines running off other mods' steam producers (MFR is prime, RailCraft is fuel hungry but functional, any oreDict steam works). These can be renewable (in some cases nearly cheaty) in fueling over the long haul. Since 1.7, BR has added a Yellorium + Sand = Cyanite recipe that allowed me to create three turbines so far while never actually building a reactor.

 

[asb3pe]

In Infinity, I ran two max sized BR Turbines (16x9x9 outside dimen) off of one very small BR Reactor (3x9x7tall outside) sandwiched in between the Turbines. The reactor is just 4 columns of 5-tall Fuel Rods, and I put Gelid Cryo in between the columns altho I don't really think that is necessary. I butted the fluid input/output ports up to each other, one pair for each turbine obv. Then I used an ExtraUtilities Liquid Transfer Node with stacks of Mining and Speed Upgrades to pull water into the BR Reactor, and that was more than sufficient to keep the Turbines topped off with steam. In fact, I set the BR Reactor Control Rods to 20%-15%-15%-20% moderation to conserve fuel. I just kept increasing the Control Rod percentages until my Turbines began to run out of steam, then I backed off one notch. I used 37 Enderium Blocks per Turbine, so I got 48K RF/t each. If I used 32 Ludicrite Blocks instead, my server-mates were getting just over 50K RF/t for each Turbine - 100K RF/t off a tiny 3x9x7 Reactor! That's the power of BR Turbines. If I just run the Reactor by itself, passively, it would prob put out about 5K RF per tick or thereabouts.

 

[Inaeo]

In Infinity, I ran two max sized BR Turbines (16x9x9 outside dimen) off of one very small BR Reactor (3x9x7tall outside) sandwiched in between the Turbines. The reactor is just 4 columns of 5-tall Fuel Rods, and I put Gelid Cryo in between the columns altho I don't really think that is necessary. I butted the fluid input/output ports up to each other, one pair for each turbine obv. Then I used an ExtraUtilities Liquid Transfer Node with stacks of Mining and Speed Upgrades to pull water into the BR Reactor, and that was more than sufficient to keep the Turbines topped off with steam. In fact, I set the BR Reactor Control Rods to 20%-15%-15%-20% moderation to conserve fuel. I just kept increasing the Control Rod percentages until my Turbines began to run out of steam, then I backed off one notch. I used 37 Enderium Blocks per Turbine, so I got 48K RF/t each. If I used 32 Ludicrite Blocks instead, my server-mates were getting just over 50K RF/t for each Turbine - 100K RF/t off a tiny 3x9x7 Reactor! That's the power of BR Turbines. If I just run the Reactor by itself, passively, it would prob put out about 5K RF per tick or thereabouts.

As stated above, the power and fuel usage is configurable. I also am using Infinity (with base configs) and my max sized turbines using Ludicrite coils produce just over 28Krf/t. Not that that is anything to shake a stick at, mind you, but it just goes to prove that unless we know which configs the OP is using, its really up to him to figure out what works best for his situation.

 

[rhn]

I butted the fluid input/output ports up to each other, one pair for each turbine obv. Then I used an ExtraUtilities Liquid Transfer Node with stacks of Mining and Speed Upgrades to pull water into the BR Reactor, and that was more than sufficient to keep the Turbines topped off with steam.

If you recycle water that way(as you always should) then a single Aqueous Accumulator would do

 

[Skyqula]

I know about the big reactor simulator websites, but I don't know how to design a reactor.

You might find this post usefull. Should tell you all you need to know to design a good reactor.