IC2 Nuclear reactor automation in direwolf20

[GreenZombie]

I have had a "basic" 360 EU/t reactor ticking over in my direwolf20 based game for a while now. But its getting annoying having to manually replace the spent fuel rods, and I'd like to try a design that runs at >0C.

IC2 Nuclear Control is included in the pack, but all it seems to have are some sensors that can detect how hot the reactor is and emit redstone signals. (Which would seem to render the non remote versions useless as, attached to the reactor, their redstone signal would just lock an overheating reactor on!?)

 

[rhn]

I prefer to use a ME subnetwork(at least I have been in 1.6.4). Stick an Export and Import bus on the reactor and filter them respectively for the full and spent fuel rod. Empty ones then automatically get pulled out and full ones get put in to replace. This does however require a "full" reactor setup. If the one you are using is not, then you can probably fill it with some item that does not affect the reactor adversely(in 1.6.4 you could just put in reactor plates).

And yes the non-wireless Nuclear control detector have always rubbed me the wrong way. But the remote ones are great. You hook their redstone signal up to an AND gate, hook in a Lever and redstone output from your MFSU(or range trigger detecting bank of MFSUs) and then you have complete control of your reactors. It will shut off if reactors get hot. You can shut them off manually with lever from a comfortable location and it will shut off once storage is full.

 

[GreenZombie]

I prefer to use a ME subnetwork(at least I have been in 1.6.4). Stick an Export and Import bus on the reactor and filter them respectively for the full and spent fuel rod. Empty ones then automatically get pulled out and full ones get put in to replace. This does however require a "full" reactor setup. If the one you are using is not, then you can probably fill it with some item that does not affect the reactor adversely(in 1.6.4 you could just put in reactor plates).

And yes the non-wireless Nuclear control detector have always rubbed me the wrong way. But the remote ones are great. You hook their redstone signal up to an AND gate, hook in a Lever and redstone output from your MFSU(or range trigger detecting bank of MFSUs) and then you have complete control of your reactors. It will shut off if reactors get hot. You can shut them off manually with lever from a comfortable location and it will shut off once storage is full.

My reactor is built up from a 3x3 tileable pattern. a Quad fuel rod goes in the center and is surrounded by cooling, with distributors on the corners. I don't frankly understand why it works - ive played with the reactor planner and never understood why some designs seem to have cooling scattered everywhere and some need cooling adjacent to the fuel rods. At any rate, there are 12 "empty" slots in the reactor that I think I can fill with some relatively random cooling component. It will cost some iron, but the idea of simply using AE to automate it does appeal.

I do not understand at all how higher mark reactors work where cooling components need to be replaced regularly.

 

[adamich]

try ender io conduits with NBT filters

 

[rhn]

My reactor is built up from a 3x3 tileable pattern. a Quad fuel rod goes in the center and is surrounded by cooling, with distributors on the corners. I don't frankly understand why it works - ive played with the reactor planner and never understood why some designs seem to have cooling scattered everywhere and some need cooling adjacent to the fuel rods. At any rate, there are 12 "empty" slots in the reactor that I think I can fill with some relatively random cooling component. It will cost some iron, but the idea of simply using AE to automate it does appeal.

I do not understand at all how higher mark reactors work where cooling components need to be replaced regularly.

I have not played with the 1.7 IC2 reactors at all yet, so cannot help you there. But things tend to get so complex so quickly that it is probably just a good idea to look up some layouts on the IC2 forum instead for inspiration/ideas/direct copy.

 

[Pyure]

For a Mark1, with only one fuel type, its usually a simple matter of setting something like enderIO item conduits to look for empty fuel rods and insert full ones. It gets more complicated if there's more than one fuel type.

For higher tier reactors, you're on the right track with NC, but I've never used it. All I know is that's the standard way of automating them.

 

[rhn]

How much have the reactor mechanics actually changed from 1.6 to 1.7 btw?

 

[GreenZombie]

For a Mark1, with only one fuel type, its usually a simple matter of setting something like enderIO item conduits to look for empty fuel rods and insert full ones. It gets more complicated if there's more than one fuel type.

For higher tier reactors, you're on the right track with NC, but I've never used it. All I know is that's the standard way of automating them.

My reactor is a 50/50 mix atm of regular fuel and MOX fuel rods. The only difference I can tell is the MOX fuel rods last half as long for the exact same EU/t

 

[GreenZombie]

How much have the reactor mechanics actually changed from 1.6 to 1.7 btw?

There is a 5x5x5 multiblock form now that kills direct EU production and instead produces super heated steam.

 

[rhn]

There is a 5x5x5 multiblock form now that kills direct EU production and instead produces super heated steam.

What I meant was, have the reactor layout mechanics changed?

 

[rhn]

My reactor is a 50/50 mix atm of regular fuel and MOX fuel rods. The only difference I can tell is the MOX fuel rods last half as long for the exact same EU/t

Automation becomes a real problem when you have different kinds of fuel rods that needs to be placed at specific places. You then need something that is capable of inserting items into specific slots and use enough of those to cover all the fuel rod locations.

You should also save your MOX fuel for a MOX reactor. MOX fuel is more efficient the higher the reactor temperature is. So you design temperature stable reactors and manually bring them to a very high temperature initially(by removing some cooling) and then it will remain that way forever.

 

[Pyure]

Automation becomes a real problem when you have different kinds of fuel rods that needs to be placed at specific places. You then need something that is capable of inserting items into specific slots and use enough of those to cover all the fuel rod locations.

You should also save your MOX fuel for a MOX reactor. MOX fuel is more efficient the higher the reactor temperature is. So you design temperature stable reactors and manually bring them to a very high temperature initially(by removing some cooling) and then it will remain that way forever.

Yeah, a good MOX design can produce 800 eu/t running safely (Mark 1) if you don't mind suffering a bit of heat damage if you walk too close to it (needs to be running at around 800 eu/t)

This is as a passive reactor, don't need the 5x5 setup.

 

[rhn]

Hmm seems like the Reactor layout is pretty much the same from 1.6 to 1.7. In that case I would strongly recommend this uranium reactor: 21p0axsp4l073uhxj0vluhyyum4k6qvj0sqr867wl4ylcn4qdoix3yd83b78y8enonfoolys5g23280
It is VERY simple and easy to automate, yet it have a very good efficiency and low running cost. It is also a single chamber setup, so you can simply stack them up against each other(unless that have changed with the multiblock structure. In that case I think you can have 3x layouts in one reactor if you alternate them up and down Nope...). 100EU/t does maybe not seem like much, but since you can stack them tightly I have for example in my current world just used 32 of them.

 

[Pyure]

chris becke, if you're not familiar, rhn is using http://www.talonfiremage.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/v3/reactorplanner.html or the offline variant (or the new version). You can paste his code into that.

Its also perfectly normal to tear your hair out trying to get the online version to work, especially in chrome.

@rhn, that's a pretty efficient single-chamber reactor, nice. fwiw, generally speaking the 5x5 setups are way more efficient (although not necessarily better eu/t burst output) but can be a significant pain in the ass get working nicely.

 

[Pyure]

Rhn's reactor.

 

[GreenZombie]

Hmm seems like the Reactor layout is pretty much the same from 1.6 to 1.7. In that case I would strongly recommend this uranium reactor: 21p0axsp4l073uhxj0vluhyyum4k6qvj0sqr867wl4ylcn4qdoix3yd83b78y8enonfoolys5g23280
It is VERY simple and easy to automate, yet it have a very good efficiency and low running cost. It is also a single chamber setup, so you can simply stack them up against each other(unless that have changed with the multiblock structure. In that case I think you can have 3x layouts in one reactor if you alternate them up and down).

I've always used this: 21p07wtikoj0qqab1wcqvom80ywlzvbwxlbwq046w02y2uxauc8r1w0x43l84xufe9ho3s6k4q2yvwg

But for MOX im not sure which design to go with.

 

[Pyure]

I've always used this: 21p07wtikoj0qqab1wcqvom80ywlzvbwxlbwq046w02y2uxauc8r1w0x43l84xufe9ho3s6k4q2yvwg

But for MOX im not sure which design to go with.

This one generates up to 1000 eu/t depending on how much fire damage you can tolerate. I run it at 80% for 800 eu/t:
http://www.talonfiremage.pwp.blueyo...hbu0hb6kptt6l2weg6xyzkp9ynvk4yranpdd9x31o2t4w

A list of good ones is at http://forum.industrial-craft.net/index.php?page=Thread&postID=143343#post143343

There's one I've never built that produces 1500 eu/t max, but its considerably less efficient.

 

[rhn]

chris becke, if you're not familiar, rhn is using http://www.talonfiremage.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/v3/reactorplanner.html or the offline variant (or the new version). You can paste his code into that.

Its also perfectly normal to tear your hair out trying to get the online version to work, especially in chrome.

@rhn, that's a pretty efficient single-chamber reactor, nice. fwiw, generally speaking the 5x5 setups are way more efficient (although not necessarily better eu/t burst output) but can be a significant pain in the ass get working nicely.

I completely gave up on the online version of the planner. Have been using the offline one always. Seems there is a "new" one now: http://forum.industrial-craft.net/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=10998


I got the design from this thread:
http://forum.industrial-craft.net/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=8966
There are tons of good stuff there, including a post on MOX reactors somewhere deep inside the thread(you can find it easier with google probably).

 

[rhn]

This is the MOX reactor I have been using: 0C0A0C0A0C140A00000A140A14140A0C00000C0A05050A140A00000C0A05050A140A00000A140A14140A0C00000C0A0C0A0C140A0000
I am a bit of a chicken so I have only been running them(I have 4 in a cluster, auch) slightly below 7000 so they don't hurt me.
But it is also super easy and safe to automate. No need for any special automation to shut it off or anything. Just pull out rods and shove in the new.

 

[Pyure]

That's a good point; I think the reactor I suggested there was an older variant that requires two different types of MOX rods.. Its a pain to automate.