My fairly basic IC2 MOX Reactor.

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Volpe42

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
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So I was searching the forums and found posts saying its really hard to get MOX reactors with efficiency over 4.33. I came up with this design that I think seems pretty simple, and its 12.60 efficiency generating 1008 eu/t at 8,000 hull temp. It doesn't require cooling, and it uses only dual rods.

0C0A0A0C0C0A0A0C000A05050A0A05050A000C0A0A0C0C0A0A0C000C0A0A0C0C0A0A0C000A05050A0A05050A000C0A0A0C0C0A0A0C00

I am open to suggestions for improvements as well
 

GreenZombie

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Jul 29, 2019
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In any reactor, 2 adjacent dual rods have the same efficiency, heat, and power generation as a single quad rod : they just occupy more space: so your reactor is essentially a 4 - separate - quad design. I.e a base efficiency of 3 - with a x4 bonus for being at 80% Heat.

This reactor fits 5 quads in:
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So its still efficiency x3 (x4.2 @ 80%).

I found this design in my list of interesting designs. It has a base efficiency of 4 (so, x16.8 eff at 80%), and uses duals:
090C090C0C090C09001409140A0A14091400090C0A05050A0C0900090C0A05050A0C09001409140A0A14091400090C090C0C090C0900

It is really hard to produce better designs than this that can run safely with no downtime and can be automated (rods all the same type and no components that wear out) as without overclocked heat vents you are really constrained by the amount of heat you can remove, and heat goes up faster than efficiency as you stack rods next to each other: You can't really boost efficiency using neutron reflectors, as the increased heat is all being delivered to a smaller and smaller number of components. I trialed a couple of Eff 4 designs using this approach but the dual design above already does that without a reflector, and 2 reflectors plus a quad rod seems probably impossible to cool.
 

Volpe42

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
14
0
0
In any reactor, 2 adjacent dual rods have the same efficiency, heat, and power generation as a single quad rod : they just occupy more space: so your reactor is essentially a 4 - separate - quad design. I.e a base efficiency of 3 - with a x4 bonus for being at 80% Heat.

This reactor fits 5 quads in:
0A140A140A140A140A060A0C0A0C0A0C0A060A140A140A0C0A140A0C0A0C0A060A0C0A0C0A140A140A140A140A060A0C0A0C0A0C0A06
So its still efficiency x3 (x4.2 @ 80%).

I found this design in my list of interesting designs. It has a base efficiency of 4 (so, x16.8 eff at 80%), and uses duals:
090C090C0C090C09001409140A0A14091400090C0A05050A0C0900090C0A05050A0C09001409140A0A14091400090C090C0C090C0900

It is really hard to produce better designs than this that can run safely with no downtime and can be automated (rods all the same type and no components that wear out) as without overclocked heat vents you are really constrained by the amount of heat you can remove, and heat goes up faster than efficiency as you stack rods next to each other: You can't really boost efficiency using neutron reflectors, as the increased heat is all being delivered to a smaller and smaller number of components. I trialed a couple of Eff 4 designs using this approach but the dual design above already does that without a reflector, and 2 reflectors plus a quad rod seems probably impossible to cool.

The reactor planner says its a base efficiency of 12.x, keep in mind that it is running MOX at 8k temp.
 
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GreenZombie

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
2,402
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The reactor planner says its a base efficiency of 12.x, keep in mind that it is running MOX at 8k temp.

The efficiency of MOX fuel rods is calculated as their base efficiency (based on adjacent neutron sources), multiplied by a heat bonus - where the heat bonus factor is 1x at 0 Heat to 5x at 100% Heat (noting that max bonus is unsustainable as a reactor heated to 100% will blow up).

i.e.
mox_efficiency = (1+adjacent_neutron_sources)*(1+4*(current_heat/max_heat))

So MOX reactors look a lot more efficient (when heated) than regular reactors, but you still need to consider the base efficiency of rods - i.e. their efficiency at 0 hull heat - to determine if they are being under-utilized in any particular design.

Got a link to the reactor designer? Not sure what to so with your information

This link is to the reactor planner that seems current: It has MOX and Uranium modeling with the correct lifetimes.
https://github.com/MauveCloud/Ic2ExpReactorPlanner

The 2nd link is to an older planner, but I find it much more useful for designing reactors as it does model heat - and instantly gives feedback on which component (if any) is going to fail first allowing you to tinker with the design in ways the up to date planner does not allow.

https://forum.feed-the-beast.com/threads/request-for-ic2-reactor-planner-v3-download.164759/

It also just looks better and is screenshot friendly. It doesn't know about MOX, but heat works in the MOX reactor the same as regular reactors, so you can use it to design stable MOX reactors as well. The codes it makes are compatible with the newer planner so its easy to test designs in both planners.
 
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