Nuclear Reactor Setup?

[Sienable]

Hi there,

So I was currently looking for a good setup for a nuclear reactor I thought I could build on my server. All I found here and elsewhere were pretty good setups, actually, but all very resource-based. We are playing on my server for a long time now, got a bunch of quarrys and 3 tunnel borers (the frame ones, don't know the name for them) doing the mining work for us, so resources are not the problem. I wanted to get our city more energy (we are currently using solar panels, a hell lots of them) without the solarpanels. So, can somebody help me out with a good setup for a nuclear reactor, no matter what costs?
I've been trying by myself but i am not a FTB Genious, so I screwed it all up very fast... I would be very grateful if somebody could send me a setup

 

[loboca]

I think the most important answer to your question is, What modpack are you using? IC2 version? With or without GregTech?

Either way, here is the IC2 forum on nukes, but beware that some setups may blow up if used for the wrong version.
http://forum.industrial-craft.net/index.php?page=Board&boardID=60

If you're on 1.4.7, DW20s nuke design that required replacing lapis thingys was pretty OP.

I personally run 100EU/t per nuke from tower of power, which seems to work to 1.5.2 (haven't tried in 1.6.x yet):
http://forum.feed-the-beast.com/threads/nuclear-tower-of-power-or-how-to-create-obscene-eu-t.23193/

 

[Physicist]

Are you as asking for highly resource intensive or not? More efficient reactors will require lots of materials, but you can make a super cheap safe inefficient one.

Also, you'll need to give an idea of how much risk you're willing to accept. (A really long running highly efficient reactor will blow up if the redstone timers are off or aren't chunkloaded and get unloaded at the wrong time, but can provide more power per uranium cell.)

 

[Sienable]

I'm currently playing on FTB Ultimate, thus 1.4.7, that means IC2 and Greg's. To answer you question, Physicist, as I said before, material really doesn't matter at all, we can't get after our tunnel machines with the storage Disks for our ME System. Safety is at the first place for us, because sometimes we are not plaing very frequently. Thanks for the fast answers, by the way

 

[MigukNamja]

A single, 6-chamber nuclear reactor is *only* going to make between 200 to 300 EU/t. A single HV Solar Panel will put out 512 EU/t.

However, nuclear reactors are at least more interesting then solar panels and they are cheaper to make. An HV solar panel will set you back around 5,000 each of iron, tin, and copper, not to mention the rubber, coal, and glass (sand), redstone, etc.,. A 6-chamber reactors that puts out around 250 EU/t is far less : about 10x less in materials cost.

Please go over to the IC2 forums in the Nuclear Engineering area and make sure you're looking at the right version of IC2.

 

[loboca]

1.4.7 and safe, best bet is that Tower of Power above. But if you want to get fancy, 1.4.7 was the best because you can do breeder reactors and start playing with thorium and a bunch of cool stuff. (which we now miss..

Look up breeder reactors with GregTech components.

 

[MigukNamja]

Breeder reactors in 1.6 with IC2 Exp look scary, scary hot, and it seems IC2 exp is actively discouraging breeders by offering more attractive plutonium and RTG recipes with the spent fuel rods.

BTW, does anyone know of the Radioactive Bee's Radioactive Comb has been updated for 1.6 with IC2 Exp ? I was disappointed when I finally got Radioactive bees, but their combs only produced wax and honey drops and no uranium. I've been cheating in 1 Uranium Ore for every 2 Radioactive Combs so far, but would like a proper fix/update. Probably an ExtraBees issue and not an IC2 Exp issue. I'll post this in Binnie's ExtraBees forum.

 

[Omicron]

1.4.7 and safe, best bet is that Tower of Power above. But if you want to get fancy, 1.4.7 was the best because you can do breeder reactors and start playing with thorium and a bunch of cool stuff. (which we now miss..

Look up breeder reactors with GregTech components.

Doesn't work in Ultimate. The pack uses a buggy beta version of GregTech meant to preview 1.5 content. Thorium is borderline useless because it only scales in heat but not in output, and hybrid scaling is catastrophically broken - almost anytime you put two fuel cells next to another that are not the same type, you get massive drops in output. Also, you can't really use the online reactor planner since heat scaling changed for both thorium and plutonium. You'll need to use the GregTech computercube ingame to design and validate setups.

The Ultimate pack is probably the worst possible version to try and build GregTech reactors with. Stick to pure uranium and pure plutonium, and toss your thorium in the recyclers (or build something silly like this, it should be stable with the heat numbers in that version and it's literally your only choice for thorium).

Numbers reference for GregTech 2.90h: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...R5TUxNVHhEZzUtX0dTZ3E2aVE&usp=drive_web#gid=9

 

[Physicist]

Sidetracked by MN:

Spoiler

-snip-
BTW, does anyone know of the Radioactive Bee's Radioactive Comb has been updated for 1.6 with IC2 Exp ? -snip-

Looks like the latest version of binnies mods is 1.8 dev 2, so if that's not giving you uranium, perhaps it's bugged (or it's really rare? I haven't ever gotten to radioactive bees. Just learning them.)

IC2 Experimental for 1.6's nuclear system is currently in-progress, so many things aren't yet balanced (and nukes are more interesting, but very underpowered so far).

To the question of cost, like MigukNamja said, 10x cheaper for reactors, so build 10 and get 2,500 EU, instead of 1 HV Solar and 512. Gregtech changes some materials and adds additional components, but they should all still work together, just scaling in heat dispersion (helium coolant) or energy/heat output (plutonium on the higher end, uranium in the middle, and thorium on the lower). Otherwise, that IC2 wiki page will serve you well. Remember to keep the reactors and associated infrastructure (redstone timers, power cables, mfsu's) chunkloaded (they continue to burn fuel and if not completely internally cooled, heat up, even if they're not in loaded chunks, but the explosion is 'conveniently' saved for you when you reload the chunks).

If you're offline a lot I suspect you want long-running power, so consider building reactors that produce so much energy that some excess heat is inevitable, so ensure they are turned off and back on at regular intervals by something like a Programmable Rednet Controller. That way you'll get the most from every fuel cycle, and get more blocks dug per fuel tick. Unfortunately, I don't know where to find a schematic for that kind of reactor.

Never fear, though, on that same wiki page is this reactor planner. You can experiment and discover how long a given design can run for, and how long you need to cool it before it can run the full duration again.

Some musings on what you might want:

Spoiler

Start with 2-4 uranium quad cells in one corner and work on cooling them throughout the rest of the reactor with heat exchangers, overclocked heat vents, and component vents. Then, try something new and see if you can do it better. Components will turn red if they aren't properly cooled, and if you're way underpowered on the whole reactor cooling, it'll tell you mark v the whole time.

You might want something between mark 3 and 4 (but maybe 1 or 2 for comfort to start, then work up). A long running setup with low maintenance makes me think you'll want to avoid single use components, but you could just configure the reactor to bleed small amounts of heat into them, but not enough so they die, so you can recharge them when you replace the fuel.

edit: Removed a bit about electrical engines; reread your post and it looks like you're already using EU to power everything, so I'm sure you've got that part down.

 

[Physicist]

I read through the tower of power link that lobaca linked above: Impressive.

It's not super high efficiency per unit of fuel, though, so if you have TONS of uranium, go for it. If not, my rambling above will burn through a smaller uranium supply to produce more eu/fuel unit at the costs of experimentation on your part and timer-controlled risk.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

I read through the tower of power link that lobaca linked above: Impressive.

It's not super high efficiency per unit of fuel, though, so if you have TONS of uranium, go for it. If not, my rambling above will burn through a smaller uranium supply to produce more eu/fuel unit at the costs of experimentation on your part and timer-controlled risk.

Eh, an Efficiency of 3.0, as cited in the example reactor, isn't too shabby really. Practically, you aren't going to get up over a 4 or 5 anyways.

Considering how expensive the design is, anyone who -can- build it can probably fuel it for quite some time.

Of course, if the OP wants high efficiency AND high EU output and REALLY doesn't care about material costs, there's the Tower of Power: CRCS Edition! However, that is largely an experimental build. Granted, you can probably automate it with RP2 in 1.4.7 so the AE part isn't so important, but it will be up to the end-user to come up with an explosion-proof automation system.

For a guide on CRCS systems in general (which very much sound like something the OP would be interested in, since they are very resource-intensive but also high efficiency AND high EU output), check here.