Nuclear Tower of Power (or how to create obscene EU/t)

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Now then, as the one or two people who frequent the IC2 Nuclear Engineering forums might know, I originally came up with the CRCS (Continuously Re-Applied, Coolant System) reactor setup, but I was never really happy with it. Sure, you could produce copious quantities of EU/t, but it generally required so many cooling towers that it just wasn't economically feasable.

Then I got the idea to spam smaller nuclear reactors, and my brain latched on to the old Water Mill Tower system. Which led to this:

Spoiler

This is a modular nuclear setup which produces 720 EU/t per segment (each segment being one block tall). The pictured setup is ten segments high, for a total output of 7,200 EU/t, however you can adjust the height to suit your needs. It will fit in a 5 x 5 square with a depth of (# segments + 2).

Now then, this is not a cheap system. Each segment requires the following:

1x Fibre Cable (in the center)
2x Rednet Cable (on opposite corners, to provide power)
4x Fuzzy Import Bus (pulling dual uranium cells into the reactor)
4x Fuzzy Export Bus (pulling near-depleted uranium cells out of the reactor)
4x of this reactor.

The Rednet Cable can be hooked up to a manual switch, or it can be hooked up to any automated method of passing it a redstone signal based on various criteria (such as turning off when the MFSU's are full). As long as there are dual-uranium cells in the ME Network (which can be set to auto-craft), it will keep running. It can even be set to auto-craft re-enriched uranium cells and put them in an attached breeder (and you can then setup a Precise Export Bus to automatically pull out all completely full uranium cells to pull them out before they get damaged)

Each segment of reactors (4x) will require approximately 1500 copper, 136 tin, 608 Iron, 48 gold, and 12 uranium. However, these are largely static costs. Since I'm only using dual-uranium cells, the running costs are fairly low. It only requires the one dense copper plate per dual cell.

Since it is a modular system, you can set it up in stages. Set up maybe the first segment and hook it up to a means of producing more copper to create future segments. For example, two segments easily beats out the reactor DW20 has in his reactor room, once you calculate the loss from the lapis for his Condensators and fits in about the same space.

Cheap? No. But it is a system which can get close to matching HV solar arrays for energy output per block. In fact, if you are just talking vertically, it can even BEAT HV arrays, which will be capped out at 25 solar arrays for a 5 x 5 block, whereas you can build this all the way down to bedrock if you really want. Because your packets are 180 EU, you won't see that much total loss out of a couple of points of loss from cable length.

 

[Saice]

I don't really do much with nukes... but that looks impressive I gotta say.

 

[Omicron]

Not half bad! Though 15,000 copper up-front and 1 uranium every 1.4 minutes (yikes) is a fairly tall order. Personally I'd probably prefer something with a bit higher efficiency at the expense of total output, but with 1-chamber reactors you're admittedly limited in options.

For example, In my current SMP world I'm building a legit five 6-chamber reactor system (2 uranium reactors, 1 plutonium/thorium hybrid, 1 thorium sink, 1 breeder) that will run at 932 EU/t while just sipping fuel. The uranium pair will run at efficiency 4.67, and the GregTech pair at efficiency 8.08. I am expecting it to cost comparable to around 2.5 of your segments, which would produce about twice the EU/t but only at efficiency 3.00. Fair trade-off, would you say? (I would show it off, but it's far from complete yet )

By the way, for people who don't use MFR (they exist, I am one): you can also use Buildcraft structure pipes instead of rednet cabling on Shneekey's tower here, with red pipe wire running up the length and iron AND gates on each layer. Set them to "red pipe signal -> redstone signal AND inventory full -> redstone signal". Then you can apply a red pipe signal with a master switch from your control station.

 

[PonyKuu]

It is... sad that we need to build such complicated systems with a running cost to only get close to solar arrays. Do you see what solars did to IC2?
But your design is impressive, no doubts.

 

[Loufmier]

It is... sad that we need to build such complicated systems with a running cost to only get close to solar arrays. Do you see what solars did to IC2?

its more like what ic2 did to reactors...

 

[PonyKuu]

It's both, actually. Reactors by design have a disadvantage - they have a running cost. Solars did have other disadvantage - big footprint, but, you know.
It's an old story, I don't think we should talk of it here.

Back to topic, maybe it is better to make a tower of single-cell reactors to reduce the running cost even more?

 

[Shakie666]

It's both, actually. Reactors by design have a disadvantage - they have a running cost. Solars did have other disadvantage - big footprint, but, you know.
It's an old story, I don't think we should talk of it here.

Back to topic, maybe it is better to make a tower of single-cell reactors to reduce the running cost even more?

Well, if you have GT you can always centrifuge lava for copper right? Makes running costs somewhat moot.

I tried doing a CRCS setup on my last world, but it blew up despite there being more than enough cooling towers. When I get the AE fuzzy buses it should prevent that sort of thing from happening again.

By the way Pony, an MFR tree farm powering boilers can beat solars on pretty much all fronts, (other than space efficiency). Its sad that its the only thing that can...

 

[Loufmier]

By the way Pony, an MFR tree farm powering boilers can beat solars on pretty much all fronts, (other than space efficiency). Its sad that its the only thing that can...

while true, i think he was comparing IC2 generators.

 

[Shakie666]

while true, i think he was comparing IC2 generators.

InB4 power converters...

 

[Loufmier]

InB4 power converters...

well, i get what you are trying to tell, but i dont think its a good thing, that mods who aren`t ic2 addons somehow fix fucked up ic2 power generation

 

[Omicron]

I don't see anything "fucked up" about IC2 power generation. Other mods don't "fix" anything, they simply offer you something cheaper and more powerful so you have a top reason to download their mod. Same thing like it is with "but my macerator replacement gives you THREE ingots!", really.

 

[Loufmier]

I don't see anything "fucked up" about IC2 power generation. Other mods don't "fix" anything, they simply offer you something cheaper and more powerful so you have a top reason to download their mod. Same thing like it is with "but my macerator replacement gives you THREE ingots!", really.

i, personally, see ic2 power generation fucked up. with such energy package tiering you`d expect having lv, mv and hv generators at least. but you only have lv , variable nuclear reactor, which hardly reaches hv, without being high running cost, and then you have solars which are stable(except night) hv output.

 

[Siro]

i, personally, see ic2 power generation fucked up. with such energy package tiering you`d expect having lv, mv and hv generators at least. but you only have lv , variable nuclear reactor, which hardly reaches hv, without being high running cost, and then you have solars which are stable(except night) hv output.

Don't forget rain as well. I've tried solars once and that was quite enough. They're not reliable power unless you look at their minimum generation, which is below that of a single boiler.

 

[Runo]

Ic2 is both stabilized and destabilized by gregtech. The mass fab makes high efficiency reactors feasible in ic2, but you can get the same result from a lava generation system in gregtech with a little more work. The matter fab makes nuclear a hard bargain for teching to fusion because its weaker than the other power systems, but nuclear efficiency also goes up significantly with thorium and plutonium. Good tradeoffs I think.

OP, have you looked in detail at the re-calibrated vacuum freezer? I'm thinking of using crcs for plutonium and setting the thorium into low maintenance reactors. If the vacuum freezer doesn't crush the energy efficiency I might just use that, setting two quad plutonium cells next to each other with coolant and adding iridium reflectors/scaling as I go.

My main issue with your design is its simply not doable without lots of uranium bees. I've come to 50 uranium/day (*8 so 400 cells/day) mined being the breaking point on reactor scaling without them, which is about one full sized quarry run a day

 

[Loufmier]

Don't forget rain as well. I've tried solars once and that was quite enough. They're not reliable power unless you look at their minimum generation, which is below that of a single boiler.

while yes. boiler can have stable 360 eu/t output, but it requires other mods to craft it and supply it with fuel. i was referring only to ic2 power generation.
since solars have 0 running cost they are superior, despite drop in efficiency. advanced solars(which are made by greg, if i`m not mistaken) make them even more powerful by allowing solars to generate power during nigh/rain at reduced output.

 

[Omicron]

Advanced solars are not made by Greg, they are entirely unaffiliated. http://forum.industrial-craft.net/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=3291

 

[Loufmier]

Advanced solars are not made by Greg, they are entirely unaffiliated. http://forum.industrial-craft.net/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=3291

thank you for correction. cant remember why i though they were by him.

 

[Lathanael]

InB4 power converters...

PowerConverters are totally broken with the default settings. Before the last RC update you could get more EU out of a 36HP boiler using the steam->EU conversion than from using RC Turbines.

 

[Shakie666]

PowerConverters are totally broken with the default settings. Before the last RC update you could get more EU out of a 36HP boiler using the steam->EU conversion than from using RC Turbines.

Thats not because power converters are broken, its because turbines were too weak.

 

[natnif36]

Agreed.
Turbines are terrible.
Why should creating IC2 power via boilers require replacement of expensive steel whilst creating MJs doesn't?
That's why the magma crucible-thermal gen option is even used - because comparatively a lot of power forms are underpowered.

That nuclear design look sweet!
Can't check the actual components as I browse forums via iPod, so cannot use the planner - perpahs post a screenshot of the planner?
And 1500 copper a layer is pretty bloody steep, especially in comparison to the other resources required.
600 iron is easily obtainable via a vanilla iron golem farm.
Copper... Not so much. What IS a god way of generating this much copper? Like reactors cost a rediculous amount, and short of nether pumping (which can, and most likely will be disabled in everything using the latest BC version) so lava isn't a viable option either. IC2 was designed to be balanced/restrcited by iron, right?
Then why have reactors become obselete due to obscene prices and, compared to investing these resources on tree farms etc, terrible power gen.

On a slightly related note...
And is it possible to automate IC2 miners anymore?
Like via a turtle or something?
Place the miner, drop a battery, drill and scanner, place an ender chest above the miner, and then after a time period, pull the scanner, battery and drill from the miner, drop the battery into a (separate?) ender chest and draw out a fully charged one, charged externally, and pick up the minor, move <the range of the miner> blocks and then repeat the process? Of course checking every move and attacking and/or mining the block whenever the move fails.
This seems viable...
Does this sound like a good idea? It will take me (as a poor coder) a while to write, so I want to be sure it will work before starting.
I am unsure of the best way to extract mining pipe and have it dump cobble in ther instead, as flat bedrock isn't installed on my server... And I don't think the CoFH core option for it is turned on either.
What would be the best way to do this. Take into consideration I have underground biomes.