ReactorCraft again - This time with Breeders

[MajPayne21]

Ha, those Georgia Tech people.

BSME 2011, MSME 2013 here.

It's funny how much more often they show up in ReactorCraft threads.



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[thorium_engineer]

So I'm looking at making a fission reactor as my next project, up from my PBR.

Given all the reactors generate heat, is it correct that you can use water boilers directly, as well as staging via molten salt or co2?

I've built a tiny 4 core test reactor hooked to a co2 heat exchanger in creative to test, and while it's complaining (steam noises and particles), it hasn't melted. I'm not sure that's healthy though.

No, Reika has specifically said no water boilers on PBRs. I believe he even enforced it in v24.

Also, you GT guys are welcome to join the GT ftb server. Message me if you want the info. We'd be happy to have you.

 

[Demosthenex]

Ok, so you can't use the low temp boiler on a high temp reactor.

What about the other way? Why wouldn't you use co2 or salt on a regular core?

 

[thorium_engineer]

The PBR is in real life is part of a class called "High-Temperature Reactors." High as in upwards of 600 C. Regular reactors on the other hand run 350 C on the high end.
So, to answer your question, you would have a hard time getting the normal cores hot enough to use CO2 or sodium. The regular cores might even be coded to meltdown at 800 C.

 

[Demosthenex]

In a creative test I have 4 cores around a co2 heat exchanger and surrounded by reflectors. They are running at 800C, and emitting some steam noises but otherwise I can't see they have any problems.

The handbook says they melt at 1500, so I'm at roughly half.

I do find the noises disconcerting, so I'm trying the sodium next.

 

[Pyure]

So, to answer your question, you would have a hard time getting the normal cores hot enough to use CO2 or sodium.

^ Basically this.

I forget if the sodium thing will work or if its rigged to explode; sodium becomes "hot" at 300C which is easy with simple fission. CO2 however requires much higher as I understand it (never built a PBR myself). While I've seen my most aggressive stable reactors peak at 900C, its usually for a short period of time and when I'm trying to target more like 400C.

I do find the noises disconcerting, so I'm trying the sodium next.

I've learned to just live with the noises, especially since they occur around 500C, which means a sodium reactor is going to incur them occassionally anyway.

 

[Demosthenex]

I'm testing right now whether I can cool the reactor with sodium which caps my heat at 300C, and then use that to boil ammonia safely.

 

[Demosthenex]

Wow! Despite the fact that the sodium is inferred to have a temperature of 300C, when you transfer the hot sodium into a heat exchanger you can still pull 800C out of it!

I thought the heat exchanger was limited to the max heat of the liquid being inserted, not additive for total throughput.

This means you can't use a sodium loop to make ammonia safe, because you can still get the steam boilers too hot even though the input heated liquid shouldn't.

 

[Pyure]

Wow! Despite the fact that the sodium is inferred to have a temperature of 300C, when you transfer the hot sodium into a heat exchanger you can still pull 800C out of it!

I thought the heat exchanger was limited to the max heat of the liquid being inserted, not additive for total throughput.

This means you can't use a sodium loop to make ammonia safe, because you can still get the steam boilers too hot even though the input heated liquid shouldn't.

It would have been tricky for Reika to manage liquid temperatures (as opposed to machine temperatures which happen to have liquid in them).

Were you able to heat the sodium in a uranium reactor?

 

[Demosthenex]

It would have been tricky for Reika to manage liquid temperatures (as opposed to machine temperatures which happen to have liquid in them).

Were you able to heat the sodium in a uranium reactor?

Yep! I made two simple reactors, each with 4 cores around a heat exchanger (co2 or sodium) and then surrounded by reflectors.

As to liquid temperature, if you add hot liquid to a hot exchanger, then no heat is transferred because the HE can't get any hotter than the temperature of the liquid passing through it.

What you can do though is the limit the throughput. The colder the HE, the greater the throughput.