NOTE: I respectfully ask any and all posters to this thread to NOT turn this into a "recommended builds" thread. The aim of this thread is to discuss and discern the mechanics behind ReactorCraft, NOT to give people pre-made designs from which to build.
FURTHER NOTE: I am NOT Reika nor am I posting this in any official capacity with relation to his mods. Anything I post here is not to be construed as coming from The Man Himself, merely what I have, personally, gathered and discovered during my work with ReactorCraft.
ReactorCraft is a powerful mod, one which lends itself well to a certain...creative spirit that is, at times, lacking in other nuclear-based mods out there. The mechanics are, however, somewhat murky and poorly-understood by many, myself included. Herein, I wish to discuss what I, personally, have found out about the mod during my time spent tinkering with it.
Kinds of Reactors
As of this writing, there are five kinds of reactors in ReactorCraft:
Neutrons are the main carriers of heat for all but the HTG reactor. In general, the more neutrons you make, the more heat you get, for better or for worse. There are six kinds of neutrons in ReactorCraft:
The Steam Boiler
The humble steam boiler is the basis for all power generation in ReactorCraft. Its method of action is quite simple: heat a fluid inside to the point it becomes a gas, pump said gas into a turbine to make it turn and, thus, generate usable power. The boiler can accept two kinds of working fluid: plain water and ammonia. Water is the most plentiful and easy to come by of the two, it is also the safest to work with. Ammonia requires more effort to collect, requiring that you process ammonium nitrate and quicklime (the latter of which can be made renewable with chicken eggs and a blast furnace) to make the fluid. It also has the danger of detonating at a far lower temperature than water. However, with these risks and the requirement that you recollect the spent steam and process it back into usable fluid (at a slight loss) come with the boon of generating more power (200% for traditional turbines, or 150% for high-pressure turbines) per unit of steam than water.
More to come as I find it! Feel free to add anything you think I might've missed and/or gotten buggered up. Again, all this is just my own, personal interpretation of both my experiences and what I've gleaned from looking into ReC's guts. Also, once more, I ask that this not become a "recommended builds" thread. I want people to use this as a springboard from which they can come up with their own designs, not just ape what they see someone else post.
[EDIT 12 August 2016 1430EDT; Some corrections, courtesy of Reika. I derped and misinterpreted some of what I was reading.]
FURTHER NOTE: I am NOT Reika nor am I posting this in any official capacity with relation to his mods. Anything I post here is not to be construed as coming from The Man Himself, merely what I have, personally, gathered and discovered during my work with ReactorCraft.
ReactorCraft is a powerful mod, one which lends itself well to a certain...creative spirit that is, at times, lacking in other nuclear-based mods out there. The mechanics are, however, somewhat murky and poorly-understood by many, myself included. Herein, I wish to discuss what I, personally, have found out about the mod during my time spent tinkering with it.
Kinds of Reactors
As of this writing, there are five kinds of reactors in ReactorCraft:
- The pebble bed reactor, also known as the High-Temperature Gas Reactor (HTGR). Uses uranium-doped graphite fuel pellets to heat carbon dioxide gas, which is fed into heat exchangers to create steam to run turbines.
- The standard fission reactor. Uses either enriched uranium (U-235) fuel pellets or plutonium fuel to heat water/ammonia boilers directly by bombarding them with neutrons to produce heat. Generates more power than an HTGR, but also has greater risks including meltdown, explosion, as well as requiring disposal of radioactive waste products to keep the reactor running efficiently.
- The Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor (LMFBR). Uses special breeder fuel pellets produced from a mixture of standard U-235 fuel and depleted uranium (U-238) fuel pellets to produce plutonium fuel pellets for use in a standard fission reactor. Heats molten sodium which must be fed into one or more heat exchangers to generate usable steam. Produces more neutrons than standard fission reactors, but also has a greater risk (due to increased temperature) of failure. Waste must be handled like normal and plutonium pellets require special handling to avoid exposing yourself to radiation.
- The Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR). Uses molten thorium fuel salts to heat boilers. Produces less waste, on average, than a regular fission reactor, but requires both heat and neutron flux (usually in the form of a regular fission core) to get the reaction started. The upside to this is that it can both directly heat boilers, and the hot LiFBe fuel can be put thru heat exchangers to not only complete the thermodynamic cycle of the fuel itself, increasing its longevity, but also generating extra power. However, the setup required to run this reactor is more involved than the others and can be difficult to get working. The LFTR also has the bonus of having reactivity being (generally speaking) inversely proportional to temperature, making it very difficult to melt down and, even when a meltdown state is reached, all that is triggered is a fuel dump, which is far less destructive and dangerous than a traditional meltdown.
- The Tokamak fusion reactor. Using deuterium-tritium plasma contained by both toroid magnets and a central poloidal magnet, the tokamak releases neutrons that can be captured by neutron absorbers, which creates heat that can be transferred, by contact, to surrounding boilers. Properly fed and maintained, this reactor can produce a titanic amount of power.
Neutrons are the main carriers of heat for all but the HTG reactor. In general, the more neutrons you make, the more heat you get, for better or for worse. There are six kinds of neutrons in ReactorCraft:
- Fission. The kind you're most likely to encounter, fission neutrons come, as one might guess, from standard fission reactors. These kinds of neutrons can trigger fission in anything they hit, dealing damage to living entities and irradiating fluids they touch. These kinds of neutrons can be absorbed by the LFTR to initiate fission in the thorium fuel salts.
- Breeder. The kind emitted by the LMFBR, as the name suggests. These have an 80% chance to be absorbed by regular boilers, and a 90% chance to be absorbed by sodium boilers. They can also trigger fission in anything they hit, much like the above kind. These are the only kinds of neutrons that can trigger uranium-to-plutonimum conversion.
- Waste. Neutrons generated by nuclear waste. On their own, they're largely useless, but have a 40% chance to trigger fission in things they touch, which can be useful, in certain instances. Like the others, these neutrons are damaging to living organisms.
- Decay. Caused by the radioactive decay of reactor fuel (either U-235 or Pu-239). Damaging, but can trigger fission. They also appear to have a 90% chance to be absorbed by sodium boilers.
- Thorium. Created by the LFTR, these are fission-type neutrons that can irradiate liquids, deal damage, and trigger fission in things they hit. These neutrons have an 80% chance to be absorbed by a boiler.
- Fusion. These kinds of neutrons, made by the tokamak, are somewhat special. As the name implies, they are not fission-type neutrons and, thus, cannot trigger fission. They, like other neutrons, are damaging and capable of irradiating liquids, but are not stopped by water.
The Steam Boiler
The humble steam boiler is the basis for all power generation in ReactorCraft. Its method of action is quite simple: heat a fluid inside to the point it becomes a gas, pump said gas into a turbine to make it turn and, thus, generate usable power. The boiler can accept two kinds of working fluid: plain water and ammonia. Water is the most plentiful and easy to come by of the two, it is also the safest to work with. Ammonia requires more effort to collect, requiring that you process ammonium nitrate and quicklime (the latter of which can be made renewable with chicken eggs and a blast furnace) to make the fluid. It also has the danger of detonating at a far lower temperature than water. However, with these risks and the requirement that you recollect the spent steam and process it back into usable fluid (at a slight loss) come with the boon of generating more power (200% for traditional turbines, or 150% for high-pressure turbines) per unit of steam than water.
- To boil either water or ammonia, the boiler must not only be working at 100 Celsius, but its temperature must be at least 50 Celsius above the ambient temperature.
- Ammonia detonation occurs at 650 Celsius; this means you've got to run a very tight ship with your reactor to keep it from blowing up. Ammonia detonations also have a nasty habit of blasting your steam lines, as well, so be careful.
- Water boilers will blow up, as well, when they overheat. The maximum temperature for a boiler appears to be 2,000 Celsius. On the upside, all you'll lose is your boilers and some of your reactor, should that happen, as only ammonia detonations cascade along steam lines.
- 200mb of working fluid, once boiled, will produce 1 m^3 of usable steam.
More to come as I find it! Feel free to add anything you think I might've missed and/or gotten buggered up. Again, all this is just my own, personal interpretation of both my experiences and what I've gleaned from looking into ReC's guts. Also, once more, I ask that this not become a "recommended builds" thread. I want people to use this as a springboard from which they can come up with their own designs, not just ape what they see someone else post.
[EDIT 12 August 2016 1430EDT; Some corrections, courtesy of Reika. I derped and misinterpreted some of what I was reading.]
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