So I got my turbine setup, now the reactor?

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Brian Cherrick

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Jul 5, 2013
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What would be a good size to keep 1 set with steam?

I tried going small, a 7x7x3 (external dimensions) with 5 rods, and even with no insertion it can't keep up.

I need it at least big enough for the 1 turbine I have now, but possibly to upgrade later to a 2nd, or even third turbine.

Thoughts?
 

trinityamc

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
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7x7x7 with resonant Ender and 5 rods
You have to play around with the rod settings though
I recommend using Dw20s reactor program that automates everything for ya

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MacAisling

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Apr 25, 2013
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I find you need 8 fuel rod blocks + coolant (resonant ender or cryothium) to generate 2000 mb steam/t. I like 7x7x3 with 8 rods in a ring, but if you have to have that 5 rod X pattern, 7x7x4 will work for 1 turbine. 7x7x7 with 5 rods might be enough for 3 turbines, but I can't swear to it offhand.
 

GreenZombie

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Jul 29, 2019
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Many opinions will be had.
The answer you seek is here in @sidoh's Big ReactorSimulator.

Also be aware that most fluidducts have a connection limit of 200mB/t - you need 2000mB/t water in & steam out, so you either need 20 ports on the reactor (10 in, 10 out) and again as many on the Turbine, or use a fluid transport that has no - or a much higher - limit (such as a Tesseract, or (as much as I try to avoid this mod in serious gameplay) ExU transfer node with a stack of speed upgrades). Fluidducts themselves do not have a transfer limit so all the connections can be on the same pipe segment.

This design uses 8 fuel rods in the same 7x7x3 reactor to achieve the 2B/t you need:
http://br.sidoh.org/#reactor-design...&controlRodInsertion=0&layout=6C3X2CXCX2C3X6C
 
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asb3pe

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
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I ran TWO full-size Turbines off of my one little reactor without any problem in Infinity.

Turbine outside dimensions: 16x9x9
Reactor outside dimensions: 9widex7tallx3deep

The reactor is located between the two turbines, I left a 3 block space between the ends of the turbines for the reactor, and the widths match. With the Reactor butted-up against the Turbines, you can place the Reactor Coolant Ports directly adjacent to the Turbine Fluid Ports.

I would have made the reactor 9 tall to match the height of the turbines but my goal was to conserve Yellorium fuel, and I discovered and 7 tall was perfect. A 5 tall reactor was insufficient to power the two turbines.

9x7x3 means you end up with 4 fuel rod columns of 5 tall each. In the 3 empty spaces between fuel rod columns, I placed Gelid Cryotheum to improve reactor efficiency.

Finally, I also discovered that this setup was still using excess Yellorium... so I fine-tuned each Control Rod setting. In my world, I put the 2 outside Control Rods at 15% insertion, and the 2 middle Control Rods at 20% insertion. This "moderates" the Fuel Rods and turns the whole power output down a bit. What I did was keep inserting the Control Rods one step at a time, then I'd look to see if the reactor was still providing 2000 mb/t of steam to each Turbine. Once I found the Control Rod setting that put me under 2000 mb/t of steam to each Turbine, then I backed the Control Rods off one notch. This left me with a Reactor using the least amount of fuel while still giving each Turbine 2000 mb/t of steam.

For water/steam, I used ExtraUtilities Liquid Transfer Node over a 3x3 still pool of water, and I put stacks of World Interaction Upgrades and Speed Upgrades into the Node. Plenty of water from just this single connections, I think my display said it was almost 20,000 mb/t but you obviously only need 4000 mb/t for two turbines.
 
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epidemia78

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Jul 29, 2019
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Big reactors are so boring. Any time the subject comes up, all you hear about is efficiency this and efficiency that but it doesnt really matter. Ive adjusted my fuel consumption rates 20 times normal and its still super easy to make it self sustaining, no matter the shape. (as long as the fuel rods are 3 tall and the inside is filled with enderium or something better) I havent built a reactor in my current world even though my RF per tick requirements are higher than they have ever been thanks to RF tools dimensions and the ubiquitous MFR mining laser setup, and I wont be including the mod in future packs of mine. There are such better options nowadays.
 
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asb3pe

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Jul 29, 2019
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Big reactors are so boring. Any time the subject comes up, all you hear about is efficiency this and efficiency that but it doesnt really matter. Ive adjusted my fuel consumption rates 20 times normal and its still super easy to make it self sustaining, no matter the shape. I havent built a reactor in my current world even though my RF per tick requirements are higher than they have ever been thanks to RF tools dimensions and the ubiquitous MFR mining laser setup.

It really is just a function of the Ore distribution in the modpack you are playing.

Most modpacks have so much ore in the ground, it is trivial (or "boring", as you put it) to mine more fuel than you use.

However, if someone were to cut the Yellorite Ore in the ground by 90%.... well now it might not be so easy anymore... right?

The point you raise is more of a balance issue with modded Minecraft, in my opinion. But how can you "balance" anything when we have mining machines like the MFR lasers which (literally) just pull ores from nowhere? You could have zero Yellorite Ore in the ground, and those MFR lasers will still dig some up for you. LOL

"Balance" is the biggest shortcoming of modded Minecraft. It means the game will always just be a sandbox game, instead of a strategic type of game (which are the games I much prefer to play).
 

GreenZombie

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Jul 29, 2019
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Big reactors are so boring. Any time the subject comes up, all you hear about is efficiency this and efficiency that but it doesnt really matter. Ive adjusted my fuel consumption rates 20 times normal and its still super easy to make it self sustaining, no matter the shape. (as long as the fuel rods are 3 tall and the inside is filled with enderium or something better) I havent built a reactor in my current world even though my RF per tick requirements are higher than they have ever been thanks to RF tools dimensions and the ubiquitous MFR mining laser setup, and I wont be including the mod in future packs of mine. There are such better options nowadays.

That seems to be your problem right there...


---
Really though modded minecraft has so many lazy mod devs who simply chunkload things to solve problems that systems that consume even trivial amounts of fuel on servers is a problem.
I have, on the server on which I play, rather accidentally used up all the lava within a km of spawn in the nether, and burnt through a 10chunkX10chunk quarry worth of yellorium which with the direwolf20 ore spawn settings is rather a lot.
 
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epidemia78

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Jul 29, 2019
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Theres absolutely nothing other than the Mining laser to spend that power on. And its better than waiting for a stupid quarry to finish tearing holes in the world.

It defeats the purpose in my opinion to set up something called a "reactor" if you constantly need to hunt down fuel for it.
 

GreenZombie

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Jul 29, 2019
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Theres absolutely nothing other than the Mining laser to spend that power on. And its better than waiting for a stupid quarry to finish tearing holes in the world.

It defeats the purpose in my opinion to set up something called a "reactor" if you constantly need to hunt down fuel for it.

Quite. In RL, the fuel rods used in reactors have a lifespan of about 6 years providing energy.

If anything, the fuel for nuclear reactors in Minecraft (Big Reactors etc) needs to become much more rare in terms of world spawn. But last (many) orders of magnitude longer.
 

epidemia78

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Jul 29, 2019
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Quite. In RL, the fuel rods used in reactors have a lifespan of about 6 years providing energy.

If anything, the fuel for nuclear reactors in Minecraft (Big Reactors etc) needs to become much more rare in terms of world spawn. But last (many) orders of magnitude longer.

Now that sounds more like it. But still, Big reactors are just a big box that generates power and turbines are an eyesore. It would be impossible for me to ignore the more aesthetically pleasing options that exist nowadays.
 

Azzanine

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Jul 29, 2019
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@op what are you using to feed the water in? And how hot is it running? You should be able to run at least a 8 blade turbines.

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Lordlundar

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Jul 29, 2019
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Big reactors are so boring. Any time the subject comes up, all you hear about is efficiency this and efficiency that but it doesnt really matter. Ive adjusted my fuel consumption rates 20 times normal and its still super easy to make it self sustaining, no matter the shape. (as long as the fuel rods are 3 tall and the inside is filled with enderium or something better) I havent built a reactor in my current world even though my RF per tick requirements are higher than they have ever been thanks to RF tools dimensions and the ubiquitous MFR mining laser setup, and I wont be including the mod in future packs of mine. There are such better options nowadays.

Done preaching? Good.

I get it, you don't like the mod. There are mods I don't like myself. But I do not run around finding every thread about said mods and complain about them. This is a thread about setup mechanics, not like and dislikes. How about we keep it on topic?
 

epidemia78

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Jul 29, 2019
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Done preaching? Good.

I get it, you don't like the mod. There are mods I don't like myself. But I do not run around finding every thread about said mods and complain about them. This is a thread about setup mechanics, not like and dislikes. How about we keep it on topic?

Well sorry for going off topic, but I dont think Im hurting anyone. And I did answer the question. I can get more specific if you'd like. In my experience, A 7x7x7 with a 3x3 stack of rods, surrounded by enderium can keep up with a turbine. You can even make the 3x3 hollow and fill the space with more enderium. But its always helpful to build one in creative mode to see what the design is capable of. Its also important to recycle the water back into the reactor otherwise you have to use a lot more world interaction upgrades in your transfer node. it helps efficiency to not have excess steam in the reactor. I usually put a void fluid pipe on the access port so the reactor outputs its absolute maximum which caps at 2000mb and adjust the rods until it makes just a shade under that so theres never any excess steam and then I remove the void pipe and connect the turbine.
 
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Azzanine

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Jul 29, 2019
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Done preaching? Good.

I get it, you don't like the mod. There are mods I don't like myself. But I do not run around finding every thread about said mods and complain about them. This is a thread about setup mechanics, not like and dislikes. How about we keep it on topic?
Annoying diatribe aside he did give aome advice.
And that was not to care about efficiency, good advice for some packs that have taken no mesures to balance the reactors or pnes with MFR. As it doesn't matter how you set it up with in that case just put in enough rods to boil the water and adjust the water input and rod percentage until the turbine is 100%.

But if you have no ore gen in your pack you may want to opt for efficiency, because you will run out of fuel.

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