Some questions about setting up a HTGR from Reactorcraft

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fredfredburger

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Jul 29, 2019
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I can't launch the game right now to check what my configuration is, but I might very well have it geared inefficiently. I'm using an auroral battery and induction motor with I think 3 CVTs in between.
 

Pyure

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Aug 14, 2013
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Use the angular transducer when you get a chance. Confirm that the centrifuge is receiving 1 torque. Anything more is wasted; you want that thing spinning as fast as possible.
 

Reika

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I am rather annoyed people religiously copy a tiny HTGR build pasted all over the internet - the one @Plasmasnake is using - and then complain that HTGRs were nerfed to the point of being useless. How much of a logical leap is it really to just make it bigger?!
 
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rowlock

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Jul 29, 2019
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I'm probably unduly paranoid about melting things, but scaling up seems viable, and the increase in uranium usage is not an unreasonable cost for the safety factor of not having corium everywhere when (not if) I eventually screw up.

I was starting to think along those lines anyway. 8 cores in a square around one CO2 exchanger seems to perform a bit better from my first trial. Maybe putting the exchanger at the end of a row would also slow down its leeching effect if it can't pull from four cores each time? But then there's also less contact to allow the more distant cores to dissipate usefully. Experiment two is brewing.

This is all in survival mode, so tinkering takes some time and effort, but where's the fun in just plopping down blocks in creative right? :)
 

fredfredburger

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Jul 29, 2019
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Use the angular transducer when you get a chance. Confirm that the centrifuge is receiving 1 torque. Anything more is wasted; you want that thing spinning as fast as possible.

Yeah, it's getting 1 torque and 268 Mrads spits out 3ish dust per second which is only a hair faster than with 16 Mrads used.
 

zemerick

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Jul 29, 2019
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Yeah, it's getting 1 torque and 268 Mrads spits out 3ish dust per second which is only a hair faster than with 16 Mrads used.

I'm pretty sure it caps out at 67MW, and would be about 6.25 times faster than 16MW.

Anything less than 8MW, and over 67MW, you should build more centrifuges. From 8 to 67MW you get more than double the speed for only doubling the power. Also note that the speed increases only happen at doubling the speed. The isotope centrifuge does NOT behave like other machines in this regard.

This forces you to build similarly to real life, without having actual multi-step enrichment.
 
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Plasmasnake

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Jul 29, 2019
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I am somewhat annoyed people religiously copy a tiny HTGR build pasted all over the internet - the one @Plasmasnake is using - and then complain that HTGRs were nerfed to the point of being useless. How much of a logical leap is it really to just make it bigger?!

Uh, sorry? Look, I meant no harm, but my concern rose out of my previous design being 100% pathetic so as you could imagine I was a bit annoyed and confused.

However, you act like I have a history of copying people and complaining. I can understand you being fed up with the shear number of people who probably do as you say, but make no mistake... I am not one of those people. My design is stupid because it is my design, and anything I design usually is stupid (lol). The thought has crossed my mind to just make more cores and that's part of the reason why I do not find a reason to really get into HTGRs. I don't appreciate you calling me stupid and then stereotyping me into a group of people that overwhelmingly negative.

I love your mods and I want to learn how to make the best designs and the best possible decisions. I had no clue that 8 cores was considered tiny and it comes as even a bigger shock to me because this was more than double the amount I have ever used 0.o
 

Reika

RotaryCraft Dev
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I don't appreciate you calling me stupid and then stereotyping me into a group of people that overwhelmingly negative.
When did I call you stupid?

Also, do not complain if there is a group of people doing something, and then you do the same thing that defines the group, and as a result I assume you are part of the same group. That is not exactly an unreasonable (or normally incorrect) conclusion.
 

fredfredburger

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Jul 29, 2019
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I'm pretty sure it caps out at 67MW, and would be about 6.25 times faster than 16MW.

Anything less than 8MW, and over 67MW, you should build more centrifuges. From 8 to 67MW you get more than double the speed for only doubling the power. Also note that the speed increases only happen at doubling the speed. The isotope centrifuge does NOT behave like other machines in this regard.

This forces you to build similarly to real life, without having actual multi-step enrichment.

Thanks for the info, I've never used centrifuges before my current reactor (2 HTGRs previously) and I'm not really familiar with their workings.
 

Plasmasnake

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Jul 29, 2019
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When did I call you stupid?

"How much of a logical leap is it really to just make it bigger?!" Obviously it's not direct, but the meaning is in tact.

Also, do not complain if there is a group of people doing something, and then you do the same thing that defines the group, and as a result I assume you are part of the same group. That is not exactly an unreasonable (or normally incorrect) conclusion.

Is that really a fair proposition? I don't posses completely original ideas and it just so happened to be a coincidence that I had essentially the same problem as those others. I agree it's not unreasonable to, at face value, place me into that certain group, but I'm here to explain that this is far from the truth. I just wanted to vent a bit and learn since things change drastically overtime especially with RoC and ReC. I hadn't the foggiest idea that you could place more than 4 cores around a heat exchanger... it came at a huge surprise. I didn't mean to kick whatever hornet's nest I stumbled upon.

I've covered my own arse. I explained my reasoning as best I could and had an open mind to accept new ideas and thoughts. Sure I made a mistake by writing a bit too negative... you know... I feel like I'm trying to justify myself too much here when the fact of the matter is that there was just a misunderstanding. I hope we can at least comprehend each other.
 
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rowlock

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Jul 29, 2019
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I'm not gonna try to speak for anybody here, but it didn't read to me like a personal attack against you specifically. Let's stay on topic here guys.

The 8-core ring is working better for me, certainly not perfect but an improvement. I've also found some ambient temperature weirdness with the Mystcraft age I'm building in, so I'm gonna move it to the overworld and try more there. For some reason most of the chunk I'm using was at 22C but the specific area of the reactor cores was leveling out at about -70C! That's after breaking everything and replacing, so not the effect of coolants or anything like that. Weird, but there we are. Hopefully it'll run even more reliably without that weirdness.

Updates and screenshots to follow later with specific performance data on the new cores as I can gather it if people still want to pursue the HTGR for power.
 

Pyure

Not Totally Useless
Aug 14, 2013
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I'm not gonna try to speak for anybody here, but it didn't read to me like a personal attack against you specifically. Let's stay on topic here guys.

The 8-core ring is working better for me, certainly not perfect but an improvement. I've also found some ambient temperature weirdness with the Mystcraft age I'm building in, so I'm gonna move it to the overworld and try more there. For some reason most of the chunk I'm using was at 22C but the specific area of the reactor cores was leveling out at about -70C! That's after breaking everything and replacing, so not the effect of coolants or anything like that. Weird, but there we are. Hopefully it'll run even more reliably without that weirdness.

Updates and screenshots to follow later with specific performance data on the new cores as I can gather it if people still want to pursue the HTGR for power.
Fun :)
 

zemerick

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Jul 29, 2019
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V4 is out, so y'all might want to try it out now.

Heads up though: Word is the retro-gen is currently enabled by default. Make sure retrogen is not enabled as it's not entirely ready yet. ( As always, you should also do a backup before updating. )

If no one else has tried by sunday, I might be able to then.
 
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KingTriaxx

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Jul 27, 2013
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Why would you go to an eight core instead of just boosting it in a checkerboard pattern? Fill the corners with CO2 Exchangers, and add more cores around that. Unless there's some space efficiency thing, or inefficiency that's escaped my notice.
 

zemerick

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Jul 29, 2019
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Why would you go to an eight core instead of just boosting it in a checkerboard pattern? Fill the corners with CO2 Exchangers, and add more cores around that. Unless there's some space efficiency thing, or inefficiency that's escaped my notice.

The problem is not enough heat produced. Adding co2 heat exchangers doesn't help this, but adding more cores does.
 

KingTriaxx

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No, I mean adding additional sections of the plus shaped design.

Code:
XCXCX
CXCXC
XCXCX
CXCXC

Like that, with Cores and Xchangers arranged like that. So all the cores are sharing heat.
 

zemerick

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Jul 29, 2019
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No, I mean adding additional sections of the plus shaped design.

Code:
XCXCX
CXCXC
XCXCX
CXCXC

Like that, with Cores and Xchangers arranged like that. So all the cores are sharing heat.

Cores can transfer heat through each other as well, so the extra exchangers don't do anything at all. So, something like:

Code:
CCCCC
CCCCC
CCXCC
CCCCC
CCCCC

would be much better.

You only need to add heat exchangers if you can not get rid of the heat as fast as it is being made.