Would you build this?

Would you build this?


  • Total voters
    405

EyeDeck

Well-Known Member
Apr 16, 2013
236
87
54
I am doing a slightly different design, one I find more aesthetically pleasing:
Looks like something like that will have to be the way to go. I've been trying to get a circular design to work, but one of the absorbers towards the center always ends up getting a spike of heat and melting. That's with only the output coming from a single preheater, too. With the way ReactorCraft neutron physics work, I guess that's not really a surprise. With poor enough luck, a single absorber could end up absorbing neutrons from fusion events coming from three of four quadrants simultaneously.

I was hoping to avoid having to put boilers before the absorbers if at all possible, really only because it seems unrealistic. I've broken down now, though, and the following design seems to work acceptably:
vcDjPB0.png
Our water supply is coming from 16 RotaryCraft pumps supplied with 4MW each - a gas turbine's worth of power together (and conventiently exactly what a magnetostatic can put out, if you want to be lazy). Any less and some of the boilers ended up undersupplied, which is a bad thing. Note that this setup could end up doing the same sort of thing old Buildcraft pumps can do and drain the water supply (and really, melting your fusion reactor is rather worse than blowing up a combustion engine), so be sure to either build a large water pool to reduce the chance of this happening, or set up your pumps over an ocean or something.

Water transportation is achieved with Extra Utilities transport pipes, with a transfer node on each pump (each has 32 speed upgrades and one stacks upgrade). This system seems to provide enough throughput to keep the boilers happy, without crippling the server any.

In the bottom left we've got a dozen neutron irradiation chambers for tritium production. These are, of course, supposed to be used in fission reactors, but if we don't mind losing a bit of efficiency we can make a reactor that only requires an input of deuterium to run, which is worth it in my opinion. Deuterium is piped in the top and tritium out of the bottom, which goes directly into the hydrogen preheater.
Note: you can use fluiducts (etc) to pipe deuterium and tritium into your preheater, but the multiblock will only form with RotaryCraft fluid pipes in the sides and magnetic containment pipes in the top. You can remove these afterwards and use an alternate pipe of your choice instead. Fluiducts even work to transport 150,000,000 degree fusion plasma, though you'd probably need to use a turtle to replace the pipes in your injectors. You'll also still need to build at least one fission reactor to generate enough tritium to get your fusion reactor started, but you don't have to run it indefinitely if you don't care to.

At the top there we've got our standard setup of turbines; there are 24 of them in the screenshot, but I'm sure this thing could power many more, I'm just not bothering because this is in a creative world. I was also considering recycling the steam, but I'm not sure if it's actually worth it to bother when the pump setup produces enough to run this thing anyway.

You'll also notice the huge steel square around the whole setup; this is only there to capture neutrons should an absorber melt (worst case these'll end up accumulating at the edge of a loaded chunk, then drop your server down to 0.03 TPS when someone loads the chunk with 300,000 accumulated neutrons in it), and if you've got a non-melty enough design it isn't really necessary.

On to power usage:
  • our pump setup takes 67MW (torque/speed doesn't really matter here, just total power)
  • the solenoid magnet engine takes 8MW (256 rad/s @ 32768 Nm)
  • the heat ray for the hydrogen preheater takes 2MW (only total power matters)
  • the Van de Graaff to keep the magnetic containment pipes from melting takes 1MW (only total power matters, again; this can use less, but it won't establish an arc with less than 1MW and will be a hazard to nearby living entities, including you)
  • the two Van de Graaffs I have magnetizing the solenoid magnets, one in two opposite corners, are taking 16kW each (yes, you can run them off two steam engines - I actually recommend leaving the power supply to these very low, because raising it will never establish a sustained arc like with most other things a Van de Graff will interact with, so you really want )
I'll see to finishing up my survival reactor in a while here.
 

DriftinFool

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
642
0
0
In case you didn't know, mining upgrades make the fluid transfer nodes pick up more water per tick. The speed upgrades only search and find inventories for it faster. You may be bottlenecked there and not need as much power for the pumps.
 

Reika

RotaryCraft Dev
FTB Mod Dev
Sep 3, 2013
5,079
5,331
550
Toronto, Canada
sites.google.com
Looks like something like that will have to be the way to go. I've been trying to get a circular design to work, but one of the absorbers towards the center always ends up getting a spike of heat and melting. That's with only the output coming from a single preheater, too. With the way ReactorCraft neutron physics work, I guess that's not really a surprise. With poor enough luck, a single absorber could end up absorbing neutrons from fusion events coming from three of four quadrants simultaneously.

I was hoping to avoid having to put boilers before the absorbers if at all possible, really only because it seems unrealistic. I've broken down now, though, and the following design seems to work acceptably:

Our water supply is coming from 16 RotaryCraft pumps supplied with 4MW each - a gas turbine's worth of power together (and conventiently exactly what a magnetostatic can put out, if you want to be lazy). Any less and some of the boilers ended up undersupplied, which is a bad thing. Note that this setup could end up doing the same sort of thing old Buildcraft pumps can do and drain the water supply (and really, melting your fusion reactor is rather worse than blowing up a combustion engine), so be sure to either build a large water pool to reduce the chance of this happening, or set up your pumps over an ocean or something.

Water transportation is achieved with Extra Utilities transport pipes, with a transfer node on each pump (each has 32 speed upgrades and one stacks upgrade). This system seems to provide enough throughput to keep the boilers happy, without crippling the server any.

In the bottom left we've got a dozen neutron irradiation chambers for tritium production. These are, of course, supposed to be used in fission reactors, but if we don't mind losing a bit of efficiency we can make a reactor that only requires an input of deuterium to run, which is worth it in my opinion. Deuterium is piped in the top and tritium out of the bottom, which goes directly into the hydrogen preheater.
Note: you can use fluiducts (etc) to pipe deuterium and tritium into your preheater, but the multiblock will only form with RotaryCraft fluid pipes in the sides and magnetic containment pipes in the top. You can remove these afterwards and use an alternate pipe of your choice instead. Fluiducts even work to transport 150,000,000 degree fusion plasma, though you'd probably need to use a turtle to replace the pipes in your injectors. You'll also still need to build at least one fission reactor to generate enough tritium to get your fusion reactor started, but you don't have to run it indefinitely if you don't care to.

At the top there we've got our standard setup of turbines; there are 24 of them in the screenshot, but I'm sure this thing could power many more, I'm just not bothering because this is in a creative world. I was also considering recycling the steam, but I'm not sure if it's actually worth it to bother when the pump setup produces enough to run this thing anyway.

You'll also notice the huge steel square around the whole setup; this is only there to capture neutrons should an absorber melt (worst case these'll end up accumulating at the edge of a loaded chunk, then drop your server down to 0.03 TPS when someone loads the chunk with 300,000 accumulated neutrons in it), and if you've got a non-melty enough design it isn't really necessary.

On to power usage:
  • our pump setup takes 67MW (torque/speed doesn't really matter here, just total power)
  • the solenoid magnet engine takes 8MW (256 rad/s @ 32768 Nm)
  • the heat ray for the hydrogen preheater takes 2MW (only total power matters)
  • the Van de Graaff to keep the magnetic containment pipes from melting takes 1MW (only total power matters, again; this can use less, but it won't establish an arc with less than 1MW and will be a hazard to nearby living entities, including you)
  • the two Van de Graaffs I have magnetizing the solenoid magnets, one in two opposite corners, are taking 16kW each (yes, you can run them off two steam engines - I actually recommend leaving the power supply to these very low, because raising it will never establish a sustained arc like with most other things a Van de Graff will interact with, so you really want )
I'll see to finishing up my survival reactor in a while here.
You copied my design. :p

Tb2bPXf.png

Wr1sXax.png
 

shazbot

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
13
0
0
Hey Guys,
I tried to build the fusion reactor but I failed. ^^
Tis is my problem:
Can you help me please.

It looks like your torus magnets are charged, and I am assuming that your solenoid is spinning... Make sure that your solenoid is getting the minimum speed and torque it requires. Also, make sure it is built at the right height. The solenoid is 3 blocks tall, and the middle block should be level exactly with the center of the toroid magnets.
 

Reika

RotaryCraft Dev
FTB Mod Dev
Sep 3, 2013
5,079
5,331
550
Toronto, Canada
sites.google.com
It looks like your torus magnets are charged, and I am assuming that your solenoid is spinning... Make sure that your solenoid is getting the minimum speed and torque it requires. Also, make sure it is built at the right height. The solenoid is 3 blocks tall, and the middle block should be level exactly with the center of the toroid magnets.
All of this.
 

CreepaCatcha

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
358
0
1
It looks like your torus magnets are charged, and I am assuming that your solenoid is spinning... Make sure that your solenoid is getting the minimum speed and torque it requires. Also, make sure it is built at the right height. The solenoid is 3 blocks tall, and the middle block should be level exactly with the center of the toroid magnets.
That sounds so nerdy!
No offense
 

EyeDeck

Well-Known Member
Apr 16, 2013
236
87
54
Also, make sure it is built at the right height. The solenoid is 3 blocks tall, and the middle block should be level exactly with the center of the toroid magnets.
This one's easy to mess up. In my half-finished survival build I built the solenoid one block too high initially, and it took me a couple of hours to notice it was off.
 

shazbot

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
13
0
0
I've recently finished my fusion reactor in SMP, but for some reason the reactor keeps leaking plasma. It will run fine for a few seconds and then bits of plasma will start spinning out of the reactor in all directions every few seconds. It will then start working again, and then more plasma will escape a few seconds later. The symptoms seem to suggest a lack of charge to the toroid magnets, but it isn't a specific magnet (the plasma doesn't go off in a line but escapes in all directions simultaneously). I am currently using two injectors, and have tried configurations of both 2 and 4 van de graaff generators, each receiving 16kW. This configuration works perfectly in single player creative, which makes me wonder whether it might be something to do with a bit of server lag. I tested to see whether the escaping plasma was merely a visual bug caused by lag by flying in front of the escaping plasma, and it killed me which suggests it's real and not just lag.

How exactly does charging the toroids work? Do they "consume" the charge, meaning I need to increase the power to the van de graaffs? I tried increasing all 4 to around 4 MW with no noticeable difference. What baffles me is that the same design worked perfectly in creative single-player, but I suppose it's possible I'm just derping and there is some significant difference somewhere between my creative and SMP builds.

Anybody got any insight?
 

Reika

RotaryCraft Dev
FTB Mod Dev
Sep 3, 2013
5,079
5,331
550
Toronto, Canada
sites.google.com
I've recently finished my fusion reactor in SMP, but for some reason the reactor keeps leaking plasma. It will run fine for a few seconds and then bits of plasma will start spinning out of the reactor in all directions every few seconds. It will then start working again, and then more plasma will escape a few seconds later. The symptoms seem to suggest a lack of charge to the toroid magnets, but it isn't a specific magnet (the plasma doesn't go off in a line but escapes in all directions simultaneously). I am currently using two injectors, and have tried configurations of both 2 and 4 van de graaff generators, each receiving 16kW. This configuration works perfectly in single player creative, which makes me wonder whether it might be something to do with a bit of server lag. I tested to see whether the escaping plasma was merely a visual bug caused by lag by flying in front of the escaping plasma, and it killed me which suggests it's real and not just lag.

How exactly does charging the toroids work? Do they "consume" the charge, meaning I need to increase the power to the van de graaffs? I tried increasing all 4 to around 4 MW with no noticeable difference. What baffles me is that the same design worked perfectly in creative single-player, but I suppose it's possible I'm just derping and there is some significant difference somewhere between my creative and SMP builds.

Anybody got any insight?
Are they leaking out and then snapping back in? That is a simple lag issue. It can happen in SSP, too. Around the time it happens, your console will probably spam that "processed 2500 packets with 45000 to go" message.
 

EyeDeck

Well-Known Member
Apr 16, 2013
236
87
54
How exactly does charging the toroids work? Do they "consume" the charge, meaning I need to increase the power to the van de graaffs? I tried increasing all 4 to around 4 MW with no noticeable difference.
You can literally power the toroid magnets for an entire reactor with two Van de Graaffs placed in opposite corners, each powered by 16kW from a single steam engine. Lack of power to them is almost certainly not going to be an issue unless something somewhere along your power network explodes.
 

Reika

RotaryCraft Dev
FTB Mod Dev
Sep 3, 2013
5,079
5,331
550
Toronto, Canada
sites.google.com
You can literally power the toroid magnets for an entire reactor with two Van de Graaffs placed in opposite corners, each powered by 16kW from a single steam engine. Lack of power to them is almost certainly not going to be an issue unless something somewhere along your power network explodes.
This is no longer true; I made their charge attenuation much more aggressive.
 

EyeDeck

Well-Known Member
Apr 16, 2013
236
87
54
This is no longer true; I made their charge attenuation much more aggressive.
Have Van de Graaffs been given the ability to sustain an arc with toroid magnets yet? They'll do so happily with electrolyzers, magnetic containment pipes, blocks of steel, etc, but Van de Graaffs powering toroid magnets seem to prioritize nearby mobs/players/etc over the toroid magnets they should be charging instead. This makes them incredibly annoying to be around in survival, because if I'm going to have to dump a few MW into the Van de Graafs to keep the toroid electromagnets working, that's going to end up creating a double-digit-meter radius exclusion zone around the reactor, and that's just no fun.
 
Last edited:

Platinawolf

New Member
Jul 29, 2019
147
0
0
I would build it,,, If it didn't lag out your computer with just that thing on the screen ^^* Looks awesome though very finicky. How about adding some tool that automatically turns those wheel thingies to the correct position assuming clockwise/counterclockwise spin?
 

Reika

RotaryCraft Dev
FTB Mod Dev
Sep 3, 2013
5,079
5,331
550
Toronto, Canada
sites.google.com
Have Van de Graaffs been given the ability to sustain an arc with toroid magnets yet? They'll do so happily with electrolyzers, magnetic containment pipes, blocks of steel, etc, but Van de Graaffs powering toroid magnets seem to prioritize nearby mobs/players/etc over the toroid magnets they should be charging instead. This makes them incredibly annoying to be around in survival, because if I'm going to have to dump a few MW into the Van de Graafs to keep the toroid electromagnets working, that's going to end up creating a double-digit-meter radius exclusion zone around the reactor, and that's just no fun.
This is unavoidable due to how they work. However, the exclusion zone is <10m from the VDG.