Javelin reactor removal help

[Thyns]

Has anyone a good strategy for the reactor removal. I'm stripping away the hull rings and outer nanocarbon panels, but am left with the coolant/fuel pipe running into the control room and ECU. Even being really careful, removing the reactor causes a leak that makes the remaining central cube very sensitive and I end up trashing the filters with the slightest touch and spread radiation everywhere.
I'd like to find a way to isolate those fuel lines but, unlike the normal red piping, there's no obvious cutoff valve. Have I missed something, or is there a better way to approach this puzzle?
I've seen a cut-point in the pipe nestling behind the ECU, but that looks like a total trap.

[Cvelus]

You did remove the coolant bottles from within ECU?

[MrRober95]

Originally posted by Cvelus:

You did remove the coolant bottles from within ECU?

And purged the thrusters from fuel using the engineering consoles?

Before cutting any pipe, touching it with your gloves lets you hear if they have any liquids flowing inside them.

[GamingArtist]

I don't think the engineering consoles work anymore....that way. When they did you needed a utility key to do that. We can't buy them at kiosk anymore.

You can increase reactor stability or avoid damage to it buy pulling the fuses then the power generator first. Most will do this anyways. Found if you split a ship up before you pull fuses and cause them to be no longer contiguous the fuses all pop off and you may risk damage to power generator. I have read that removing coolant and ECU first might also help keep reactor intact but im not sure how accurate that is. My only foul up have do do with struts not acting like they should, the octagonal ones on geks are bugged im sure.

I have taken to pulling power gen, then thrusters with the release switches. They take more time to deal with, then go to clear the ECU once I have all the rigging around a ships reactor cleaned up to my preferences. Both ECU and thruster rigs stay stable with one thruster or coolant pod respectively. If you pull the final coolant pod from the front of the device you can line up with a grapple shot that will buy you some distance to get back to a reactor :3 and you don't need to cut free the ECU either just the coolant tanks inside to move to your next step!

Long as one set of reactor lined systems is functional core should sit quiet. Letting you plan your final move on it.

I also leave the reactor platting on, as you can pull them off once the whole unit is into the barge. They are not worth a whole lot anyways compared to many other items on ships. I treat them more as a bit of gravy to take after the rest of the big work is done. But they will clear with the reactor unit when a new days starts.

Good luck Cutter.

[DeathBirdsFly]

Depends on the Javelin. One config has the reactor in a horizontal orientation. The coolant line goes into the front cap and the fuel line goes into the rear cap. I vaporize the coolant line at the cap for this one. If you remove the rear cowling, the whole thruster/reactor assembly can be extracted as a single piece. Then just pull the reactor off and push to the barge. Then shut off the fuel line and remove the thruster.

In the case where the reactor is vertically oriented, I shut the fuel line off at the switch, pull the thruster though the cap hole and then remove the rear cowling. Vaporize the fuel line at the cap and remove the fuel line assembly. You pretty much have a clear shot at the reactor at this point.

[MechWarden]

Once I got past the leap from pulling and tossing Class I reactors, to actually having to do steps to decommissioning a Class II reactor, it gets pretty easy. As mentioned, the horizontal (or I call them side-ways) reactors are their own beast, because of a nasty glitch, but otherwise...

1. Make sure the engine room is safely vented.
   
2. Remove some of the hull plating*
   
3. Pull the thruster out*
   
4. Clear area around reactor*
   
5. Remove the Reactor housing and top Reactor Plate
   
6. Clear flight path between ECU and Reactor
   
7. Pull Coolant Canisters from ECU
   
8. Quickly, but carefully, fly over to Reactor for extraction

*Order and methods can be done to personal preference

If done right, you should have more than enough time to pull out the reactor core and get it into the barge with minimal damage; and without cheaty tricks like shoving the entire thing into the Barge. As of 0.4 and 0.5 you do not need to pull out the Power Generator nor mess with the related Fuses for max stability of the reactor. But that could change in future updates.

As for the glitched 'side-ways' reactors on Javelins, it is unusual in that it has (had) a coolant pipe that connected to one end of the reactor, while a fuel line connects from the other end. In 0.5.0, most of the coolant line is gone, leaving a disk shaped piece that's floating loose inside the housing. Since the coolant is not connected, the ECU is practically useless. Also, the floating piece of coolant pipe will leak an unrealistic amount of coolant if damaged; and it is easily damaged if you vent the Engine room in the wrong direction. You will need to vent the engine room so the air flows way from the thruster, either by cutting into the hull behind the reactor (between reactor and ECU works), or venting the air lock further back to prevent the loose pipe for rattling around too much and likely causing a meltdown sometime later from constant cold damage. Do not disconnect the thruster until you are ready to remove the reactor. Since disabling the ECU to add reactor stability isn't viable, and is treated as if you improperly disconnected it, you will have to gain what stability you can via properly disconnecting the thruster. Even then, you will get at least one instance of damaging electrical arcing when trying to get the reactor out. Also, it might be a good idea to not fully remove the reactor housing, since disconnecting the two reactor plates could update the reactor status and cause it to meltdown right away. I tried to disconnect the Power Generator to improve stability, but as I expected it isn't needed in this current (v0.05) version.

Though, if you want an easy way to handle glitched Javelin reactors, once you properly vent the engine room, the whole assembly can easily be detached by cutting off the ECU from the walkway and shoved into the Barge as one piece, which will stabilize the entire thing.

[Vilkata]

There's been some back and forth on this, so I'll just list my way. These steps are true for all Class II reactors, regardless of ship, though some ships have slightly trickier piping.

1. Unlock thrusters, this shuts off the fuel
2. Clear a path from the reactor to the barge as much as reasonable. This usually means cutting and removing the fuel pipe, leave the coolant line alone.
3. Remove shielding panels and end cap.
3a. *absolutely do not remove the bottles from the coolant, leave the ECU alone, leave it active, there's no reason to disable the coolant while the reactor is still on the ship, as it is preventing the meltdown*
4. Pull the reactor from the base plate, tether and/or fire to barge.

Optional: (reactor removal happens around 16:16)
https://youtu.be/muSE4vbpMFQ

[Thyns]

Thanks for all the replies. The coolant bottles inside the ECU were a complete unknown and might mitigate the coolant leaks after I've removed the reactor. I'll have another go at this (and hope I don't meet the horizontal oriented reactor until 0.6).

[MechWarden]

Originally posted by Vilkata:

3a. *absolutely do not remove the bottles from the coolant, leave the ECU alone, leave it active, there's no reason to disable the coolant while the reactor is still on the ship, as it is preventing the meltdown*

I used to do that at first, but it always caused the reactor to start with 2/3rds durability and would always cause at least one damaging arc of electricity, strong enough to even damage nanocarbon, within a few seconds of removal.

It is just safer to clear a flight path and remove the little coolant tanks inside the ECU. Even on ships with the Reactor and ECU on totally different parts of the ship, you get enough time to safely stow the reactor when you have a full durability reactor.

[Vilkata]

Originally posted by MechWarden:

Originally posted by Vilkata:

3a. *absolutely do not remove the bottles from the coolant, leave the ECU alone, leave it active, there's no reason to disable the coolant while the reactor is still on the ship, as it is preventing the meltdown*

I used to do that at first, but it always caused the reactor to start with 2/3rds durability and would always cause at least one damaging arc of electricity, strong enough to even damage nanocarbon, within a few seconds of removal.

It is just safer to clear a flight path and remove the little coolant tanks inside the ECU. Even on ships with the Reactor and ECU on totally different parts of the ship, you get enough time to safely stow the reactor when you have a full durability reactor.

I don't have issues with the arcing hitting anything as long as I don't dilly dally once I remove the reactor, but I agree that any strategy that can get the reactor clear before it starts arcing is valid. Those arcs will quickly cause a field of splintered bits and destroy anything of value they hit.

[MechWarden]

I'm not sure how it acted in previous versions, but when I tested not pulling out the coolant in 0.4 and 0.5, I could not get the core clear for things fast enough before an arc zapped something, which was usually the reactor plate I just pulled it from or some nanocarbon hull nearby. In the second or two between pulling it free, aiming, and shoving it down somewhere at the Barge, it got one plasma arc lick on something, and that bugged the heck out of me for awhile.

Pulling the coolant from the ECU and having a clear flight path back has resulted in much cleaner extractions, with me now racing to see if I can get it in the Barge before it takes one unit of damage (without being cheaty about it). At the very most, I rarely have it lose two ticks of damage, but it doesn't arc from that damage when it started from full durability. So I've just gotten used to doing the whole process, since it is less drama.

[Vilkata]

I just pre-charge the grappler as I'm detaching it from the base and angle away from the plate. Once it comes free, it moves itself clear and I release the button, shooting it away from the ship. I usually tether it on its way down after that just so I don't have to worry about bad aim shooting it off the barge and into space. If it does start to arc, it's already nearly on the barge and well out of range of the vessel.

In the case of horizontal reactors, I just tether them straight to the barge and let the tether detach it from the plate.

[MechWarden]

I didn't even think about charging the Push Shot while moving it away. I think it was mostly from me trying to be careful that I didn't accidentally slam it into something else, even though the space around it was clear; and thinking it was too heavy to fling it around like some computer or seat in a Mackerel.

[MadHighlander]

Originally posted by GamingArtist:

I don't think the engineering consoles work anymore....that way. When they did you needed a utility key to do that. We can't buy them at kiosk anymore.

Even if there were still utility keys, the javelin does not and never has had engineering consoles.

[GattsonTD]

Damn corporate resetting our debt. We should unionize

[Cryten]

I will note that pulling the coolent bottles adds another 3 pips to the meltdown timer. So it is generally worth it to pull them as the final step before yanking. AS you get a little more time including moving back to the reactor but no risk of pipe leak.

And just to make sure you get it from the other posts, all reactor fuel lines have flush valves.