Nuclear Reactors

[Shelecktra]

Ive used them before, but only for magnetoplasmadynamic engines and usually only for shorter term missions (Way less than the estimated core life)

It's the core decay period im wanting to know about though - If i keep refuelling a nuclear reactor will it keep going forever? Or is the estimated core life some sort of kill switch? Like once it gets there thats it, useless lump of dead weight?

Trying to get a refuelling station made next to the runway, and i dont want to have it covered in loads of batteries and solar panels if i can avoid it.

[desrtfox071]

I'm not sure how it works in vanilla, but in my modded game you have to actually shut down the reactor to swap fuels, so you can't just "add" fuel.

[Shelecktra]

Yeah, I'm heavily modded too. Nothing that alters the way reactors work though, maybe one that adds a couple thats it.

I've transferred fuel in them before, taking out the depleted uranium and replenishing the enriched, but if the core will eventually just die then fuel transferring is kinda irrelevant - I need something that will stay there permanently.

Have a mod that adds multi-fuel generators which use either ore or LF/O tp generate electricity. But i cant figure them out... Like i can turn them on fine, they do their job then with no reason they just shut down, the station dies and im back at square one....

[GunsForBucks]

Um .. I run the stock game and as far as I know I have never seen anything about fuel needs or running out of charge on the nukes.

must be a mod thing. Unless the rules change on higher difficulties?

[SkiRich]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Shelecktra:

Yeah, I'm heavily modded too. Nothing that alters the way reactors work though, maybe one that adds a couple thats it.

I've transferred fuel in them before, taking out the depleted uranium and replenishing the enriched, but if the core will eventually just die then fuel transferring is kinda irrelevant - I need something that will stay there permanently.

Have a mod that adds multi-fuel generators which use either ore or LF/O tp generate electricity. But i cant figure them out... Like i can turn them on fine, they do their job then with no reason they just shut down, the station dies and im back at square one....

You may be able to change that with a Module Manager cfg file.
Take a look at the original reactors cfg file. If there is a definition of some sort of lifespan, you can make a new cfg and change that value to extend the core life.

[Shelecktra]

Oh right? I honestly thought that the core life was a base game thing!
So you cant see this under the temperature guide then?

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2133320642

If not then yeah, sounds like a mod thing.... and its at times like this i regret having so many mods! Like hell can i remember where that came from! xD

[Shelecktra]

Ooh, that could be a possibility too Rich!

I'll see if i can find the part, could take hours though xD

[Enorats]

It sounds like you're talking about Near Future Electrical. In that mod you need to shut down the reactor and allow the temperature to lower (takes a LONG time even with radiators) before an engineer can replace the used fuel. Think they need to be level 5 too.

That's all assuming you don't melt the core by overheating too, and simply ran it out of fuel on a 50 year long pit stop. I don't know if a destroyed core can be repaired.

[Shelecktra]

Yeah, its Near Future Electrical :)

I've actually spent a while reading as much as i can about them from people who have made guides etc, turns out the core life is an estimation of how long it will produce power with the fuel available and it doesn't overheat and destroys itself. If it overheats then it loses health and becomes less powerful over time until it becomes a big metal brick basically.

So turns out that they CAN be kept going for as long as you like, it just means tweaking them to a point where they can never over-heat.

Luckily I only need a very small reactor for this project so heat dissipation shouldnt be an issue at all, think I'll put a whirlyjig next to it and have an automated drone drive back and forth to transfer the fuel between them, save the heat on the actual fuel station then.

[MechBFP]

It takes multiple in game years for a used reactor to cool down enough to drain the depleted fuel and refill with uranium.

[Shelecktra]

Yeah, I'm planning on using more than one for this. 1 running another cooling and another on standby if it needs it.

I'd much rather the reactor maintenance than putting loads of batteries and solar panels on to be fair, just need to take a look at it often enough to make sure its doing its job right.