Nuclear Reactor. How much power remaining?

[MarkJohnson]

Is there a way to see how depleted my nuclear rods are becoming?

Is it a time thing? Or is it powered used?

I am only running a scanner room and a battery charger for my tools. So, I'm not using much power at all.

But it would be nice to know how much power I have left.

[Amanoob105]

The numbers at the top of your screen while inside a base show this. If you have other things generating power then it just comes down to did you build the reactor first or last.

If first, it will be what your base takes power from first and you just need to note how much the number went up when you stuck a rod in.
If last, it will be what your base take power from last and if you have enough other sources of power could well see your rods never used if the drain is less than the input before you built it (which is what it sounds like is the case).


The scanner room only drains power when you leave it turned on when looking for things (or using it's built in fabricator).

[MarkJohnson]

Well, it started out at 0/2500 and grew to 2500/2500 but that's just battery storage not nuclear rod life. If I use something with a lot of power draw. like the battery charger, the first number drops a little until the batteries are changed, then it climbs back up to 2500/2500 again. but it does this with all power.

But it doesn't show how full the nuclear reactor rods are to running out of power. Maybe it'll drop down to say, 2400/2400 something after a while?

[Emurinus]

The rods don't directly indicate how drained they get over time, but each rod has 90 minutes if constantly used iirc. If you use continuously draining machinery like the water filtration system then you will probably replace the rods every so often. Otherwise you'll probably replace them once in a blue moon.

[MarkJohnson]

Originally posted by Emurinus:

The rods don't directly indicate how drained they get over time, but each rod has 90 minutes if constantly used iirc. If you use continuously draining machinery like the water filtration system then you will probably replace the rods every so often. Otherwise you'll probably replace them once in a blue moon.

The water filtration system shuts off when full of 2-water and 2-salt. Unless you're draining water constantly, it is off most of the time.

I think outside lights, and charging batteries/vehicles drain it the most. at least in my experience. I am also a vegetarian and plants provide a lot of water, so I use little water, but make more trips back to base and even then, it is because I'm overloaded with loot and not because I'm thirsty. I find so much water, I usually have it stockpiled for days anyway.

But I found a wiki on the nuclear reactor:
https://subnautica.fandom.com/wiki/Nuclear_Reactor

It says it drains in 80 minutes of full use per rod and each rod has 20,000 power.

Now, if I can get the prawn suit unstuck from the alien aquarium I can harvest some titanium and build a bunch of power draining devices and see what happens.

[Emurinus]

Originally posted by MarkJohnson:

Originally posted by Emurinus:

The rods don't directly indicate how drained they get over time, but each rod has 90 minutes if constantly used iirc. If you use continuously draining machinery like the water filtration system then you will probably replace the rods every so often. Otherwise you'll probably replace them once in a blue moon.

The water filtration system shuts off when full of 2-water and 2-salt. Unless you're draining water constantly, it is off most of the time.

I think outside lights, and charging batteries/vehicles drain it the most. at least in my experience. I am also a vegetarian and plants provide a lot of water, so I use little water, but make more trips back to base and even then, it is because I'm overloaded with loot and not because I'm thirsty. I find so much water, I usually have it stockpiled for days anyway.

But I found a wiki on the nuclear reactor:
https://subnautica.fandom.com/wiki/Nuclear_Reactor

It says it drains in 80 minutes of full use per rod and each rod has 20,000 power.

Now, if I can get the prawn suit unstuck from the alien aquarium I can harvest some titanium and build a bunch of power draining devices and see what happens.

I know the filteration shuts off after it's full, but when it is on it's pretty draining. I have Marblemelon pots in my Cyclops to reduce the need for water bottles when I'm on the move, but I can't pass up those 50 oz bottles when I'm exploring so my filter's often running.

Than you for the power correction though.

[JayXL]

This is interesting information, thanks everyone. I just gained the ability to make nuclear power, and I was wondering how efficient the fuel rods are in comparison to just stuffing the bioreactor with fish like I've been doing. I'll have to give this a shot somewhere.

Just built my first thermal reactor, and that definitely seems like the way to go if it's available.

[MarkJohnson]

Originally posted by JayXL:

This is interesting information, thanks everyone. I just gained the ability to make nuclear power, and I was wondering how efficient the fuel rods are in comparison to just stuffing the bioreactor with fish like I've been doing. I'll have to give this a shot somewhere.

Just built my first thermal reactor, and that definitely seems like the way to go if it's available.

I use Thermal reactors almost exclusively. I just didn't have a thermal source close by, but had uranium and everything needed for the reactor, so I built it instead.

[QueenPixxa]

Originally posted by MarkJohnson:

But I found a wiki on the nuclear reactor:
https://subnautica.fandom.com/wiki/Nuclear_Reactor

It says it drains in 80 minutes of full use per rod and each rod has 20,000 power.

I wish there was a system where we can visually see the "nuclear liquid" in the rods go down in time. I hate not knowing exactly how much I got remaining.

How does it work for a machine that is loaded with, let's say, 3 rods? will it use 1 rod, then, when that one is depleted, pass to use the second and then the third? Or it will use all 3 together?

[PrimeSonic]

Originally posted by QueenPixxa:

Originally posted by MarkJohnson:

But I found a wiki on the nuclear reactor:
https://subnautica.fandom.com/wiki/Nuclear_Reactor

It says it drains in 80 minutes of full use per rod and each rod has 20,000 power.

I wish there was a system where we can visually see the "nuclear liquid" in the rods go down in time. I hate not knowing exactly how much I got remaining.

How does it work for a machine that is loaded with, let's say, 3 rods? will it use 1 rod, then, when that one is depleted, pass to use the second and then the third? Or it will use all 3 together?

It goes through each rod, one by one, in series.
So you're only ever depleting one rod at a time and the energy output is the same no matter if you have just one rod or all four.

Each reactor rod will provide a total of 20,000 units of energy over its lifetime before depleting, even though the reactor only buffers 2,500 units of energy at a time.

The reactor can produce 4.16666651 units of energy per second.
This is faster than all other energy generators in the game.
I'm sure that number is actually a much nicer looking fraction, but that's what we have to look at in the decompiled game code.

[QueenPixxa]

Thank you, Primesonic.
I was following a conversation you were having with someone here, about the very old but not yet defunct BetterPowerInfo; I didn't understand all of it, but I think you were saying that the data given out by a mod of this type is never accurate, because it's based on projections. Is it true or I completely misunderstood?
There is no way to have a mod showing a breakdown of the energy used in a base? It could be per day, instead of real-time, based on power producers and power users present in base.

[dragonbornzyra]

Originally posted by MarkJohnson:

Originally posted by Emurinus:

The rods don't directly indicate how drained they get over time, but each rod has 90 minutes if constantly used iirc. If you use continuously draining machinery like the water filtration system then you will probably replace the rods every so often. Otherwise you'll probably replace them once in a blue moon.

The water filtration system shuts off when full of 2-water and 2-salt. Unless you're draining water constantly, it is off most of the time.

I think outside lights, and charging batteries/vehicles drain it the most. at least in my experience. I am also a vegetarian and plants provide a lot of water, so I use little water, but make more trips back to base and even then, it is because I'm overloaded with loot and not because I'm thirsty. I find so much water, I usually have it stockpiled for days anyway.

But I found a wiki on the nuclear reactor:
https://subnautica.fandom.com/wiki/Nuclear_Reactor

It says it drains in 80 minutes of full use per rod and each rod has 20,000 power.

Now, if I can get the prawn suit unstuck from the alien aquarium I can harvest some titanium and build a bunch of power draining devices and see what happens.

Nothing wrong with being vegan, but just wanted pointed out: Cooked meats provide a good bit of water too, and far more nutritional value. And the thermal blade cooks them so don't even need to use fabricator. I'm just saying....you pointed out being vegan like it's some advantage here.

Nuclear power options are the most useful when you're too deep for Solar, not near a Thermal source, or in an area with low flora/fauna for Bioreactor. You could build planters and an alien containment for biofuel. Or just a nuclear reactor.

Nuclear power is also the best for bases that use battery chargers, as you said. But for bases with low energy costs and other options for power, Nuclear power is over kill and imo a poor management of resources.

Having said this, I'm the guy that built 2 thermal plants and a nuke reactor for my deep lava base. I'm rarely down there, and when I go there, it's usually from an alien portal to the PCF aquarium and a short seaglide/prawn hop away. *throws hands up*