Efficient mid-game nuclear power plant

[jaygengelbach]

Spent a couple days testing, planning, and crafting this power plant. Finally got it working, and I thought I'd share.

Some folks suggest that you shouldn't start burning U-235 until you have Kovarex enrichment and enough U-235 to get it rolling. However, I found that once I was burning 40-60 MW reliably, keeping boilers stocked with coal started getting tiresome. Once I was running out of coal patches within easy belting distance, I decided I'd rather jump to nuclear than build a dedicated coal train for power.

Since I still want to save the precious U-235 for Kovarex as soon as I get enough, though, I wanted a setup that would get a good exchange rate for the U-235. Since nuclear reactors burn fuel at a constant rate regardless of consumption, this took a bit of planning. With a couple of key observations, I made it work.

Observation 1: if you can bank the energy from a fuel burn, you can build a large plant and only consume the fuel you need. You can get the efficiency of a large installation with the demands of a small one, and only burn new fuel when your energy bank is low.

This has a pretty simple solution: store steam in tanks. At 25k steam per tank, and 5.8 MJ per 60 steam in a turbine, a single tank holds more than 2.4 GJ, the equivalent of 480 accumulators. Nuclear reactors, heat pipes, heat exchangers, and steam don't cool down below 500 degrees, so no energy gets lost and the setup starts producing energy immediately once you restock the fuel.

Some simple testing showed I could get a bit more than 80,000 steam (4 tanks worth) from the burn of a single fuel cell in a warmed up lone reactor. A lot of this actually rolls in after the fuel stops burning--the heat exchangers keep making steam and drawing heat until everything is back to 500 degrees.

Observation 2: there's no reason not to go big. A 2x2 reactor setup gets 3x neighbor bonuses on each reactor, giving you 12 reactors worth of output. This seems to be the sweet spot--it's a huge improvement on a lone reactor or 1x2 reactor, but diminishing returns kick in hard above 2x2. A 4x2 setup produces 28 reactors of output--2.33x the heat for 2x the cost. That extra 16% efficiency isn't a game changer, but the 200% efficiency gain from going from 1 reactor to 4 definitely is.

A single burn from 4 reactors would produce almost 1M steam by my above calculations. That's 40 tanks, plus some wiggle room if you want to run the reactors before the steam reserve gets empty. I went with 45 to give suitable slack. Here's the basic reactor/exchanger/tank setup:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=923939637

There are 2 double rows of exchangers (48 in total, 4 per effective reactor). There are pumps between my rows of tanks, all pointing north: since the turbines are up there, you want to make sure that steam doesn't pool at the bottom when you need it up top.

The final big challenge here is to automate fuel loading. There are a couple of issues:

• To get the neighbor bonus, all of the reactors need to run simultaneously. You need to get the fuel to load in all of them at the same time.
  
• You don't want to create fuel cells before you need them. You're still saving up for Kovarex, right?
  
• You can't just use a simple load condition like "steam < 100k" because it takes some time for the new steam to accumulate, and if you over-fuel your reactors, your careful efficiency goes down the toilet.

Circuit networks to the rescue! After experimenting with a bunch of things, I built this nifty little circuit module:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=923942690

Blueprint string:

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

This is a combination counting clock and SR latch, which I call a "throttler". The decider on the lower left needs to be hooked up to a suitable network and given a trigger condition--say, "steam < 100k". The upper right takes an integer parameter that's the clock limit, in half-ticks. (It takes 2 ticks for the clock to increment by one.) As soon as it's triggered, this throttler circuit will count from 1 to the specified limit (on the 'A' signal). It will keep counting to that limit no matter what--whether the trigger condition remains true, or bounces between true and false. This debounce property is really useful for a fluid system that is seeing both production and consumption at the same time. Once it hits the limit value, it resets to 0; it can start counting again immediately if the trigger condition is still true, or otherwise sits idle until it's triggered again. The two outputs on the right are both potentially useful: the top one outputs A at the count value (between 1 and the limit). The lower one outputs A=1 the entire time the counter is active.

For our purposes, this makes a perfect throttled pulse generator. We set the inserters that load fuel into the reactors to trigger on A=1. That is, they trigger exactly once, one tick after the total steam in the tanks drops below 100k. We set the disable value to 6,000: 200s (burn time of a fuel cell) * 30 (number of clock increments per second for this circuit). The next A=1 pulse won't occur for at least 200s--and usually a lot longer, since I use a lot less than the total power here.

Putting it all together:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=923945794

Here's the final bit. There are a few last things to control.

• Each reactor has a requester chest, asking for 1 fuel cell. This single cell is what gets loaded whenever the pulse generator fires, then logistic bots restock things. They just have to move 4 fuel cells over 200 seconds, so a single bot can do the trick if you want.
  
• But look out! Logistic bots will move a full stack (as much as they can carry) even if you just ask for 1. To prevent that, I have an inserter that takes the assembler fuel output and puts a maximum of 1 into a provider chest at once. The bots never have more than 1 to move at a time, so they never move too many.
  
• We also throttle generation of fuel cells. Throw in one extra decider as an effective "and" gate, so U-235 is only loaded into the assembler when A=1 (i.e. when the pulse starts) if there are fewer than 4 fuel cells left in the output box. This ensures that by the time the fuel burn is complete, all the requester chests will be restocked with another fuel unit, but we won't over-produce fuel until it's needed.
  
• Stocking the boxes of U-235, U-238, and Iron is left as an exercise for the reader.

Vital stats for the setup:

• A single fuel pulse generates about 1M steam. This is worth almost 100 GJ of stored energy, which will be consumed on-demand by your turbines.
  
• Auxiliary solar power will reduce steam consumption during the day.
  
• I installed 20 turbines for a peak power of 116 MW. There's plenty of room to expand that.
  
• Given the steam produced during the space of a single fuel burn, it looks like the peak power output for these reactors is about 214 MW. With around 40 turbines, your power needs could get up to that range before you needed to tweak anything about this setup.
  
• A single unit of U-235 (yielding 10 fuel cells) produces 241 GJ of energy. This is the equivalent of about 48,000 full accumulators, or more than a 200x200 field of them.
  
• At an average power draw of 50 MW through your turbines, a single unit of U-235 lasts for 80 minutes. A single centrifuge without modules operating constantly produces a U-235 about every 30 minutes. So if your power needs are around this level, you can still be gaining U-235 over time with only a tiny investment in uranium mining.

And finally, a blueprint string for the whole setup (sans offshore pumps and the last mile of water plumbing--figure that out for yourself):

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

[Tossi]

As to the mechanism that loads fuel cells into reactors I came up with an idea of my own. You can see it in this screenshot:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=923961238
It works like this:
1. When a fuel cell gets used up it is put on a piece of belt that is kept standing still.
2. When steam gets low the piece of belt is allowed to move.
3. Used up fuel cell that was held there goes through another piece of belt that triggers inserters loading fuel once.

[PhatzDomino]

I feel a bit underwhelmed with the nuclear reactor if I'm honest, imo It's not really worth the amount of effort it takes to setup and keep running for only 40mW. Might aswell keep using a big bank of coal burners as coal is so much more abundant. Mind you I say this but I havent got a huge base going since the update so I suppose it could come in handy at a later stage.

[Fel]

For 40 MW maybe not, but it really shines with adjacency bonuses.

When you have 4, each of them produce 120 MW, and when you add more (make a line that's 2 thick), the ones that are not on the ends of the line get an other 40 MW of bonus.

The fuel cells themselves also last a long time, meaning that a small-ish patch of ores can actually fuel your entire base for a decent amount of time, significantly longer than a big patch of coal.

From what I see, the devs took some hints from how some mods do their balance, the result is not directly miles ahead, but it gets more and more efficient as you put it through more of the steps (enrichment and adjacency bonuses here as the steps).

[Roxor128]

Originally posted by ASSPhatzDomino:

for only 40mW.

I doubt the developers would put anything in the game which only generates 40 milliwatts. :-)

[Warlord]

Originally posted by Roxor128:

Originally posted by ASSPhatzDomino:

for only 40mW.

I doubt the developers would put anything in the game which only generates 40 milliwatts. :-)

Potato batteries!

[PhatzDomino]

Originally posted by Fel:

For 40 MW maybe not, but it really shines with adjacency bonuses.

When you have 4, each of them produce 120 MW, and when you add more (make a line that's 2 thick), the ones that are not on the ends of the line get an other 40 MW of bonus.

The fuel cells themselves also last a long time, meaning that a small-ish patch of ores can actually fuel your entire base for a decent amount of time, significantly longer than a big patch of coal.

From what I see, the devs took some hints from how some mods do their balance, the result is not directly miles ahead, but it gets more and more efficient as you put it through more of the steps (enrichment and adjacency bonuses here as the steps).

Ah yes I forgot about the neighbour bonuses, that was something I was going to have a play with. Feel like a tit for saying that now lol

[Varenvel The Festive Dinosaur]

Quad reactor running at full efficiency

Requester chests store 10 cells , if thats too much for you you can reduce it

my sugestion is reserch and add production modules in as much uranium you have and reserch mining production , it seams with it you will have more then you will ever use or need

Uranium is abundant so im not sure whats with post maker with making compicated circuits for problems who almost dont exist , im laying around 1200u253 and got like 200k u 238 and im playing with "vanilla" "standard" ore amount and generation and my base is not even big , i berly mined uranium "in starting area , and about half of really big vein outside starting area

here is design for quad reactor , its not mine as some person on forums with "spock" from startrek picture also made it but forgot his full name

i made few minor tweaks to his design but his reactor can run at 100% efficiency(harnesing all power of synergy/neighbour bonus)


http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=924004454


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hZV7B6RlmTsOqvZh9gBeMh/z+LifjZJAdMUne0AvRJldeVw/JxlD64CI+uGfUETVp0E3q4hSDnmwIxaADLsjbSYh8ZLejXxVgdACNcZV8NAtjWCWX2/EFog9VGb58ewYDXI3mZEyr5H2y86SZBCvDtOZ76zhEPn4gYpV8eG4Mq+Sj2elWqUeT830Yi02dOWrw7ZH/W1apRzOwrlKPJmBbpZ7rowrQhDdp4+pMGmYMz5bGHs3hJc7zogTkkTQJgDypKe2TFsaGaphAPIMBrkZzNJZVcqFt6fvY1NfXzzeb3XF5eGtreP+yPB12+7f2y78th+fvbnxKIfuSmjvtV/8FltVTZg==

[mittim]

I came up with this 2x2 efficient reactor design.

It has a storage capacity of 1,5M water and 1,5M steam

It puts 1 fuel cell in the reactors, if

1. more than 1,2M water is stored and
2. less than 200k steam stored and
3. the previous fuel cell, now empty fuel cell, is taken out of the reactor and
4. the manual switch is turned on


http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=920530908


the water stored condition is quite nice if you deliver water by train

[Varenvel The Festive Dinosaur]

Originally posted by 8mittim8:

I came up with this 2x2 efficient reactor design.

It has a storage capacity of 1,5M water and 1,5M steam

It puts 1 fuel cell in the reactors, if

1. more than 1,2M water is stored and
2. less than 200k steam stored and
3. the previous fuel cell, now empty fuel cell, is taken out of the reactor and
4. the manual switch is turned on


http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=920530908


the water stored condition is quite nice if you deliver water by train

i dont think its worth doing complicated designs , uranium is so abundant , even when you set it to low you still ger more then enough if you just make quad reactor and its not most efficient designs as i seen sextuple and octuple reactors too

i think they made uranium power a bit too easy

[mittim]

you're right, its easy to get enough uranium

the reason for me doing this was creating a nice looking design (especially a symetrical design) and doing something with the circuit network (because normally i dont mess much with the circuit stuff)

[Citizen Joe]

Originally posted by ASSPhatzDomino:

I feel a bit underwhelmed with the nuclear reactor if I'm honest, imo It's not really worth the amount of effort it takes to setup and keep running for only 40mW. Might aswell keep using a big bank of coal burners as coal is so much more abundant. Mind you I say this but I havent got a huge base going since the update so I suppose it could come in handy at a later stage.

Lol, I get the feeling you haven't really tried to use it very much, esp with the enrichment process going. You can get several gigawatts out of like 8 reactors for relatively small resource investment. Plus with circuits regulating the output and loss-less steam storage, you can make it insanely efficient.

[Kitchen Gun (TM)]

I don't really have a shortage of U235 when I have a shortage of U238 for the Koravex process.

[Jan]

Best way to build:

------------- xx -------------
------------- xx -------------
------------- xx -------------
------------- xx -------------
------------- xx -------------

.
.
.
.

with wings to the side and extend if you need.

[Kitchen Gun (TM)]

Originally posted by Jan:

Best way to build:

------------- xx -------------
------------- xx -------------
------------- xx -------------
------------- xx -------------
------------- xx -------------

.
.
.
.

with wings to the side and extend if you need.

That's exactly what I do for my 1.1GW plants

[Nasabot]

Very good idea and makes pre kovarex nuclear plant feasable!