Nuclear power bonuses

[Rake]

the first time i set up multiply plants the bonus are correct. But after a while they get all messed up (what should be 300% changes to 200% or even 0 %) , nothing about the plants set up has changed

[Khagan]

The bonus only counts fueled cores. You want either all your cores to be fueled or none; if some are and some aren't, the ones that are will run with lower bonuses.

[Khaylain]

As Khagan said; the bonus only applies to nuclear plants that are "active" and consume nuclear cells to generate heat. If you have 4 in a square and two on a diagonal are working then you get no bonus even if one would think that with 2/4 going there would be some bonus. But it only applies to nuclear plants that share an edge. I'm not sure how it works if you skew them, but there's probably someone that have tested it if you search for it.

[Vyndicu]

Originally posted by Rake:

the first time i set up multiply plants the bonus are correct. But after a while they get all messed up (what should be 300% changes to 200% or even 0 %) , nothing about the plants set up has changed

There are ways to use circuits/inserters to ensure that all Nuclear Power Plants get a fuel cell simultaneously to maximize the neighbor bonus %, instead of occasionally anywhere between 300% and 0%.

Also, others have said previously that only actively running Reactors that directly border each other benefit from the Neighbor bonus. It doesn't matter if the Reactors share and transfer heat while not running.

[🆄🅽🅲🅻🅴 🅹🅾]

Originally posted by Rake:

the first time i set up multiply plants the bonus are correct. But after a while they get all messed up (what should be 300% changes to 200% or even 0 %) , nothing about the plants set up has changed

A screenshot of your nuclear plant might give some insights.

[🆄🅽🅲🅻🅴 🅹🅾]

Originally posted by Vyndicu:

Originally posted by Rake:

the first time i set up multiply plants the bonus are correct. But after a while they get all messed up (what should be 300% changes to 200% or even 0 %) , nothing about the plants set up has changed

There are ways to use circuits/inserters to ensure that all Nuclear Power Plants get a fuel cell simultaneously to maximize the neighbor bonus %, instead of occasionally anywhere between 300% and 0%.

Also, others have said previously that only actively running Reactors that directly border each other benefit from the Neighbor bonus. It doesn't matter if the Reactors share and transfer heat while not running.

There is no need to insert fuel cells simultaneously into a cluster of reactors, since the reactor carries a buffer of between 5 and 7 fuel cells at all times. The internal transition from a spent cell to a fresh one is seamless, with no loss of core temp or % neighbor bonus.

Your second statement is not quite clear on intention, but it's true that the neighbor bonus is only active when all reactors bordering each other is fueled, irrespective of being connected to the heat pipe system or not.

@Khaylain: I have tested it, and a reactor placed diagonally does not provide a neighbor bonus, they have to border and connect with all three heat pipe outlets on the side or at the top.

[DCYW]

Your heat capacity through your heat pipes flows faster to your heat exchange boilers if you have plant bonus, meaning exceed steam production for steam engines, so long-lasting steam power for your base obviously.

You will need tanks of water also to keep nuclear/fusion plants hydrated otherwise you will need burner boilers to backup steam production manually. Only advantage for nuclear/fusion power is fuel takes longer to run out because nuclear fuel are different from burner fuels.

I made a guide especially for nuclear/fusion powered bases for this matter with ducts (Fluids Must Flow mod), if you playing with mods, fluid storage may vary when playing mods. My guide helps to stabilize steam production when your steam plentiful production is at max storage.

[Rake]

ty for all you info, i think maybe one reactor was not removing spent U , so when it went down took the rest, i will keep watching

[Vyndicu]

Originally posted by 🆄🅽🅲🅻🅴 🅹🅾:

[There is no need to insert fuel cells simultaneously into a cluster of reactors, since the reactor carries a buffer of between 5 and 7 fuel cells at all times. The internal transition from a spent cell to a fresh one is seamless, with no loss of core temp or % neighbor bonus.

Your second statement is not quite clear on intention, but it's true that the neighbor bonus is only active when all reactors bordering each other is fueled, irrespective of being connected to the heat pipe system or not.

The point of inserting fuel cells simultaneously is that the Nuclear Reactors will instantly benefit from the neighbor bonus X% at the beginning to end of a fuel cell heat-generating cycle. Instead of staggering, some Nuclear Reactors ran partially at low neighbor bonus and some at full intended neighbor bonus.


When I design a nuclear reactor complex, I make it work in a way that will ensure the Nuclear Power Plants do not generate more heat than is necessary at that point to keep the base powered up.

I want the nuclear power plants to refrain from inserting fuel cells at different times. Hence the logistic circuit to turn fuel cell inserters on/off simultaneously.


On a very high concept level, it goes something like this, If the Nuclear-Steam level is below XXXX, then active all fuel cell inserters.

Nuclear Reactors go into the heat-generating mode, which turns into more Nuclear-Steam.

Stay in this status until Nuclear-Steam goes above XXXX. Then it goes into standby mode and turns off fuel cell inserters.


Making it work this way lets you avoid wasting heat if those Nuclear Rectors' internal heat capacity is already full and won't be able to store any excess heat that it is still generating.

A nice side-effect is that it will ensure that all fuel cells start simultaneously going from standby mode into hot mode.

[🆄🅽🅲🅻🅴 🅹🅾]

Seems overly complicated to have to run a nuke plant in a stop/start fashion, once I start mine it runs at max all the time. Since I always produce more fuel cells than I can use, it doesn't matter to me what the power draw is, I just let them run.

You lost me at the "standby"and "heat generating modes" however, Vanilla reactors don't work that way; they are either heating up with fuel or cooling down without, and if your heat exchangers fall below 500Deg C it takes a long time to get the whole thing back up to temperature, and heating up twin lines of 30 heat exchangers each, and spinning up 120 steam turbines takes many minutes.

I automate the whole fuel production and supply system and just forget about it.

[brian_va]

^ haven't used nuclear in quite a while but I probably spent more time trying to get it to run efficiently, when dropping a couple centrifuges for enrichment, even counting the time for the initial 40, was much easier. I can appreciate the logic behind it, but fuel cells are cheap enough once you have enrichment running.

[Vyndicu]

Originally posted by 🆄🅽🅲🅻🅴 🅹🅾:

Seems overly complicated to have to run a nuke plant in a stop/start fashion, once I start mine it runs at max all the time. Since I always produce more fuel cells than I can use, it doesn't matter to me what the power draw is, I just let them run.

Sure, you could do it that way too.


But it is not overly complicated as you say it would be. It can be simple as a nuclear-steam storage tank hooked to a few deciders/combinators. A logical signal is transit over wires to inserters.

Is the steam level < XXXX ? If Yes, enable the signal to inserters.

Is the steam level > YYYY ? If yes, disable the signal to inserters.

The Smartified Nuclear Complex is identical to a non-modified nuclear complex with extra nuclear-steam storage, combinators/deciders, and a few extra wires for a logical network.

Originally posted by 🆄🅽🅲🅻🅴 🅹🅾:

You lost me at the "standby"and "heat generating modes" however, Vanilla reactors don't work that way; they are either heating up with fuel or cooling down without, and if your heat exchangers fall below 500Deg C it takes a long time to get the whole thing back up to temperature, and heating up twin lines of 30 heat exchangers each, and spinning up 120 steam turbines takes many minutes.

I automate the whole fuel production and supply system and just forget about it.

I used "standby" and "heat generating mode" phrases to describe the state that a nuclear complex is in. Those phrases do not describe how they work in-game vanilla Factorio.


I don't disagree that it does take time for a Nuclear Complex to go from standby to running at capacity.

I usually add a few extra storage tanks to store unused nuclear-steam while running to give the Smartified Nuclear Complex time to spool up to maximum capacity before you run out of usable energy in "standby" mode.

If done correctly, you will only lose energy while transiting between "Standby" and "heat generating mode." At the same time, Steam Turbines always provide energy to the power grid with 100% uptime in all state modes.

If that still doesn't make sense. I can provide an example blueprint/screenshot later.


The primary reason for doing this is I have a Nuclear Reactor with an internal heat of 1000 out of 1000 capacity and a neighbor bonus. Any further fuel cell inserted or consumed in this status means I am leaving behind unrecoverable energy between 120 MW and 160 MW of heat for every single Reactor I have running in a 2xN configuration.

I have done up to multi-GW of nuclear energy and other multi-GW non-nuclear energy sources. At that level, it is better to avoid generating extra heat when the power grid doesn't need it.

[blademan619]

Originally posted by 🆄🅽🅲🅻🅴 🅹🅾:

Seems overly complicated to have to run a nuke plant in a stop/start fashion, once I start mine it runs at max all the time. Since I always produce more fuel cells than I can use, it doesn't matter to me what the power draw is, I just let them run.

You lost me at the "standby"and "heat generating modes" however, Vanilla reactors don't work that way; they are either heating up with fuel or cooling down without, and if your heat exchangers fall below 500Deg C it takes a long time to get the whole thing back up to temperature, and heating up twin lines of 30 heat exchangers each, and spinning up 120 steam turbines takes many minutes.

I automate the whole fuel production and supply system and just forget about it.

Reactors run at 100% all the time so you waste a LOT of fuel. On a normal run this isn't an issue because by the time you get nuclear, you are almost finished with the game anyways, so ignore it. But if you are playing any special run or long term runs past just 1 launch, its better to setup logistics for the reactors. It doesn't hardly take any time and only costs you some storage tanks in cost pretty much.

Its pretty damn simple to setup too.

Build steam tanks to store excess steam.

Build 1 input and 1 output inserter with chests per reactor. Put 1 wire from the input inserter to the output inserter. Set it to enable/disable, Read hand contents and pulse mode. Set it to check for spent fuel cells.

For the output inserter, wire it to any of the connected steam tanks. Depending on how many steam tanks you have you might have to adjust the amount, but set it to enable/disable, read hand contents and hold mode. Check for steam <5k

Manually place 1 fuel cell in each reactor and make sure the input chest has more fuel cells for the future.

That's it.


So what this does is the reactor overproduces heat, so you store excess steam to use the heat before it gets wasted. You only have 1 fuel cell in the reactor being used so the reactor will actually shut down and "cool" down as the heat is used. Once the surrounding heat pipes and reactor hits 500c, it stops dropping. The game has no heat loss so it'll stay at 500 forever. This means for first time reactor starts, it takes a long freaking time to hit operating temperatures, but once there, it never falls below 500, so its really quick to get back up to operating temperatures.

As the steam stored in the tanks gets used to power your base on demand, it will slowly get used up. Once it falls below the set threshold (for mine its 5k), the output inserter will take the spent fuel cell out of the reactor. As it does that, the input inserter "sees" the spent fuel cell and will then pulse to insert 1 fuel cell. Now the reactor starts back up and immediately heat goes over 500 to produce steam almost instantly. Unless you have really long heat pipe runs, this will work just fine. For longer heat pipe set ups you might need to set the steam check to <10k or even higher. I prefer compact 2x2 designs so the heat doesn't have to travel far to start producing steam. I even timed it, it takes ~15 seconds for 3/4 of the heat exchangers to start working and ~30 seconds for all of them.

[Nonotorious]

Wasting uranium seems like a non problem if you are keeping on top of research, i am still running off the same uranium patch i started with which now has MORE uranium in it than i started with thanks to mining productivity. Power is basically free past a certain point unless you put serious restrictions on resources.

[🆄🅽🅲🅻🅴 🅹🅾]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2980968711

For this particular factory I need those two to be running at 80% or better, That rocket complex in the top left needs to be be put on auto launch, so there is no way I can stop start that lot. They both run off of the same uranium patch and there's still plenty.

[Vyndicu]

Originally posted by 🆄🅽🅲🅻🅴 🅹🅾:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2980968711

For this particular factory I need those two to be running at 80% or better, That rocket complex in the top left needs to be be put on auto launch, so there is no way I can stop start that lot. They both run off of the same uranium patch and there's still plenty.

I am looking at the proper Nuclear Power Ratio. Both 2x4 Nuclear Reactor sets should provide a total of 2.24 GW (1.12 GW for each 2x4 times 2).


Ahh, I see the issue. An ideal 2x4 Nuclear Reactor can feed 112 boilers and 193 steam turbines. Your setup in the picture has 120 boilers and 120 Steam Turbines.

You have excellent heat throughput but massively underutilize your Steam Turbine throughput. You can put an extra ~64 Steam Turbines (rounded up for symmetry which you go for).