What's the benefit of nuclear power?

[Thryden]

So how good is nuclear power? When I unlock it, could I use it as my only source of power and completely remove solar panels and steam engines? Of course I'd keep some backup ones, but could nuclear power become my main source of power? And how easy is it to use? I really don't like solar panels due to the amount of space they take up and how I have to use accumulator's at night, and would like to forgo them alltogether. How powerful is nuclear power? How many solar panels would one power plant replace? Don't feel the need to answer every question individual, a basic explanation would suffice. Thanks!

[AlexMBrennan]

And how easy is it to use?

Dealing with uranium is a bit tricky - without Kovarex enrichment technology you will end up with mountains of useless U238, and the Kovarex enrichment setup isn't entirely trivial either (the expensive recipe makes the default inserter behaviour - to buffer 2x recipe cost - undesirable).

In general, nuclear reactors are reasonably powerful and efficient without any need for clever designs, but can be made extremely powerful and extremely efficient with clever designs.

How many solar panels would one power plant replace?

That depends. The nominal power output of each reactor is 40MW, which is increased by 100% for each adjacent nuclear reactor. 1x1 gives you 40MW per reactor, 2x2 gives you 120MW per reactor, 2x10 gives you (on average) 144MW per reactor, etc.

So I guess the answer is anywhere between 950 and 3800.

[Thryden]

ok, thank you!

[The Chaotic Coder]

What I do is go full nuclear as early as possible, entirely skipping solar. The only panels + accumulators I build are the ones that feed into my satellite factory.

What I do is make 2x2 reactor setups, 480 MW each, and deliver fuel via train.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRsTHPgwTzY

This video explains how to set up your reactors to only use fuel when they need it. By default reactors have an "always on 100%" behavior. They'll heat up until they reach the 1000 degree cap, at which point they'll still use fuel cells at the same rate except the heat they're producing is simply wasted instead of being used to generate power.

Using the simple circuitry shown in the video, the reactors will turn on for the time it takes to use 1 fuel cell, during which they'll store up heat (in the reactors, heat pipes, and exchangers) and store up steam (in the tanks) and then they'll shut off and wait until the steam level drops below a certain amount. So that way you're only using the fuel that you need and not wasting any.

Also, it's probably best to use logistic chests to request fuel cells and remove the used ones instead of using the belts shown in the video -- it's an efficiency thing.

[stlyau]

Once you have enough uranium in both types, it's not a big concern about turn on/off the reactors unless you just want to be that cheap. With a proper set up (Ore Processing, Koravex and Used Cell Reclaimation), you should be worried about fuel needs. In my set up, I have 1k in the requester at reactors, and 2k more at cell production. Every part of the set up is wired with conditions, except for the reactor shutdown. I just let it run without worrying about it, as eventually with a large enough base, ore is limitless.

I'll post my newest set up tomorrow, as I'm heading to bed now for early work start.

[The Chaotic Coder]

stlyau eredeti hozzászólása:

Once you have enough uranium in both types, it's not a big concern about turn on/off the reactors unless you just want to be that cheap. With a proper set up (Ore Processing, Koravex and Used Cell Reclaimation), you should be worried about fuel needs. In my set up, I have 1k in the requester at reactors, and 2k more at cell production. Every part of the set up is wired with conditions, except for the reactor shutdown. I just let it run without worrying about it, as eventually with a large enough base, ore is limitless.

I'll post my newest set up tomorrow, as I'm heading to bed now for early work start.

It just depends on playstyle. I like to be as efficient as possible. It's a pain to tear up an exhausted mine and go build another one somewhere else. It's all the more complicated for uranium because of the extra equipment for the sulphuric acid. So if I can connect up a few wires and cut my fuel consumption in half, then of course I'll do it.

The same goes for having all that extra storage. Leaving resources in the ground longer means you have time to research more mining productivity upgrades. So the longer you wait to mine it, the more valuable it becomes. Filing up a logistic network with a few thousand extra cells (or even just a 20- or 30-tile belt-length) represents wasted resources when a chest requesting 1 cell at a time will do the job just fine.

[stlyau]

My set up can be changed in values of resources on hand. It's just currently set this way due to the complete rebuild I have done with this map. I tore everything but power and defenses down originally and have worked my way back to getting it fully running. The reason for the complete teardown and rebuild is that I wanted to use the space of old base more effectively without having to build over original resource patches.

In regards to ore in the ground, I'm pretty sure there is only one train that carries ore from the mine to the processing. With the processing wired to only run when 238 is below a set value, unless ore is needed, the train never completely unloads and leaves. Requests and providers at ore load station are set to minimal amounts, thus making the miners not work as none is needed, which leaves the ore in the ground as you say. Ore processing being set to only function if 238 is below that value, is effected by the used cell reclaimation, as that is constantly putting 3 238s back into the system per cell.

[Thryden]

Thank you. Jcharding, thanks for the video. I'll check it out when I've researched nuclear power. I like to take my time in the game, so skipping solar power really isn't an option for me.