Tips for first nuclear power plant

[Caver451]

I'm starting my second attempt at planning this out on paper, and I am wondering what issues the veterans of nuclear power have seen, and any tips you might be able to offer?

Just finding an appropriate location for the plant has been a challenge; I don' want to be moving a ton of radioactive material all over the map, but of course none of the resources I need are particularly close to where I need it, and long distance fuel handling seems unpleasant.

I figured I would work on the fuel production part first, and just sink all the fuel until I am ready to figure out the waste handling. I was considering a small plant for the generators at first.

How do folks approach all this? Do you produce the fuel in one place, and then cart it to your generators, or do you try to produce the fuel as close to your generators as possible? Most of the Uranium nodes are in inconvenient locations, and I can't see folks sending it all by conveyor across the map.

I've seen some guides, but they seem to be for massive plants, and I really want to see if I can get something workable designed by myself.

[kLuns]

If it's your first start with a modular design to feed one or a few nuclear power plants, 0,2 uranium fuel rods/ 300 water per minute. You make waste which can be reprocessed into plutonium fuel rods.
Bring everything else to the uranium node if you want to minimize radioavtivity and use load balancers and not manifolfds so your machines won't have a stack of radioactive items.

Make sure you have particle enrichment unlocked in the hub and don't start the system when your reprocessing factory isn't finished yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8Ifny9hW4E

[Caver451]

Originally posted by kLuns:

If it's your first start with a modular design to feed one or a few nuclear power plants, 0,2 uranium fuel rods/ 300 water per minute. You make waste which can be reprocessed into plutonium fuel rods.
Bring everything else to the uranium node if you want to minimize radioavtivity and use load balancers and not manifolfds so your machines won't have a stack of radioactive items.

Make sure you have particle enrichment unlocked in the hub and don't start the system when your reprocessing factory isn't finished yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8Ifny9hW4E

Thank you for the good tips! I quickly learned about load balancers vs manifolds when building my first coal plant, and the last couple of generators in line were always starved for coal while the first plants were always over supplied. Manifolds are more compact, but load balancing--while a little harder to set up--usually end up easier to manage in the long run.

I've been contemplating a modular design, since I don't intend on building a giant plant up front. One normal uranium node seems like plenty to feed a ton of reactors, so I was planning on working out the fuel production at as close to maximum as possible, and just scrap the rods I don't need until I am ready to add more reactors.

Fortunately, I am not suffering for power at the moment, and I can just build another fuel plant if I need more until I work this nuclear stuff out. Once finished, it will be nice to be able to decommission some of my other power plants so I'm not burning precious coal and oil instead of using them for other more valuable products!

[kLuns]

It takes some power for pumps but if you make a tower you have less radition spread over the surface.
And if you place pipe line junction cross after a pump you can share headlift with a few pipes.

[The Big Brzezinski]

I recall putting mine on the west coast and shipping most of the raw materials there in a big train station. I think only aluminum parts were made off-site.

I think the ratio of uranium fuel rod production to generators was 6:1. Don't try to feed them with a manifold. Use a balanced conveyor setup, or you'll be waiting hours before they completely spin up. I think it only took a single mixer and particle accelerator with some overclocking to sink the uranium waste.

[nfgman]

1} Groups of 5, 10, 15 .... reactors. Multiples of 5.
2} Even if you overclock a single water extractor to 300, link extractors together.
3} Don't bother with uranium waste storage. Go straight to plutonium.
4} The more resources used on power {aluminum}, the less you'll have for production.
5] Have a way to use by-product water that can be discarded to sink {ie. wet concrete or pure caterium}. Lockups are not fun in radiation zones.
6} Plenty of radiation filters ready.
7} Lots of water and concrete.

[umop-apisdn]

Originally posted by Caver451:

I figured I would work on the fuel production part first, and just sink all the fuel until I am ready to figure out the waste handling. I was considering a small plant for the generators at first.

Figure out waste management first. It's not possible to stress that enough.

Originally posted by Caver451:

Most of the Uranium nodes are in inconvenient locations, and I can't see folks sending it all by conveyor across the map.

Drones.

[QWARZ]

after you process uranium waste into plutonium, after burning the latter, plutonium waste will turn out? and there is no way to get rid of them except for using bugs?

[DrNewcenstein]

I built my reactors up high, on a platform between two mesas in the green valley next to the Rocky Desert. I ran a water train up a long incline, which fed into large water tanks before feeding the reactors. I used drones to carry fuel rods up to the platform. I had the tanks on a 3m platform so the pipes ran level into the water inputs.

Then I scrapped all of it and built the reactors partially submerged on sunken platforms just off the coast of the Rocky Desert, with 2 extractors feeding one large tank per reactor, and again the tank outputs were level with the water input. I drone in the solid materials and belt them below the surface of the water, eliminating the train and massive inclined rail.

I've got 15 reactors and 6 containers at the end of each chain collecting waste until I can build the particle accelerator.

[kLuns]

Originally posted by QWARZ:

after you process uranium waste into plutonium, after burning the latter, plutonium waste will turn out? and there is no way to get rid of them except for using bugs?

Plutonium waste can't be processed. You can finish the automated part by sinking the plutonium fuel rods.

[QWARZ]

Oh, and plutonium fuel rods are disposed of?, i.e. Is it possible to power nuclear power plants from uranium, then process the waste into plutonium rods and dispose of them?

I just don’t want to play in a radioactive wasteland into which the map will turn into with excessive accumulation of waste, or I don’t want to use various bugs to remove them

[Bobucles]

Originally posted by QWARZ:

Oh, and plutonium fuel rods are disposed of?, i.e. Is it possible to power nuclear power plants from uranium, then process the waste into plutonium rods and dispose of them?

Yes. It was a loophole in factory design, but the devs said "yeah sure why not". Process the nuclear waste into proper plutonium fuel, then sell them on the awesome sink black market.

Alternatively, just use the plutonium fuel and don't worry about it. It's not a big deal to build up a stockpile that can hold months of plutonium waste.

[QWARZ]

so plutonium and uranium waste still decompose on its own? or was that sarcasm? just in the guide that I read it was indicated that the waste is stored forever ....

[kLuns]

Originally posted by QWARZ:

so plutonium and uranium waste still decompose on its own? or was that sarcasm? just in the guide that I read it was indicated that the waste is stored forever ....

It is stored forever.
Uranium waste can be processed to plutonium fuel rods and those can be fed to the awesome sink for coupons.
If you burn the plutonium in a power plant they will give plutonium waste which can't be processed and needs to be stored forever.

[DrNewcenstein]

There's plenty of open void space outside the coastlines to store radioactive waste. You can also pave the bottom of the bigger void pits and layer the floors with containers to store it. Eventually you'll be unable to get near that area of the map, but there are areas of the map which are pretty much devoid of resources, and those can serve as storage fields, from ground to death zone in the sky.