Nuclear Power Tutorial

Nuclear Power Tutorial contains information about the Industrial Craft mod.

Nuclear Power Tutorial is a Tutorial.

Nuclear power is a useful way of getting large amounts of energy. But it is complex and expensive, and not for the faint of heart, or those with few resources.

Building the Nuclear Reactor

Build a nuclear reactor and five reactor chambers.

The recipe for the nuclear reactor:

The recipe for reactor chambers:

Recipes for other components are found below.

Designing Your Nuclear Reactor

It's time to design your nuclear reactor. You can get a design off the internet, but if you want to design your own, you'll need to understand how it works.

Nuclear Reactor Parts

A summary of the various components of the reactor:

Uranium Cell

The uranium cell provides energy in the reactor. It is made from uranium, or from a re-enriched cell. It pulses once per tick(second), and one extra time for each adjacent cell. It provides 200 EU per pulse. It will last for 10,000 ticks. It creates 10 heat per tick if there are no cooling components near it, and down to 4 if it is surrounded.

Near-Depleted Uranium Cell

This is a random byproduct which occasionally occurs from used up uranium cells in the nuclear reactor. It produces one heat per tick. It can eventually be turned back into a uranium cell. It can also be crafted from uranium to increase efficiency.

Depleted Isotope Cell

This is made from a near-depleted uranium cell. When placed in a nuclear reactor, it will interact with the environment the same as a uranium cell, but will not produce EU. It will then be charged into a re-enriched uranium cell. It will recharge faster if the heat level is higher.

Re-Enriched Uranium Cell

This is made from a depleted isotope cell and crafted into a brand new uranium cell.

Coolant Cell

This is made from a water cell in an extractor. Its main purpose is to store heat. It can store 10,000 before melting. It cools itself down by one heat per tick. It is also used in crafting some of the other components.

Integrated Reactor Plating

This item redistributes heat between the surrounding elements. It can even transfer heat to another reactor plating, though it can't go to a third. It can also store 10,000 heat, and cools itself down by 0.1 heat per tick. Each also inceases hull durabilityby 100.

Integrated Heat Dispenser

The integrated heat dispenser attempts to equalize the heat between itself, adjacent cooling components, and the hull. It can directly exchange 25 heat per tick with the hull, and 6 per tick with each reactor component. It can store 10,000 and cools itself by 100 heat per tick.

Reactor Chamber

Each reactor chamber adjacent to the reactor adds an extra column to the GUI, adds 1000 to the hull's durability, and cools the reactor 2 heat per tick.

Other Effects

Other Items in the Reactor

Water buckets will evaporate if the reactor heat is over 4000, cooling it by 250.

Ice blocks will evaporate if reactor heat is above 300, cooling it by 300.

A lava bucket will dissappear in a reactor, increasing hull heat by 2,000.

A redstone current will turn off the reactor, letting it cool down.

External Block Effects on Reactor

The reactor cools itself down by 1 heat per tick. Reactor chambers cool it down 2 heat per tick. Water in the 3x3x3x area around the reactor will cool it down by 1 heat per tick, and air by 0.25.

Reactor Heat Effects on the Environment

% of hull heat	Effect
40	Flammable blocks in a 5x5x5 cube have a chance of burning.
50	Water blocks within a 5x5x5 cube (both sources and flowing) will have a chance of evaporating.
75	Entities within a 7x7x7 cube (instead of 3x3x3) will get hurt from radiation.
85	Blocks within a 5x5x5 cube have a chance of burning or turning into lava ('moving' lava only, no source blocks)
100	What environment? That hole in the ground?

(from the Industrialcraft wiki)

Designing the Nuclear Reactor

Goals

Chose your goals wisely, because you can't make a perfect reactor. What do you want it to do?

• Efficient
• Safe
• Little user intervention
• Runs constantly
• etc.

The Design Process

Sketch your design out on a piece of paper. You will run into three main problems: efficiency, excess heat, and not enough space in the GUI. The more uranium you have in a cluster, the more efficient the machine is, but the more heat it produces, and the less space you have for cooling components.

Making it Work, Then Making it Automated

Make all the pieces of the nuclear reactor, and put it all together. Then put the uranium in, and let it run and fill up your MFSU with EU!

You could potentially automate it, by having it insert one-use coolants and replace uranium cells with logistics pipes. You could hook it up to a redpower timer to give it automatic cooldown periods. Be creative!