Nuclear Breeder Reactors ... help

[b0bst3r]

Ok so I built my first nuclear reactor (went all out and made a Mk VI) which is ice cooled (NOT using Energy Collector which is banned on my server).

This obv eats uranium cells every 2-3 hrs and creates the near depleted a lot of the times. So I looked into this "breeder" reactor which turns them back into a usable format (after a little crafting).

Ok so I can put the depleted isotope cells back in my first reactor and eventually they turn into the re-enriched uranium cells but at a pretty big power output cost.

But what I don't get is the point of a breeder reactor, I mean you create a 2nd smaller nuclear reactor and run it hot using even more uranium, to make uranium? I take it at some degree of heat it creates the re-enriched cells faster than it burns the uranium cells to make them in the first place?

Someone enlighten me please on what I'm missing.

PS my first reactor, I backed up my world and blew it up to see how good it was. The only thing that got destroyed was the reactor and the chamber not a single other block was destroyed :)

[gavjenks]

As you suggested, you simply misunderstand how breeder reactors work. They are actually pretty cool and useful.

Ok so I can put the depleted isotope cells back in my first reactor and eventually they turn into the re-enriched uranium cells but at a pretty big power output cost.

This is incorrect. There is zero power cost. The only cost is additional HEAT. For instance, if you have a depleted cell next to a normal cell, you will still get 10 EU/tick just as if the normal cell were by itself (so no power loss), but you will have 20 heat units (depleted cells themselves make no heat, but will cause the uranium next to them to tick an extra 10 heat per second as they re-enrich them).

Now, if you don't have EE, then making the ice to deal with that extra heat uses some power, but if you're using a singularity compressor (which you should be), it's only 3 Eu/tick for a lot of ice, which is pretty negligible.

So basically, the breeder reactor still generates as much power as it would if the depleted cells were not in it, and then in exchange for a lot of extra heat, you re-enrich the depleted cells as well at the same time. Depending on how efficiently you typically use your cells in the main reactor, this may or may not really be worth it (If you run them alone or in pairs usually, it definitely is worth it. If you run them in huge blocks where most cells have 4 neighbors, then probably not worth it to use uranium for breeding, versus just burning it for 50 EU/tick each, unless you have a VERY clever breeder design).

The other reason you might want a breeder reactor is if you want a very long-term nuclear reactor with very little maintenance. For example, if you built a base in the End, or if you have a secure force field facility and you don't want to be vulnerable to people getting in by blocking off your power source. Just like in real life, breeder reactors can potentially re-use the uranium you have over and over and over and make it last virtually forever, without having to go mine more or refill anything. You could just let it run for days or weeks in game without touching it, with very little uranium to begin with.

Yes, you could do something like wind power instead, but:

A) this might be difficult in a confined space like inside a forcefield

I find this less satisfying, because it isn't very realistic, and feels cheaty. If the forcefield blocks everything from getting through, then how would there be wind? A breeder reactor, however, is realistic. Actual breeder reactors in real life can extend fissile fuel usage to last almost 100 times longer than the same fuel used in a conventional reactor.

[TheBard]

I believe a good breeder setup can turn up to 8 Depleted Isotope cells into 8 Re-Enriched Uranium Cells (and then into Uranium Cells) at the "cost"/lifespan of just 1 Uranium Cell.

So breeders give you two options:

1) Allow you to "recycle" Near-Depleted Uranium Cells from other reactors you may have

2) Allow you to "stretch" the existing uranium you have. You can turn 1 Refined Uranium into 8 Near-Depleted Isotope cells via crafting by surrounding 1 Refined Uranium with 8 Empty Cells. So by using a breeder reactor, you can turn 1 Refined Uranium into 7 Uranium Cells via a breeder reactor (minus the cost of using 1 Uranium Cell during the breeding process) instead of turning 1 Refined Uranium into 1 Uranium Cell.

[gavjenks]

I believe a good breeder setup can turn up to 8 Depleted Isotope cells into 8 Re-Enriched Uranium Cells (and then into Uranium Cells) at the "cost"/lifespan of just 1 Uranium Cell.

So breeders give you two options:

1) Allow you to "recycle" Near-Depleted Uranium Cells from other reactors you may have

2) Allow you to "stretch" the existing uranium you have. You can turn 1 Refined Uranium into 8 Near-Depleted Isotope cells via crafting by surrounding 1 Refined Uranium with 8 Empty Cells. So by using a breeder reactor, you can turn 1 Refined Uranium into 7 Uranium Cells via a breeder reactor (minus the cost of using 1 Uranium Cell during the breeding process) instead of turning 1 Refined Uranium into 1 Uranium Cell.

Two things:

A) that one uranium cell is not really a cost, per se. You can still use the 10 EU.tick it produces as well, as it's breeding. So it's almost sort of zero uranium -> many. Although there is an opportunity cost in that you could have used that one more efficiently in a packed design.

Where are you getting your numbers from? I'd be very interested in a design that gets 8 enriched per 1 in.

[TheBard]

It's a "cost" because that 1 cell isn't being used in a different more efficient reactor. An opportunity cost is still a cost.

http://forum.industrial-craft.net/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=2963

This breeder, keep it at 9,000 heat:

http://www.talonfiremage.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/reactorplanner.html?7baq0hj5hnxytheu41au4olui=1m101010114010101001019

You can heat it up to 9,000 using this design, then switch to the one above:

http://www.talonfiremage.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/reactorplanner.html?727hyr4a5f0nwhqdwdkoik6cgq=1m101010114010101001010