Atomic science power generation. Tips and tricks.

[jakalth]

This is a compilation of info figured out by several different people on the forums. I'll try to update any errors I might have made.

The Original thread that started all this can be found: HERE. It still has a lot of useful information and examples.

Lets start out with a collection of tips and tricks for generating power using atomic science in Tekkit.

Part 1: Overview and block info.

Atomic science is not for the feint of heart, or the lacking of resources. Many things in atomic science require rather large amounts of resources. But, for those patient enough and/or wealthy enough, it can be a worthwhile investment.

Main power generation comes in the form of 2 reactors and a rather novelty block:

1. Fission reactor. This block creates heat using atomic fission from Fissile Fuel Cells. It's a pocket sized nuclear reactor. Beware though, if it gets too hot, it will explode dumping radiation about and destroying a fairly large area. But help arrives in the form of the thermometer block and control rod. These two, when used with the fission reactor, help control the reactors heat, preventing an explosion. To generate power with this reactor, you need to place it in the middle of a 1 block high area of water. The reactor will heat water that is two blocks away from it in a square shape. So a 5x5 area of water. Remember this when making a fission reactor setup. The thermometer only monitors the reactors temperature if placed in contact with the reactor it's self. The control rod acts to slow down the reactor, but only when it is touching the side of the reactor. below or above does not slow down the reactor.
   
2. Fusion reactor. This blocks creates plasma from Deuterium Cells. The plasma can destroy anything other then the electromagnets included in the mod, and one or two other blocks, even destroying the reactor if it isn't shielded with magnets. The plasma needs to be channeled through electromagnets to generate heat to heat up water for steam. Since the plasma is a liquid, the area it flows in should be created accordingly, with a 1 block high area for the plasma to flow through. Other then the plasma being extremely dangerous, this reactor is much simpler to operate, but a LOT more expensive to build.
   

1. Fulmination Chamber. This block is more of an explosives toy then a true power generator. These blocks turn the force of an explosion into power. all designs need to have water in the bottom of them to prevent the wiring attached to them from being destroyed. The larger the build, the more power you get from a given explosion, up to about a 9x9x9 box. Note: the amount of energy generated from the fulmination generator does not equal the energy and resources used to create the explosives. One exception is the creeper spawner powered generator, which just needs a way to get the creepers to explode.
   

There are a couple blocks of not here as well:

Electromagnet. When directly exposed to plasma, it will heat a block of water touching any of its sides. The heated water generates steam that can be collected to generate power.

Electromagnet Glass. When exposed to plasma, it does nothing. All it does is give you a viewing area to see the plasma inside a reactor setup.

Reactor Turbine. Generates power from steam. It can accept steam only from the bottom and only outputs power from the top. The steam can come from placing the turbine directly over a heated steam generating water source, or by piping steam in via liquaduct or waterproof pipes. By default, reactor turbines can not be stacked.

Steam Funnel. Collects steam from directly below it, and moves it strait up. Steam funnels can be stacked as high as you like. They can only output steam into waterproof pipes, liquaducts, or another steam funnel. The liquaducts need to be set to extract mode and activated with a redstone signal making a build using steam funnels a little more complex. When hooked up to liquaducts, and probably also to waterproof pipes, steam funnels seem to have a nearly limitless internal buffer allowing them to store the surplus steam generated by the reactor until it can be transferred into the liquaduct.

[jakalth]

Part 2: Fusion reactor tips.(builds will be in part 3)

The fusion reactor is a marvel of power generation, or a headache when the mod refuses to cooperate. It takes deuterium cells, which are created by running water through a chemical extractor. You'll need a supply of empty cells for the extractor to put the deuterium into.

A fusion reactor comes in many shapes and sizes. Each can have a single fusion core, or many fusion cores. There are many things to think about when trying to design your own fusion reactor setup.

1: Do I have enough built up resources? Fusion reactors are expensive to build. They require a lot of electromagnets and reactor turbines, as well as a good supply of deuterium cells. They are not an early game power system. But are viable mid to late game for powering many of the higher demand machines.

2: Do I have enough room in X location? Fusion reactors take up a lot of room as well. They can range in size from as small as 7x7 to 21x21 or more, for a single core setup. Multiple core setups can become vast monsters that require chunk loaders just to keep the other side of the reactor loaded while your standing next to it.

3: How big is big enough? Trick question. You can never go too big as long as your computer/server can handle it. But a rule of thumb is, Plasma can only travel up to 7 blocks from it's source. Making something where plasma has to travel more then 7 blocks means parts of your reactor are doing nothing.

4: What type of reactor do I want to make? There are basicly two type of reactors. Ring type reactors and flood type reactors.

4a: Ring type reactors have a loop or several loops for the plasma to flow through. In general, they seem to have more consistent power generation over flood types, but do not produce as much total power. Ring types also average out to be a bit cheaper to make then comparable flood type reactors since they have more confined areas for the plasma. So all told, ring type reactors tend to be cheaper to build and have a more consistent power generation from one cell to the next.

4b: Flood type reactors have a large open area for the plasma to flow into. In general they seem to be less consistent when generating power, but overall produce more power then comparable ring types. Flood types tend to be more expensive to build, requiring more electromagnets and turbines to operate. So all told, they are a little more expensive and less consistant, but can produce far more average power then a ring type reactor.

5: Building your reactor in a Pocket dimension or a Mystcraft age can help improve lag/framerates around your base. You can even split the reactor and turbines into different ones if using tesseracts to transfer steam. This only helps by moving the cause of the reduced performance of your computer to another location by not having to render everything all the time. Using chunk loaders or dimensional anchors keeps your reactor running while your not in said dimension.

Now when actually building your reactor these tips can help a lot:

1: Never use Electromagnet Glass on the top of your reactor. Since it produces no steam, it reduces the effectiveness of your reactor. You can use electromagnet glass on the bottom of the reactor with no problems, if you want to view the plasma.

2: Anyplace you can have water touching an electromagnet that also can contact plasma, you can generate steam. So use every available surface on the top and sides of your reactor setup to do so.(minus the top of the fusion reactor core which can be used to supply it with power or deuterium cells.)

3: Turbines are nice, but Steam Funnels are where it's at. Using steam funnels to collect the steam and then piping that steam to your turbines gives you many times the power generation of using turbines alone. Just remember, steam funnels need to have the steam pumped out of them when using liquaducts. Easiest option is a liquaduct set to pump mode and supplied with a redstone signal from above. Steam can only be extracted from the top of a steam funnel.

4: Always use Large turbines where available. Large turbines are made by placing a square of 9 turbines, then right clicking on the center one with a BC compatible wrench.(prototype omniwrench doesn't work) They are a bit more efficient giving you a little more power from your steam.

5: Steam can only be inserted into a turbine from below. Also, you only need one input into a large turbine when piping the steam. Always use the center of the turbine is for steam input as well. It does not matter where under the turbine you input the steam. Steam can be inserted into a large turbine from any side, using liquaducts, tesseracts, or waterproof pipes. Otherwise it will draw steam from below if placed directly above water heated by a reactor.

6: Power can only be output from the top center of any turbine. The turbine will not output from any other location.

7: When you can, direct connect your turbines to your steam funnels using pipes or liquaducts.

8: If space is limited, Tesserect your steam away. Just note that Tesseracts have a limited steam transfer rate so you will need several on different channels to move all the steam to your turbines.( EDIT: This seems to be more of a bug since others have gotten a single Tesseract channel to work just fine for their whole reactor.) 1 pair of Tesseract, with a single input and output, will safely run 5 large turbines. Adding more inputs and/or input tesseracts, will increase how many a single output tesseract can operate.

9: There is such a thing as too much of a good thing. If you have too many turbines hooked up to your reactor setup, you can loose potential power generation. The turbines have a minimum steam flow rate that they need to generate power. If this flow rate gets too low, they will keep consuming steam, but generate no power. Always use the minimum number of turbines needed to use all the steam your reactor can output. It's easier to add more turbines later if they are needed, then to figure out why your reactor's power output is lacking.

10: Automating the insertion of deuterium cells into your reactor is a must. Fusion reactors are notoriously hungry. They can burn through cells at a furious rate. Not all reactors are as efficient with their deuterium as others. The reasons for this are not really known yet. But a reactor will keep producing steam long after the deuterium cell is used up. The duration of steam production varies greatly due to not all cells producing the same amount of plasma. But as a general rule, a reactors steam production starts dropping off within a minute of the plasma generation ending. This isn't the end of the world though. It can keep producing enough steam to turn your turbines for up to 9 minutes after plasma has been generated. Most cases though, the time is between 3 and 6 minutes.

11: Powering your Fusion core. A fusion reactor wants a lot of power to run. But giving it more power seems to actually reduce its effectiveness. Limit your reactor core's power intake. This is easily done by using a Redstone energy cell as a buffer. Just leave the REC's input at 100 and set it's output to 55 or something similar. Your reactor setup will be more efficient this way.

[Digdug83]

Are you sure on number 8 jakalth? Everything I've read on liquid tesseracts says their only limitation is what you can put into them.

Otherwise an excellent series of tips. You should upload stuff to the wiki. I didn't think to put magnets on the top layer of my reactor *hurries off*

[jakalth]

yes, I am sure on number 8. Just not on the exact volume they move. My creative tests could never move enough through a single channel to feed the turbine array, but on 5 different channels, it all went smoothly.

Seems to be a bug that causes some people to have issues with running that much through one channel, while for others it works just fine.

[Digdug83]

I thought as much. I was running 80 turbines off the one frequency and all the REC's hooked to my turbines weren't dropping (all set to only output 1 less than input). You scared me for a moment lol.

[jakalth]

That's the thing, not all the info I've gathered here is 100% accurate, I might have a few mistakes. I'm sure there are some tips I am missing as well. I still need to add in sample designs, which I have pictures of, just need to upload them and link them. I also haven't covered Fission reactors yet...

[Digdug83]

Actually number 5 is partially incorrect. Steam can be input to any part of the underside of the LT with no loss. The key is to only have one pipe attached to it.

[jakalth]

I'll correct that. Thanks.

[Steve From Marketing]

#5 Slightly unclear. Do you mean when placed over water or hooked up with say liquiducts? Because you can connect liquiducts from the top part of a large steam turbine (except center which is for power). Even the sides works.

[jakalth]

You can actually input steam into a turbine from the top, using liquaducts? The tests I have done only showed inputting from the bottom as viable. Hmmm, I'll have to correct that yet again if that is true.

[jakalth]

Part 3a: Ring type fusion reactor.

This is a picture walk through of building a ring type fusion reactor. This is only an example, your design might end up looking different from this.

1: The first step in making the reactor is to lay out the basic outline of the rings. I find doing this at first, to be the easiest way to make sure you end up with the design you are looking for. Whether you build the reactor directly on the ground, or build it elevated in the air does not seem to make much of a difference other then accessibility to the bottom of the fusion reactor.

This is how it looks after step 1.

2: Next step is to add magnets to the top and bottom of the rings to contain the plasma. Note that the top of the rings uses only regular Electromagnets. The bottom side of the rings can be either regular electromagnets or electromagnet glass.

This is how it looks after step 2.

3: Third step is to add an area to hold water against the outside edge of your reactor. This can be made using any blocks you want to use. Cobblestone is just an example. This is done because the outside edge is a viable area to generate steam.

This is how it looks after step 3.

4: Next step is to add water to the outside edge of your reactor. The water needs to be standing water since flowing water doesn't produce as much steam.

This is how it looks after step 4.

5: In this step, you add your first layer of steam funnels, starting with placing them over the water around the outside edge of your reactor. Once these funnels are in place, you can add water to the next level of your reactor. This is also a good time to think about how you'll power your reactor. I find feeding power in from the top to be the most conveniant. That is why I add in a couple redstone energy conduits to supply it with power. This also makes it a little easier later on in the build.

This is how it looks after step 5.

6: In this step, you add steam funnels to over the water on the second level of your reactor. This will use several more funnels then step 5, and you'll want to be sure to add a funnel to over the center of each of the rings. With these funnels in place, you can add water to the third level of your reactor.

This is how it looks after step 6.

7: Now it's time to add steam funnels to over the water on the third level of your reactor. You'll want to stack a second funnel over the center of the rings to bring that up to the same height as your third level funnels. Otherwise you won't be able to supply a redstone signal to recieve steam from that funnel. Note: steam funnels can be stacked without loss.

This is how is looks after step 7.

8: For this step, you'll be adding liquaducts to the top of your lowest level of steam funnels. Be sure to right click on each of the liquaducts to set them to extract mode or this will not work. Alternately, you can use BC waterproof pipes instead. They also work, but their behavior is different then liquaducts so your steam flow will not be the same. I have never actually used waterproof pipes myself so I don't have any useful info on them to give you.

This is how it looks after step 8.

9: Now you can simply add the rest of the liquaducts(or BC waterproof pipes) to the top of all the rest of the steam funnels. You'll want to add sections of pipe to connect each level together with the lower levels. Just remember, you do not want to connect an upper level to a lower level over an inside corner since the inside corner can only be supplied redstone signals from above. Any other location will work though.

This is how it looks after step 9.

10: In this step, start adding a redstone signal to the top of any lower level liquaduct. This can be done in several ways. My example is using redstone blocks, but you can use Rednet cable instead for example.

This is how it looks after step 10.

11: Now you can add redstone signals to the rest of your liquaducts. You only need to supply a signal once to each liquaduct so look at your reactor and place the signal blocks only over those liquaducts that do not have a signal yet. You will also want to add a signal to the side of the liquaducts that you've connected each level together at. Note: If you spend more iron to make the steam funnels, you can stack more funnels on top of the lower levels of your reactor and make the top of your steam funnels flat. Doing this makes piping and applying redstone signals far easier.

This is how it looks after step 11.

12: Now that your reactor is piped up and redstone signals applied, it's time to work on what to do with your steam. You can either use Liquid Tesseracts to move the steam to your turbines, or you can pipe the steam directly to your turbines using liquaducts. For the turbine array, this reactor can run 25 Large Turbines, each made from converting 9 small turbines into a large one using a wrench. The array can be made in any fashion you desire. For my example, I'm going with a 5x5 grid. Since each large turbine only needs a single pipe inputting steam, having a single liquaduct going up to the turbine, from your grid, is a simple way to reduce steam loss.

This is how it looks after step 12.

13: For the second to last step, adding the turbines to the top of your array of liquaducts. How you do this will varry, but the end resault should be that you have 9 turbines over each liquaduct, that you right click in the center with a wrench, and convert into a single large turbine. Then just setup so you have 1 large turbine over each of the liquaducts coming up from your grid.

This is how it looks after step 13.

14: Lastly, you add in all the energy conduits to connect all of the turbines to your power grid. Right clicking on the conduit connected to the turbines is optional but is a good habit to have. Also, add a single redstone energy cell to the line of conduits coming up from your reactor core. This is where adding in the conduits earlier makes it a lot easier. For this energy cell, have the input set to 100, but the output set to somewhere between 50 and 65. This will regulate the power going into your reactor core making it more efficient.

This is how it looks after step 14.

The last thing you need to do is setup a way to keep the Redstone Energy cell connected to your reactor core topped off. You also have several options in front of you. Setup a large energy storage block for your reactor to output into or just use the power on demand? Have a liquid buffer system setup to hold the excess steam produced by your reactor, or add a few more turbines so you have no excess steam? Finally, do you want to feed the reactor deuterium cells manually, or do you want to setup an automated way to feed it cells?

I hope you found this example helpful.

[Digdug83]

You can actually input steam into a turbine from the top, using liquaducts? The tests I have done only showed inputting from the bottom as viable. Hmmm, I'll have to correct that yet again if that is true.

I just confirmed this. I can feed steam into a turbine from literally any direction with either ducts or tesseracts.

[jakalth]

Part 3b: Flood type fusion reactor.

This time it's a picture walk through of a flood type Fusion Reactor.

1: For your first step, it's easiest to start out with setting the limits of the size of your flood type reactor. Place the core down and placa an electromegnet against each of the 4 sides to protect the core. Next go down 1 block and place a row of 6 electromagnets going strait out from each face of the reactor to start the bottom of your setup. Finally go up 1 block again and place a single electromagnet to be the outside edge of your setup. Do this for all 4 sides of your core.

This is how it looks after step 1.

2: For the second step, make a diagonal line of electromagnets that connects each of the 4 outside magnets of your reactor setup. This will be the total size of your steam generation area. Now fill in the area below this ring and the core of your reactor with electromagnets. This will hold the plasma in place as it flows out from your reactor core.

This is how it looks after step 2.

3: Next cover the top of your reactor with regular electromagnets. Do NOT use the clear ones here, they produce no heat for steam. Leave the center 5 blocks uncovered so you can access your core from above and generate steam from that location, like shown in the picture.

This is how it looks after step 3.

4: Add some blocks around the outer edge of your reactor to hold water against it. This lets you use every possible location of your reactor to generate steam.

This is how it looks after step 4.

5: Add water to the outside edge of your reactor. Also, add a line of energy conduits going strait up from your reactor core. This will make it easier later on.

This is how it looks after step 5.

6: Add steam funnels over the water on the outside edge of your reactor. Then, add water to the next level of your reactor.

This is how it looks after step 6.

7: For this step, add steam funnels over the water on the second level of your reactor. Then cover the top of your reactor with standing water like shown.

This is how it looks after step 7.

8: Now add steam funnels to above the water on top of your reactor, finishing this part off. Be sure to add another steam funnel to the center 4 funnels so they are the same height as the third level. Also it is a good idea to stack another steam funnel on of the outer ring of funnels, bringing them up to match the second level. This makes piping out steam easier. (optional)You could also add another stack of steam funnels to the first and second levels bringing them up to the same level as the third. This simplifies the piping even more.

This is how it looks after step 8.

9: For this step you'll start adding the steam piping, in the form of liquaducts or waterproof pipes, to the lower level of your reactor. Be sure to set the liquaducts to pump mode(orange).

This is how it looks after step 9.

10: Now, cover the top of you reactor with liquaducts(or waterproof pipes) making sure every steam funnel has a pipe hooked up to the top of it. Make sure the liquaducts are all set to pump mode. Once this is done, add some pipe to connect the top and lower level of piping together.

This is how it looks after step 10.

11: For this step, now that the pipes are all set, time to add redstone signals. This can be done by using either redstone blocks or rednet cable. Place the first set of blocks over the liquaducts on the inner edge of the lower level. Then place blocks on the outside edge of the liquaducts, one for every other edge corner as shown in the picture.

This is how it looks after step 11.

12: With those in place, now you can cover the top of the rest of your reactor with redstone blocks, or rednet cable. this should give a signal to every liquaduct on your reactor. Also add a redstone energy cube to the top of the energy conduits feeding to your reactor core. This is why we added the conduit earlier. Be sure to set the Redstone Energy Cube to 100 input and between 50 and 65 output to control the efficiency of your reactor core.

This is how it looks after step 12.

13: Now to start on the turbine array to use all the steam. The reactor can power 45 Large turbines easily so the steam grid for this reactor will be larger then the reactor its self. Placing the liquaducts in a 19 x 19 grid with a liquaduct going up every 3 pipes should work for this. You can pipe steam to this grid using tesseracts or by hooking it up directly with several lines of liquaduct(or waterproof pipe)

This is how it looks after step 13.

14: Finally add your turbines to the steam grid. 9 turbines should be placed above each liquaduct comming up from the grid. Right click on the center turbine of these 9, using a wrench, to convert them into a single large turbine. Repeat this for each large turbine your going to add(45 in this case). Once all the turbines are in place, add energy conduits to the top of them and connect the conduits together. Switching the energy conduits to output mode is not needed for the turbines, but is a good habit to have.

This is how it looks after step 14.

Your reactor is now complete. All that remains is to decide on how you want to add deuterium cells, manually or autmaticly, and to hook the turbines up to your power grid.

Finished reactor.

[Sulhythal]

Question! can you store Steam in a tank/liquid Manager to be used later on? Or does it all have to be used quickly?

[phazeonphoenix]

it can be stored. I'm testing to work out the specifics.

[jakalth]

Steam can be stored as long as needed. Only limitation being the sheer amount of steam being produced by the reactor. They can easily produce millions of mB of steam requiring large numbers of storage tanks.

[Flextt]

How to you guys automate feeding deuterium cells? I don't feel like using a massive redstone clock and CC syntax seems to have changed

[00Ducky]

This is a great tutorial. Should help new users.

[00Ducky]

You can automate feeding deuterium cells with build craft pipes and a computer as a timer.

[jakalth]

I'll have to add an automation tutorial as well... I know how to use an autarchic gate and computercraft system, as well as how to make it work with a redstone engine and distribution pipes, but other systems have for the most part alluded me. if someone can PM me any other ways to automate deuterium automation, I'de appreciate it.

Computer craft and an autarchic gate seems pretty reliable for me. Place down a chest that is being fed deuterium from your storage system. A parachute chest works great for this since it only has 4 storage slots. That is if you've used a galacticraft rocket yet. Otherwise a regular chest or a linked ender chest work fine. Hook a wooden transport pipe up to the chest and place an autarchic gate in it. Set the gate to Redstone signal -- Energy Pulsar mode. Now place down a single transport pipe connected to the wooden pipe and connect a distribution pipe too this. Off of one output from the distrubution pipe, run a line of pipe to your reactor. Off of another side, add a line of pipes going back to your storage system. Now set the distrbution pipe to send one item to both the reactor and back to your storage.

Place down a computercraft computer 1 block away from the artarchic gate and connect the computer to the gate using a piece of redstone dust. In the computer, type in "edit startup". Now type in the following program(this is a simple redstone pulse program) You will have to use just the keyboard for everything, the mouse does not work inside a computercraft computer:

s = 0

repeat

redstone.SetOutput("back",true)

sleep (1)

redstone.SetOutput("back",false)

sleep (360)

until s == 1

Then click the left (Ctrl) key and select the save option. Click the left (Ctrl) key again and select exit to leave the program. Your program should now be running.

To edit your program, open the computer and hold down (Ctrl) and (T) for longer then a second. Change the (360) to whatever delay you want, it is in seconds, so for example 360 = 6 minutes. This will give a 1 second long pulse, every 6 minutes to the autarchic gate. The autarchic gate will output 2 deuterium cells during the 1 second pulse so the distribution pipe will direct 1 of those cells to the reactor and 1 back to storage.

If you want to put in more then 1 cell at a time, then you can change little things to make this work.

For 1 cell, use the setup I said.

For 2 cells, replace the distribution pipe with a regular pipe.

For 3 cells, change the first sleep in the program from (1) too (2) and set the distribution to send 3 to the reactor and 1 back to storage.

For 4 cells, change the first sleep in the program from (1) too (2) and replace the distribution pipe with a regular pipe.

etc...

[jakalth]

Part 4: Fissile Fuel Reactor(fission reactor) Tips

The fission reactor is a marvel of nuclear technology. It uses the decay of Enriched Uranium 235 to generate huge amounts of heat for steam. The hotter it gets, the more steam it produces. But be warned, if the reactor gets too hot it will go into meltdown, destroying your stuff and poisoning the land around it. Hazmat suit to the rescue.

All fission reactors are basicly the same. A fission reactor core, placed in a 1 block deep pool of water, and fed enriched uranium cells.

1: A fission reactor heats water surrounding it. The hotter it gets, the more steam is produced by the water around it, and the more water it can heat. But if a reactor gets too hot, hotter then 1800, it starts to get damaged. If it ever reached 2000, the reactor will almost instantly explode. So keeping a balance of heat and steam vs safe operation is a must, and thankfully, not that hard to do.

2: The Thermometer block and Control Rod are your friends. The two used together will prevent a hot running reactor from getting too hot. The thermometer reads the temp of the reactor core and sends out a redstone signal when it gets above the set temperature. The control rod can be moved using a piston and will slow down the reactor if it is directly against one of the 4 sides of the reactor. This keeps the reactor from getting much hotter then it currently is. Between the two, the temp of the reactor can be controlled fairly well.

3: The fission reactor can heat the 8 blocks surrounding it, and as it gets hotter, 1 block further out. So it can heat a 5x5 area of water effectively. If the reactor gets hot enough, it will start heating water another block further out(7x7 area), but it has to run on the verge of exploding to make this work, so the risk is extremely high.

4: Any water higher then the reactor will not be heated, so placing it in the bottom of a 2 block deep lake means you will get no steam from it. On the other hand, if there is water below the reactor, it will have no effect on how it heats the water beside it and generates steam.

O = water

R = reactor

OOROO = steam generated.

OOOOO

OOROO = no steam.

OOROO

OOOOO = steam generated.

5: A fission reactor can run a single Large turbine placed directly over it and up to 16 small turbines placed around the large one. This is not a very efficient way to run it though...

6: Steam funnels for the win. Using 25 steam funnels and piping will allow the same fission reactor to power 35 large turbines. A 1200% increase in power output. That's a lot of power being added just by piping your steam.

7: You can only produce power using an Enriched Uranium Cell. The Breeder Uranium Cell is used to re-enrich your spent fissile fuel cells.

8: The most efficient way to create fissile fuel cells is to place your Uraninite ore into a Chemical Extractor to produce Yellow Cake. Next pipe the Yellow Cake into a Nuclear Boiler to produce Uranium hexafloride. Finally pipe the Uranium Hexafloride into a Centrifuge to randomly produce either Breeder Uranium 238, or Enriched Uranium 235. You'll probable end up creating more breeder uranium then enriched uranium. You can place Uraninite ore directly into a nuclear boiler, but using a chemical extractor first triples your uranium per ore.

9: When using a chemical extractor to make yellow cake, try to keep the output slot empty. It doesn't always give you 3 more yellow cake, when it's extracting it from uraninite, if there is already yellow cake in the output slot.(bug of some type with the extractor)

10: Adding a delay to your piston control rod, keeping it up longer, can increase the life of your fuel rod a bit without reducing your reactors output. Using a Programmable Rednet Controller, set to pulse lengthener mode, with the full 255 hold length, is one way to do this. This will keep the rod up for 12 seconds, letting your reactor cool off a little, but still maintaining your total steam output. More complex methods would keep the control rod up longer.

[jakalth]

Part 5: Fission reactor build.

This is a picture based tutorial on making a powerful 5x5 fission reactor.

1: Start out by making a 7x7 platform for your fission reactor to sit on and place the reactor on the middle. The types of block used do not matter.

This is how it looks after step1.

2: Now build a 2 block high wall around the outside of your platform, leaving a 5x5 area inside it open. Once again, the type of block used does not matter, but having some glass, or hardened glass, in the walls does make it easier to monitor your reactor.

This is how it looks after step2.

3: Fill the bottom of the box you made with water. Only making the water 1 block deep. Do not cover the reactor core its self.

This is how it looks after step3.

4: Place a thermometer block against one face of the fission reactor(if it's not against one of the faces it will not read the temp of the reactor). And against one of the other faces of the reactor, break the block under that spot and place a control rod where it was. This control rod will be moved using a piston later on.

This is how it looks after step4.

5: Now lets go under the reactor. Break the block directly under your fission reactor and the block under the thermometer so you can access them from below. And place a sticky piston so that it's touching the control rod and can push it up when it receives a redstone signal and pull it back down when the signal goes away. You can turn the piston using a wrench if needed.

This is how it looks after step5.

6: Connect a line of redstone dust or rednet cable between your thermometer block and the sticky piston. This will be the temp control circuit for your reactor.

This is how it looks after step6.

7: Back in the top of your reactor, lets make sure that the thermometer is set correctly. Right click to lower the warn temperature to between 1400 and 1600 degrees. This way your reactor gets hot but should not get hot enough to go critical. When that temp is reached, the thermometer will output a redstone signal, extending the piston, moving the control rod into place, to slow down the reactor.

This is how it looks after step7.

8: For this step we'll add in the steam funnels. Just place 25 steam funnels directly above the water in your reactor. You can place them over the whole thing if you like, or leave out the center one to have access to the top of your reactor.

This is how it looks after step8.

9: Now lets add the piping. Place Liquaducts, or waterproof piping on top of each of the steam funnels. Make sure to set the liquaducts to pump mode, Orange.

This is how it looks after step9.

10: In step 10 we'll add a redstone signal to the top of all the liquaducts. This signal can be either a redstone block or rednet cable.

This is how it looks after step10.

11: For this step, we'll be adding all the piping to feed the 35 Large turbines this reactor can power. The steam can be sent to the turbines using liquid tesseracts or by directly piping it there. The way you set this up depends on your personal tastes. A simple build is a 13x19 grid of pipes with a single pipe coming up for every 3 pipes placed. This way you have the single pipe feeding into each large turbine.

This is how it looks after step11.

12: This time we'll add the turbines to your steam grid. For each large turbine you'll need to place a 3x3 area of 9 small turbines and right click on the center of them to make a single large turbine. You'll want to do this for each of the 35 feed tubes you have setup. This will give you a 5x7 grid of large turbines.

This is how it looks after step12.

13: For the last step, we'll add energy conduits to the top of each large turbine and connect them all together. This will finish off your reactor leaving you will only needing to connect it to your power grid and supply the reactor core with enriched uranium cells.

This is how it looks after step13.

You're ready to enjoy the sustained power output of your fission reactor. This reactor setup can supply you with vast amounts of power over a fairly long period of time before it uses up your enriched uranium cell.

[Steve From Marketing]

#8 Last sentence is incorrect, right? Using a chemical extractor creates 3 yellowcake. A yellow cake creates the same amount of Uranium Hexafluoride as a single Uranium Ore. So by using a chemical extractor you triple the amount of refined uranium.

Also if the output slot of a chemical extractor is not empty when it is creating yellowcake from uranium ore only a single yellowcake will be produced (bug/feature, not sure).

[weirleader]

for the love of all that's holy -- add this to the wiki!

[jakalth]

For the completely inept at writing stuff for websites make me a template to use... please?

@ Steve... From Marketing. Updated the information as you corrected. Thanks.