Fusion Reactor strangeness....

[Silmenume]

So I'm playing in a newly created world using 1.2.6

I'm far enough along to build a fusion reactor, turbines, etc. I'm having several quirky problems.

First - the Chemical Extractor is giving me two issues. The first, which can be worked around, is that it does not fill Empty Cells. I can see it has fluid, the arrow animates and the indicator on the right fills with liquid deuterium. It never fills the empty cell even when completely full. That being said I then tried to extract the fluid using Fluiducts (with the proper setting to withdraw fluids) to no avail. Eventually we were able to extract the fluid using a Wooden Transport Pipe and a Redstone (Stirling?) Engine.

Second - The Fusion Reactor started creating plasma the instant the deuterium fluid was introduced - without any power being fed into the reactor core at all!! It was completely disconnected from any power source. Is this how its supposed to work?

Third - Opaque Fluiducts don't seem to be able to withdraw steam from Steam Funnels. This was apparently confirmed by the turbines not spinning. When I switched to regular (visible/transparent) fluiducts steam was not only visible but measurable by the multimeter.

Are these behaviors appropriate on not?

Thank you for your responses.

Best,

Jay

[TonyVS]

1. cells are irrelevant and no longer necessary for the fusion reactor, you can pump straight from the extractor into your fusion ractor

2. probably some residual energy in the reactor, not to worry, it will run out, not like you feeding the reactor before you setup is complete anyway

3 you need a pneumatic servo and have to set the output on the fluid duct, I only use the regular see though ones but I believe the setup is the same

 

4 and this is the most important, if  if you had bothered to search the forums you would see a few posts and a nice long thread explaining all of this already

[Silmenume]

Thanks for the feed back on all of this, deeply appreciated!

 

I did search the forums, many times, but apparently my search-fu is very weak.

 

I would be delighted to hunt down said long thread and self-educate - since my thrashing around on these fora has be so abysmal would it be possible to get a name of the thread.  From the sounds of your description it would be a tremendous resource.  ...but I can't find it - though through no lack of effort on part.

 

Thank you so for far for your erudition efforts to date!  Though it sounds like I'm irritating you, I deeply apologize for my incompetence and can only again proclaim my abiding gratitude.

 

Best,

 

Jay

[TonyVS]

here is a direct link very helpful

 

[Silmenume]

That is a great thread, TonyVS.

Thank you for reminding me about it, I had forgotten about it. I used it a couple months ago when I built my first Fusion Reactor in 1.1.10

Just as a general note regarding the Fusion Reactor Block itself - when broken while being fed liquid fuel it will drop Deuterium Fuel Cells. I don't know if this represents a clue or a data point to anyone but there it is. This is particularly odd since it appears that the Chemical Extractor does not make Deuterium Cells, at least in Tekkit 1.2.6, despite the GUI showing a space for (and accepting) Empty Cells.

[TonyVS]

yea I noticed that too and chuckled about it when I was first getting my reactors online, once working I no longer cared it did that.

That thread is my fusion reactor bible

I was somewhat sure it still filled the empty cells but never bother to check since it is just a waste of tin now. particle accelerator still uses them though, I have 3 accelerators going 24/7. and I was going to get into the dark/strange matter soon it always created the strange matter in the cells but you never had to provide it cells. Think that why I never worried about the reactor spitting out the cells too

[Silmenume]

Right on!

 

Without Tin Fusion Reactors are now resource-less power supplies.  Once built they are perpetual motion (energy) machines.  Bit of a goof in my book, but whatever.

[TonyVS]

Right on!

 

Without Tin Fusion Reactors are now resource-less power supplies.  Once built they are perpetual motion (energy) machines.  Bit of a goof in my book, but whatever.

 

shhh not so loud they might nerf it lol

[roothorick]

In my creative experiments I've been having issues with the fusion reactor plasma seeming to destroy itself or something. In a containment breach I get self-immolating shockwaves of plasma instead of the persistent blob seen in most videos. Inside the reactor even the seed plasma seems to blink in and out of existence, and the plasma just doesn't travel more than a few blocks (both in terms of actually seeing it and in turbines' response). Is this a client/server desync issue (as I know singleplayer actually runs a server internally) or was something changed?

 

-E- Something has DEFINITELY changed.

 

 

The five turbines that do run, never stay on -- they go off after a few seconds and come back later. The three cells on the left end are bone dry -- not a lick of RF. Note the single plasma block hanging out by itself a good ways away from the actual reactor.

Edited February 28, 2014 by roothorick

[TonyVS]

In my creative experiments I've been having issues with the fusion reactor plasma seeming to destroy itself or something. In a containment breach I get self-immolating shockwaves of plasma instead of the persistent blob seen in most videos. Inside the reactor even the seed plasma seems to blink in and out of existence, and the plasma just doesn't travel more than a few blocks (both in terms of actually seeing it and in turbines' response). Is this a client/server desync issue (as I know singleplayer actually runs a server internally) or was something changed?

 

I read that three times to be sure and have no clue what you are saying? fusion? fission? nuclear? flood type? ring type? pictures?

[roothorick]

I read that three times to be sure and have no clue what you are saying? fusion? fission? nuclear? flood type? ring type? pictures?

 

Let's put it this way: Is fusion reactor plasma supposed to do this?

 

 

Watching it in action, it looks almost like Conway's Game of Life...

[TonyVS]

yes, the glass is just for viewing right? and and the flood type has been reduced by one max size is now 6x6 not 7x7 (hard to tell by the glass which it is)

 

but yea that is what the underside of my reactor looks like

 

[Silmenume]

Roothorick,

 

As TonyVS indicated above this >link is indispensable for getting started on Fusion Reactors.

 

This following post and the one immediately below it made Jan 5 in a thread called Taking A Look Into the Future... is well worth reading regarding current updates.

 

 

[Cancro_Senzafine]

The link that TonyVS and Silmenume endorsed is definitely a great one. Though it is getting to be a little outdated, it is fantastic to get started. The "A Look into the Future" is also interesting for the effects that heat seem to have now on reactors. With the heat situation as a segway... I have noticed a few things I'd like to share.

 

1) More compact reactors are much more powerful now than larger ones, or better put: the less you are having to spread your limited amount of plasma around the better. A simple one-ring reactor (pictured below) is as simple and small as you can make it (I have four within one chunk) and each generates almost 40k RF/t with only small turbines directly above water (no funnels as intermediaries). You can see in the second picture there are four redstone conduits leading into a transmission tesseract. If you replace that tesseract with a resonant cell set to accept 10k RF/t and multimeter the four leads into it, they each read 9,337 RF/t. This leads me to believe that something isn't working quite right.

 

Because...

 

2) The same setup feeding large turbines with the same surface area above the water, even given time to spin up and gain speed, generate less RF/t. This is both funnel-fed and directly above the water.

 

3) The same setup with funnels -> fluiducts -> tanks -> turbines (large or small) generate far less than small turbines sitting directly above water.

 

 

This has been confirmed by two other players on my server with their own tests. I would love to get the expertise of this community to back this up.

 

 

 

Pictures:

(Bottom of simple one-ring reactor with plasma filling all but a couple of blocks at all times)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/s6e5onc9gg8jifd/Screenshot%202014-02-28%2021.23.28.png

 

(Top of simple one-ring reactor with the four leads feeding the tesseract with each reading 9,337 RF/t. That's a lot of power in a small space)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/oicjc3hrrl08hiy/Screenshot%202014-02-28%2021.24.47.png

Edited March 1, 2014 by Cancro_Senzafine

[rogueclon946]

Text and stuff.

I'm just starting out with reactors, not looking forward to making turbines right now... But let me just check if I understand one concept first.

Couldn't you have one more ring of water on the outer edge of the outer magnets in your design that would generate steam? It sounds like you're already at the limits of RF transfer, but I wanted to check if I at least understand that much so far lol.

 

Also how many chemical extractors does it take to generate enough deuterium for a single reactor to run non-stop? Is 1 enough or does it take more?

Edited March 1, 2014 by rogueclon946

[Cancro_Senzafine]

Couldn't you have one more ring of water on the outer edge of the outer magnets in your design that would generate steam? It sounds like you're already at the limits of RF transfer, but I wanted to check if I at least understand that much so far lol.

 

Also how many chemical extractors does it take to generate enough deuterium for a single reactor to run non-stop? Is 1 enough or does it take more?

 

1) You are correct. You could put one more row of water / turbines on the outer edge and since the plasma makes contact with those electromagnets, it will generate steam. I chose not to do so because I was at the limits of what conduits could transfer (you were correct again) and doing so means I could not have fit four reactors within the one chunk I keep loaded.

 

2) According to my experiences, a fully powered chemical extractors was keeping pace with two reactors of the size I have pictured.

[Silmenume]

Cancro_Senzafine -

Just as a data point - Over a 30 minute average with one Large Turbine feeding a Resonant Energy Cell the math worked out to 730 rf/t. This is on a flood reactor setup of funnels -> fluiducts -> turbines. I don't use tanks anymore because fuel (and thus energy) is essentially free. There is no point to conserving excess steam to burn later - just let the reactor run continuously and what steam is lost is lost - there is zero cost to generating it and a significant penalty to pulsing the reactor. If you want to save energy for whatever purposes or needs then use Resonant Energy Cells.

[rogueclon946]

1) You are correct. You could put one more row of water / turbines on the outer edge and since the plasma makes contact with those electromagnets, it will generate steam. I chose not to do so because I was at the limits of what conduits could transfer (you were correct again) and doing so means I could not have fit four reactors within the one chunk I keep loaded.

 

2) According to my experiences, a fully powered chemical extractors was keeping pace with two reactors of the size I have pictured.

In your reactor setup how much power are you feeding the actual fusion reactor?

[Silmenume]

Right now I just have a tesseract feeding power directly to the reactor core.  For reference I am running 1.2.6

 

At present I have a flood reactor that is running 40 Large Turbines.  The tesseract powering my fusion reactor core is drawing from that power grid.  In 1.1.10 I choked the power feed to 55mj/t.  I haven't read anything yet about the "sweet spot" for powering the fusion reactor core so at the moment the power is flowing wide open.

[Cancro_Senzafine]

In your reactor setup how much power are you feeding the actual fusion reactor?

 

There is a Resonant Energy Cell with 10k RF/t input and 100 RF/t output sitting directly on top of the Fusion Reactor. 100 RF/t is the trigger amount of power to keep a fusion reaction going. There is a tesseract sitting on top of the cell (set to receive-only) keeping it full and a second tesseract two space above it (one space between them) transmitting only. The top (transmission) Tesseract is the one reading 9,337 RF/t from all four leads into it.

Edited March 2, 2014 by Cancro_Senzafine

[Cancro_Senzafine]

Right now I just have a tesseract feeding power directly to the reactor core.  For reference I am running 1.2.6

 

At present I have a flood reactor that is running 40 Large Turbines.  The tesseract powering my fusion reactor core is drawing from that power grid.  In 1.1.10 I choked the power feed to 55mj/t.  I haven't read anything yet about the "sweet spot" for powering the fusion reactor core so at the moment the power is flowing wide open.

 

With WAILA a part of Tekkit now, if you hover over the fusion reactor, you not only get a visual indication of its level of Deuterium, but the WAILA tooltip will tell you what the max and trigger power are for that machine. Fusion Reactors are 100 RF/t. Easy to regulate that with a cell of some type sitting directly on top of it, which also gives you a buffer in case you have a power hiccup.

[Silmenume]

Cancro_Senzafine,

Thanks for the heads up, you rawk!

[Silmenume]

Cancro_Senzafine,

I went to my Fusion Reactor core all bright eyed and excited to see the numbers WAILA would show me - but I didn't see the visual indicator of Deuterium levels or the max and trigger power values. I have seen the max and trigger values on other "machines", but it didn't show for my Fusion Reactor - though via, I'm assuming NEI, I do get a graphic that is not related to WAILA telling me how many "L's" of deuterium is currently in the reactor.

Are there some settings for WAILA that I need to make?

Best,

 

 

edited for clarity

Edited March 5, 2014 by Silmenume

[TonyVS]

should not be. my default setting when looking at my fusion reactor says 9998 deuterium but it isn't walia that says that I think the reactor does itself  thought atomic science

however are you using cells or just the liquid feeding direct? in 1.5.2 it would say upto 64 cells (walia did not exist for us then)

[Silmenume]

Hey TonyVS,
 
I get the reading on the liquid quantity of deuterium in the reactor when I mouse over it.  (I am feeding it liquid deuterium)  That reading does not appear to be a part of WAILA.
 
The information I was looking for the Max Energy and Trigger Energy values that Cancro_Senzafine had indicated was available in the WAILA information bubble.  Those number are not showing up in my WAILA screen though I have seen them when mousing over other machine blocks.