The new 5x5 IC² Reactor

    Holy crap that is a lot of solar! Doesn't that lag your game to hell? Also you only get that 320 eu/t in the day time.


    A properly regulated nuke can easily generate 300 eu/t day and night, and doesn't generate the lag that 300 individual generators do. Also eventually you can make rtg fuel pellets and load them into a radioisotope generator that will put out 32 eu/t forever.

    Quote from psusi

    Holy crap that is a lot of solar! Doesn't that lag your game to hell? Also you only get that 320 eu/t in the day time.


    A properly regulated nuke can easily generate 300 eu/t day and night, and doesn't generate the lag that 300 individual generators do. Also eventually you can make rtg fuel pellets and load them into a radioisotope generator that will put out 32 eu/t forever.

    that is my goal for RTG pellets.. .not sure how to do it yet.. as a long term deal


    the 320 are actually 40 due to compact solars http://files.minecraftforge.net/CompactSolars/ ( there is a forum post here as well) so very little lag..
    and yes its only during the day.. but if i double it ( not very hard just time consuming ) i have 640 for the daytime or 320 for all day and night. ( the other solar addon feels like punishment using more advanced materials to get near the same preformance and IMHO solar panels should not work at night)


    either way the solar or nuclear only works during the times i am near it
    ( my spawn point is far away from where i made my base.. need to fix
    that i feel)



    from what i can tell.. the best solution is using stierling generators over this complicated setup for a simple HU to EU conversion ... am i wrong?

    Quote from psusi

    Stirlings certainly are simpler, but get you less eu / heat.

    hmmm not from what i can see... i don't know how you guys are hooking things up and running your machines.. so i can't see for example the 400 HU/t reactor from page 1 doing more then 100 EU/t ( 50 per side)


    I know i am missing ALOT of some setup here to get what your showing.. but ... the 10 fuel rod design is very stable from what i can tell @ 400 HU/t and makes a good 200 EU/t which is good to make RTG pelets for long term power options


    I do like that the heat vents repair over time when the reactor shuts off... I had feared they are consumed and become waste.. am i wrong on this?

    My reactor has a single quad uranium fuel rod surrounded by neutron reflectors and puts out 400 heat ( with some extra buildup so have to cycle it ). Two faces each have dual heat exchangers feeding a boiler making super heated steam, driving two chained steam generators ( per boiler ) producing a total of 300 eu ( 100 from first turbine on super heated steam, plus 50 from the second using the remaining regular steam ) from the 400 heat, which is 50% better than stirlings.


    I suppose if you are only using regular steam with a single turbine then you would only be as good as a stirling, so perhaps steam could use a little buffing.

    Quote from psusi

    My reactor has a single quad uranium fuel rod surrounded by neutron reflectors and puts out 400 heat ( with some extra buildup so have to cycle it ). Two faces each have dual heat exchangers feeding a boiler making super heated steam, driving two chained steam generators ( per boiler ) producing a total of 300 eu ( 100 from first turbine on super heated steam, plus 50 from the second using the remaining regular steam ) from the 400 heat, which is 50% better than stirlings.


    I suppose if you are only using regular steam with a single turbine then you would only be as good as a stirling, so perhaps steam could use a little buffing.

    could you show pictures of your reactor and your setup of outside the reactor?

    My page 1 reactor is out of date in some ways. Numbers in guis and possibly heat > EU values have changed. Also, there was no pressure system (at least not apparently) in the steam gen.

    Quote from psusi

    My reactor has a single quad uranium fuel rod surrounded by neutron reflectors and puts out 400 heat ( with some extra buildup so have to cycle it ). Two faces each have dual heat exchangers feeding a boiler making super heated steam, driving two chained steam generators ( per boiler ) producing a total of 300 eu ( 100 from first turbine on super heated steam, plus 50 from the second using the remaining regular steam ) from the 400 heat, which is 50% better than stirlings.


    I suppose if you are only using regular steam with a single turbine then you would only be as good as a stirling, so perhaps steam could use a little buffing.

    maybe :)

    Quote from Physicist

    My page 1 reactor is out of date in some ways. Numbers in guis and possibly heat > EU values have changed. Also, there was no pressure system (at least not apparently) in the steam gen.

    PLEASE if you can let us see your current setup.. because i would love to get more then 200 eu/t ( very silly because i can't figure out these things)

    The core setup has the left four colums full of a checkerboard of overclocked heat dissipaters and advanced heat exchangers to keep them from overheating. The right side just has a quad enriched uranium fuel rod with 4 neutron reflectors surrounding it. I also threw in a few reactor heat platings and a coolant cell to help moderate the temperatures and keep the core from overheating if I leave it switched on longer. On one of the faces I attached the steam generator, and to either side of that are heat exchangers dumping heat into the steam generator, and they are attached to liquid access ports in the containment wall. Both the access port and the heat exchangers have fluid ejector upgrades so they throw coolant at each other. The steam generator is set to 221 bar and has a fluid regulator pumping 1 mb/tick of water into it, so it produces 100mb/tick of super heated steam and passes it into the attached turbine. That turbine has a second one on the other side, and both turbines have kinetic generators on their side face. The first turbine makes 100 eu/t from the super heated steam, and passes the regular steam to the next turbine for another 50 eu/t. The condenser on the end and liquid regulators feed the distilled water back to the steam generator.


    That setup is duplicated on another face of the containment dome doubling the total output to 300 eu/t. The same non 5x5 reactor core setup generates 140 eu/t. Using stirlings instead of the steam setup would give 200 eu/t total.


    I think I'm going to redo it to only have a single face with one liquid access port connected to fluid distributors feeding the coolant into two stacks of heat exchanger/steam generator pairs, that have distributors feeding the steam from both into a single pair of turbines, which should cut down the number of turbine blades that will wear out and need replaced.


    I don't know why but I can't get the image to embed here. The url is: https://imageshack.com/i/f0zgpyTZp

    I don't know enough to see how it works :( sadly i would i think need a video walktrhough :/ thanks though :)

    Hey guys,


    want to show you my current reactor layout, producing approx 1100HU from 3 Quad Uranium Cells


    I'm using Buildcraft, Railcraft, IC2 and Extra Utilities. To control and automatically refill the reactor, I'm using Computercraft, OpenCCSensors and my own written Inventory Turtle-Module (I think there should be a replacement for that somewhere "officially")


    I hope it works with the images attached



    I have 2 Railcraft Steeltanks (4Mio) for coolant / hot coolant. To get the hot coolant out of the reactor fast enough, I've using 2 golden pipes with fluid ejector. The refill happens via transfer pipe of extra utilities.


    If the coolant tank is empty or the hot coolant tank full, the reactor automatically shuts down (the structure pipe with the red wire).


    There's also a main switch and reactor control room above the reactor, and I can control the reactor via the touch screen.


    There's also a large MFSU storage area, which provide information to the main control room computer via sensor turtles.


    see http://ma.ra-doersch.de/minecraft-1.7.10-1100HU-reactor6.png
    and http://ma.ra-doersch.de/minecraft-1.7.10-1100HU-reactor7.png for the other 2 images (mfsu room and complete NPP)


    Reactor Layout: http://www.talonfiremage.pwp.b…xmz0i1907c8tn8myu07dw67ls

    so with the design
    http://www.talonfiremage.pwp.b…88ujakr199k7lxppmsrqj9fy8


    I am seeing 800-900 ( varies randomly) HU/t .. and makes about 430 EU/t ( 9 stierling generators)


    I am hoping someone here has knowlage how to use this stable reactor to make more then 430 eu/t and is willing to SHOW how its hooked up ( using default IC2 no extra mods) to produce steam and make use of the full energy! ( i am dumb when trying to figure things out and don't understand how to get it setup right)

    Quote from mementh

    so with the design
    http://www.talonfiremage.pwp.b…88ujakr199k7lxppmsrqj9fy8


    I am seeing 800-900 ( varies randomly) HU/t .. and makes about 430 EU/t ( 9 stierling generators)


    I am hoping someone here has knowlage how to use this stable reactor to make more then 430 eu/t and is willing to SHOW how its hooked up ( using default IC2 no extra mods) to produce steam and make use of the full energy! ( i am dumb when trying to figure things out and don't understand how to get it setup right)


    Hi, well without any "pipe" mod you will have a bad time to create a coolant reactor, so I at least recommend you buildcraft or extra utilties (which I both use)


    Anyway: your reactor layout is not very effective (only 2.71). You could use mine ( http://www.talonfiremage.pwp.b…xmz0i1907c8tn8myu07dw67ls ), which give you a stable 1120HU with an overall efficiency of 3,79.


    The reactor can be run 24/7 if you have enough uranium and enough storage for the generated power.


    The hot coolant output of the reactor can be hooked up with steam generators:


    You can hook up 3+2 steam generators with 2 heat exchangers each to generate super heated steam (1mb water -> 221bar pressure), and one with 1 heat exchanger for normal steam ( 1mb water -> 1 bar pressure).


    You should still have some sort of tank in between to store the hot coolant and prevent the reactor to overheat (since the layout gives you approx 1120 HU, and with that layout you only use 1100HU, so you have 20 hu "too much" which fill up a tank slowly)


    the superheated steam of the 3+2 steam generators can be moved via any pipe or the fluid regulator into 2 kinetic steam generators each which are hooked up to two kinetic generators each. at the end you add one condensor ("overclocked via some heat vents, you can try how many you need ...). all 3 will output distilled water which has to be piped back into the steam generators (mostly you should use some sort of pipe for that, fluid regulators need to much energy)


    the one steam generator with the normal steam is only hooked up to one kinetic steam generator and one condensor.


    I experimented to put the output of all 5 steam generators into 2 generators, but this seems to much for one condensor, and the higher turbine speed seems not to affect the overall output, but I had more problems moving the steam to the turbines. with the 3+2 layout its much better.


    Overall that should produce 800-900Eu/t (instead of 260Eu in "electric" nuclear power plant mode)


    Even those kinetic steam stuff is still a bit buggy and not very reliable (I had some steam explosions destroying my steam generators until I found a better layout)


    In the attached "generator room" picture I only use 1000HU, since so the reactor can be shut down if my hot coolant tank is full and it the generators produce energy for some more hours.


    Explanation for the picture:


    On the right: 3+3 steam generators hooked to 2 heat exchangers each. the lowest steam generator in the top right corner is not connected (otherwise I would need 1200HU) All heat exchangers are equiped with fluid ejectors so they put the "cool" coolant into the tanks . the hot coolant comes from "above" (railcraft tank on the right)


    to the steam generators attached is a distilled water tank (the 3 tanks in the middle of the picture). the one in the middle of them is hooked up to a larger distilled water generator in the lower floor, to refill if some water gets missing (if the level of the outer tanks falls below 50% it will refill them to avoid that steam will be put into those 2 tanks)


    the same output which goes to the distilled water tank of the steam generators goes to the 2 one fluid regulator, those 4 blocks on the left are hooked like that:


    [Condensor] [ Fluid Regulator VV]
    [Kinetic S. Generator] [ Kinetic S. Generator]


    in front are 3 tanks (one spanning the condensor and the left generator, one for the right generator) to take the distilled water. (Fluid ejector upgrades) These tanks put its contents back to the tank in the middle.


    The 2 brown blocks are bat boxes, to power the condensor and the fluid regulator even if the generators dont generate power. (okay if the power the bat box is empty, the whole generator will shut down and cannot be brought back online until you put a battery in)

    So I tried rearranging my reactor to have a single pair of turbines powered by 3 steam generators using fluid distributors to transport the coolant between the reactor and the steam generators, and the super heated steam from the 3 steam generators into the turbine pair. It was difficult to set up and resulted in the middle steam generator being completely surrounded by other blocks and so inaccessible. It sort of worked for a bit, but the problem is that as soon as your heat fluctuates a bit or you try to shutdown and restart it, one of the steam generators spits out regular steam or water, and that clogs up the fluid distributors, causing the whole thing to back up and the steam generators to overheat. My conclusion is that due to the current goofy mechanics of the steam generator this is simply impractical to do. The steam generators really need reworked to only output steam or super heated steam depending on the pressure setting, and if they don't have enough heat to do that, then don't output anything.


    For the time being I have decided to just stick with the regular eu reactor in my survival world. The output is only 100 eu/t but at least it is stable and can stay on 24/7.

    i will have to look at it.. but i have a feeling that a pipe mod should not be needed!
    It should make it more manageable but not increase energy out..


    one problem is i can't put together how it woudl fit in IC2 without the pipes .. and i am doing a creative world.. not real yet because i wanted to iron out the designs before building in the real world ( since a explosion in world would annoy the heck outta me)

    Quote from mementh

    i will have to look at it.. but i have a feeling that a pipe mod should not be needed!
    It should make it more manageable but not increase energy out..


    one problem is i can't put together how it woudl fit in IC2 without the pipes .. and i am doing a creative world.. not real yet because i wanted to iron out the designs before building in the real world ( since a explosion in world would annoy the heck outta me)


    yes a pipe mod should not be needed, but currently it is.


    Quote from psusi

    So I tried rearranging my reactor to have a single pair of turbines powered by 3 steam generators using fluid distributors to transport the coolant between the reactor and the steam generators, and the super heated steam from the 3 steam generators into the turbine pair. It was difficult to set up and resulted in the middle steam generator being completely surrounded by other blocks and so inaccessible. It sort of worked for a bit, but the problem is that as soon as your heat fluctuates a bit or you try to shutdown and restart it, one of the steam generators spits out regular steam or water, and that clogs up the fluid distributors, causing the whole thing to back up and the steam generators to overheat. My conclusion is that due to the current goofy mechanics of the steam generator this is simply impractical to do. The steam generators really need reworked to only output steam or super heated steam depending on the pressure setting, and if they don't have enough heat to do that, then don't output anything.


    For the time being I have decided to just stick with the regular eu reactor in my survival world. The output is only 100 eu/t but at least it is stable and can stay on 24/7.


    yes thats the problem I have too, the steam generator should only output what it should produce, otherwise the "pressure" to ouput anything should not be reached.

    Quote from Flow86

    yes a pipe mod should not be needed, but currently it is.



    yes thats the problem I have too, the steam generator should only output what it should produce, otherwise the "pressure" to ouput anything should not be reached.

    agreed! make it so its simple to get things working and easier to get the superheated steam!

    Here is my latest survival project, its a large superheated steam 5x5 reactor producing roughly 940-950 EU/tick. There was a lot of trial and error involved in making this reactor but it was a lot of fun and it took an immense amount of resources and time. The mods i used primarily is ic2 (ofc) steve's factory manager and also a bit of ender io. However ender io is completly optional and could be skipped completly. Im using the latest version of Bevos tech pack from the AT launcher


    The reactor is a standard 5x5 reactor with 2 liquid input/outputs in addition to the standard components. The design i used for the reactor is High power High running cost reactor made by SSD, which normally produces 420 eu/tick at an effiency of 3.
    Here is a picture how the setup looks when its running:
    http://prntscr.com/4pu6x2


    Hot and cold cooling fluid is pumped in and out of the reactor using ender io's ender fluid pipes. They pump the fluids to one tank each (thermal expansion) as a middle storage so that it's easier to keep track of the amount of fluids in the system. The hot cooling fluid is then transported from its tank into 14 liquid heat exchangers and after usage is transported out of the heat exchangers and the other tank where it is again pumped into the reactor using ender io.
    Picture inside of the reactor:
    http://prntscr.com/4pu7rn


    as the reactor produces 1344 heat i used 1200 (or 12 heat exchangers) to heat 6 steam generators producing 600 mb of super heated steam. The remaining 144 heat is used in 2 sterling generators as they dont require even heat.
    Below is a picture of how the setup looks like:
    With Cables
    http://prntscr.com/4pw4p6
    Without cables
    http://prntscr.com/4pt7zl


    As one can see ive built a tower with identical layers for the turbine consisting of 2 liquid heat exchangers, 1 steam generator, 2 kinetic steam generators, 2 kinetic generators and 1 condensor. For the last layer you use 1 liquid heat exchanger and a stirling engine for each 100 HU remaining (1 if less than 100, 2 if between 100 and 200). This setup is easily modified to any size reactor by adjusting the height of the turbine tower.


    Here is a picture of the turbine layer in detail:
    http://prntscr.com/4pu90h


    To handle the distilled water in the system i used steves factory manager. It pulls the condensed distilled water from the kinetic steam turbines (including the superheated steam turbine as it gets a bit of regular steam at startup) as well as the rest of the distilled water from the condenser. Each condenser has 2 heat vents to be able to handle the amount of steam. The distilled water is pulled into a drum for middle storage so i can keep track that the amount of distilled water in the system is not decreasing. Steves factory manager then pulls the distilled water from the middle storage back into the steam generators. Each steam generator can take 10000 mb of distilled water so for this system a minimum amount of distilled is 60000mb. This part could be optimised by only filling a portion of the steam generator or supplying it with the same amount as is used , however that felt overly risky and complicated over making more distilled water. Each steam generator is set to 221 bar of pressure and 1 mb/tick. Distilled water can easily be created using a electric heat generator, 1 steam generator and a condenser however it requires the usage of 100 eu/tick. This could be decreased to 50 if you put it through a kinetic steam turbine first at the cost of a larger investment and higher complexity.


    The result is this
    http://prntscr.com/4pu7wy


    The steves factory program is quite simple and just contains 4 input and output loops
    http://prntscr.com/4pu854


    If this feels overly complicated each layer of steam turbines could be changed for 2 sterling engines (which is soooooooo much simpler and cheaper) this would produce about 630 eu/tick instead of 950.Also you consume the turbine in the kinetic steam turbine after a while which means it also has quite a large running cost of steel. Just the initial investment was 360 steel to create the turbines blades. I haven't tested for how many cycles they last yet.



    I recommend having a quarry if you are building this as it is extremly expensive. The complete number of components used was the following:
    1 acess hatch
    1 redstone port
    1-2 fluid ports (you could probably get away with one using steves factory manager)
    94-95 reactor pressure vessel blocks
    1 nuclear reactor
    6 reactor casing
    28 overclocked heat vents
    11 component heat vents
    1 component heat exchanger
    7 quad fuel rods


    as well as
    14 liquid heat exchangers
    140 heat conducter
    6 steam generators
    2 sterling engines
    12 kinetic steam generators
    12 steam turbines
    12 kinetic generators
    6 condensers
    12 heat vents
    As well as some piping and steves factory manager stuff.


    The easy version would instead use:
    14 liquid heat exchangers
    140 heat conducters
    14 sterling generators


    A good advice for building the superheated steam layers is to make just one layer that you run on lava(just remember to void the cold lava afterwards using buildcraft void pipes) When you have the first layer up and running on lava you replicate this layer for the other layers and connect the 5x5 generator. I do not recomend doing a lot of trial and error with a large 7 quad core reactor... :P


    The reactor has been working flawlessly so far and i haven't detected any problems however i will make some long term stability test to make sure im not loosing distilled water or coolant. I also have to check how long the turbines last before they need to be changed.


    What do you guys think?


    Edit: I had to change around the cables a bit as i think it was a bad idea to block the second kinetic steam turbine. the second kinetic steam turbine got filled with steam for some reason due to blockage. So far this seems to have worked as i have seen no problems now (for like 2 hours). It seems i might have a small leakage of distilled water however im not sure yet.


    Ps: This is a large post so some errors are bound to have sneaked in, feel free to point them out and i will fix it.

    A question that sometimes drives me hazy; am i or are the other crazy

    Edited 5 times, last by Blackpalt ().

    Here is my attempt to make turbine block.
    Botton row are two liquid heat exchangers. Between them is steam generator which send steam to two kinetic steam turbines. Each turbine have attached one generator. The fluid regulator is pointed downward. When you put ejector update to condenser, turbine and heat exchanger you can easily attach it to side of the reactor. Also it works only with distilled water as water condensed inside the turbines are returned directly to steam generator. If you put water to steam generator it becomes blocked.


    Only problem with this setup is at start it blows some steam outside so sometimes you must refill your water.