Casuc: Question about Ice

    Howdie


    I have a few questions about how Ice works in a reactor. If I put ice into a reactor, how quickly does it deplete? I ask the question because of the variable settings on the reactor planner (i.e. Ice per second or seconds per ice block) which has left me a little confused.


    Ideally I would like to design a CASUC breeder which houses 2-10 stacks of ICE (no more, as I am lazy and the energy needs of more Ice would become tiresome) and can run for a full cycle, using up all (/most of) of the ice. I want to avoid the need for pumping additional Ice into the reactor.


    Can you help me? Cheers!

    One ice block is consumed every second from a stack, cooling the reactor by 300 heat, if heat is 300+. So if the reactor produces 300 or more excess heat per second, it takes 64 seconds to consume a full stacks of ice blocks, assuming the reactor doesn't explode.

    Goodo - so you can easily get through quite a few stacks. Hence why ice production per second is used, rather than chucking a couple of full stacks in. fun :P

    So I've tried a few different experiments and this is what I've found (just coming up to speed, old news for most of you). Also this whole idea is based around a SB&S reactor (Sit Back & Sleep) without any babysitting.


    With a single array of 4 depleted cells & one :Uranium Cell: cell, I can cool it without the use of Ice but depending on how well, it becomes non-viable - it uses up :Uranium Cell: as quickly as it recharges them. Alternative is to design the reactor to last as close to only one full cycle as possible, which improves eff somewhat.


    Alternative is to use Ice (lots) and massive arrays of :Uranium Cell: to improve the recharging speeds. The Ice can become quite expensive but in the scheme of recharging lots of :Uranium Cell: easily, is it worthwhile?

    Quote from Razerous

    Also this whole idea is based around a SB&S reactor (Sit Back & Sleep) without any babysitting.


    Not sure what you mean by Sit Back and Sleep. There are a few different types of hands off designs. Mark I and II are designed to run a full cycle without exploding. Those are pretty hands off and easy to set up, a good place to start. CASUC (Continuously Applied Single Use Coolants) use machinery to automate delivery of single use coolants. After a complex setup, it is hands off while it is running. Without ice being added while it is running, ice is inferior to a cooling cell. A stack of 64 ice with none added while running is responsible for 19200 heat, front loaded. A cooling cell is responsible for 19999 heat, 10k front loaded and 10k at the rate of 1/s. This is why you don't see designs with just a stack of ice, all designs that use single use coolant must add more during running to break even with other parts.


    Quote from Razerous

    With a single array of 4 depleted cells & one :Uranium Cell: cell, I can cool it without the use of Ice but depending on how well, it becomes non-viable - it uses up :Uranium Cell: as quickly as it recharges them. Alternative is to design the reactor to last as close to only one full cycle as possible, which improves eff somewhat.


    Alternative is to use Ice (lots) and massive arrays of :Uranium Cell: to improve the recharging speeds. The Ice can become quite expensive but in the scheme of recharging lots of :Uranium Cell: easily, is it worthwhile?

    This won't solve your problem. The rate that the depleted cells recharge is derived from the heat of the reactor hull. If you are keeping it cold with ice, then you will be lucky to break even while breeding, even with a checkerboard of depleted and uranium cells. It is not impossible to do a breeding CASUC, just incredibly difficult. Breeding is a dangerous razors edge. Too much cooling and you don't get enrichment results. Heat gain means boom, and soon because you start hot. Heat generated needs to match cooling, and you need to start hot, so lava goes in instead of ice to start, and it helps if external cooling matches heat generated while off (# of isotopes). To make this happen with CASUC, very fine adjustments to cooling time can make or break you, and careful attention must be paid. here is one I posted from a different post. I don't use CASUC, so use this at your own risk. http://www.talonfiremage.pwp.b…s587boc8kuj86bqiczju7elmp Notice that you will have to change the isotopes out 3 times. According to the sim, you get 80 enriched isotopes from 5 Uranium, so have that ready, and notice the 130.22 stacks of ice consumed.

    Thanks for Giving drill access to miners!

    Gorzak has a point there but I must put my two cents in. Cooling cells will hold more heat but that takes time. Thats where just SUCs come in. I don't use CASUC reactors because I don't play enough so I was playing around one day and found that adding in 4 stacks of ice into a reactor design of mine (loosely based off another design) actually made my reactor better. I could then run it for two cycles in a row instead of 1 and still having a massive cooling time. Thats as far as I got it it wasn't the best reactor per say. But it worked for what I needed. So I tend to now think of ice and cooling cells this way. Ice is like a chocolate bar. Great instant gratification. Whereas Cooling cells are steaks. Taste way better but take longer to eat and fill you up more.


    EDIT: sorry a little more than 8 stacks of ice heres the design


    http://www.talonfiremage.pwp.b…=1910101001501021s1r11r10

    Quote

    That's a rather cool idea, but a lone tree is suspicious, better plant some more. So really... forget about solar-flowers, solar-trees are the next generation :P

    Quote from dragonherald

    I don't use CASUC reactors because I don't play enough

    The whole point of CASUC is that it can be automated by buildcraft and/or red power machines, so you don't need to stand there constantly shoving buckets/ice in.


    Check out the design I'm using, compared to yours. http://www.talonfiremage.pwp.b…ylrqyfxpo59vyymsq9zo1j1mo


    I managed to get three efficiency out of my reactor, and it's 100% safe (my actual set up is actually a 6-chamber, http://www.talonfiremage.pwp.b…0vid8znp0dgknhvro82vrjpq8 due to forgetting that my design was 5-chamber).


    Also, why aren't you completely surrounding your reactor in water? http://www.talonfiremage.pwp.b…uc82vfqm5uc6n5v843f3ald1c
    NEVER NEEDS THE ICE