Uranium, Thorium, Plutonium and Breeder Designs! High Efficiency and Output, Midgame cost.

Crispen · Apr 16th 2013

So I've played with reactors a lot using uranium, thorium, and plutonium. I like to be efficient, so I prefer to balance efficiency and total output. Efficiency is how much power you get per cell. I shoot for between 4 and 5, max possible efficiency is 7, anything below 3.5 is bad, unless you just have a ton of resources. So here are the reactors that I run, and came up with myself and with the collaboration of Detoxii. All of them are full cycle, and fairly expensive. Only my Uranium only design uses Iridium Neutron Reflectors.

Uranium Only (230 EU/t, Total 46million eu, Eff 4.6) http://www.talonfiremage.pwp.b…ngn055wk5pjti3diliw51p0jk

Thorium Only (192 EU/t, Total 192million EU, Eff 4.8 ) http://www.talonfiremage.pwp.b…ymr066uzbmyxzaz4mx5hgdips

After experimenting with plutonium, I've come to the conclusion that a plutonium only reactor isn't feasible if you desire efficiency instead of burst energy, so I've combined thorium and plutonium. You'll need to replace the cells, but a RedPower 2 filter or BuildCraft 3 Autarchic Gate makes that simple.

Thorium/Plutonium Hybrid (353 EU/t, Total 353million, Eff 4.93) http://www.talonfiremage.pwp.b…ctuxdr970el0uge9eqebhmbcw

Now you can put another single plutonium cell on the above design for increased output and efficiency, but the fourth plutonium only gives 50 eu/t whereas the 3 in this design give 90, 90 and 130. So that one plutonium cell that gives 50 isn't very efficient.

Breeder that uses Thorium (20 Cells recharged at a time, total of 200 recharged, 20 every 5000 seconds) http://www.talonfiremage.pwp.b…sn30t3yg1d5a3wg7fys2q4dmo

I always welcome improvement to my designs, I'm not claiming that they're the best. I hope you guys find these useful!

Sinnaj63 · Apr 16th 2013

There is a Gregtechthread for Reactordesigns, you should use it

Detoxii · Apr 16th 2013

Amongst the sea of worthless reactors on here, you have the audacity to flame useful reactor designs by stating "you should use it". I hope you feel bad, I would.

Omicron · Apr 16th 2013

@ Crispen: The reactor planner does the efficiency on most hybrid fuel designs wrong, sometimes with very large deviations. It's better to do it by hand.

First, count the number of fuel cells you have in your design: twelve thorium (3 quads) and 3 plutonium. Next, multiply each by the number of replacements they need over the course of a full cycle, which is dictated by the longest-burning fuel type. In this case, thorium is the longest-burning fuel, so you multiply it by 1. Plutonium needs to be replaced twice and then consumes another half charge, meaning you multiply it by 2.5. Finally, multiply each by the amount of EU a single cell of that type will produce at efficiency 1. For thorium and uranium, that's 1 million; for plutonium, that's 4 million.

12 * 1 * 1 million = 12 million
3 * 2.5 * 4 million = 30 million

You get a sum of 42 million. This number is called the reactor's "cell value". Divide the total EU yield of your reactor by the cell value, and you get efficiency:

353 million / 42 million = 8.405 <--- this is your real efficiency, even though the planner only states 4.93.

The same math works for any reactor in any configuration, but the reactor planner does it correctly as long as you only use a single fuel type, so you only really need to bother with it when you are mixing fuel types or you don't have the planner on hand.

For some additional insight on hybrid reactor designs, I wrote up something here that might interest you.

Crispen · Apr 16th 2013

Omnicron, I'm aware that the Plutonium needs to be replaced, it states this in the planner, and shows you if you use the Gregtech Computer Cube. I simply have a filter on my reactor with the proper amount of Plutonium cells, ready to input at the precise moment more cells are needed, and another filter withdrawing depleted uranium cells. It's a very simply setup. Thanks for the info on efficiency, it's useful.

Omicron · Apr 16th 2013

I was just citing the fact to explain where I am pulling the numbers in the math from.

Oh, and as Murphy's Law dictates, just after I linked that post to you I realized that I made a huge mistake in it Better read it again now, I fixed it.

Crispen · Apr 16th 2013

I mean no offense, but I have no intention of reading anything. I've looked at many designs, and experimented with many designs, and as I stated in my original post, I am aiming for efficiency as well as decent output. Thorium causes plutonium to pulse more often, and the plutonium/thorium reactor I posted emits 310eu/t just from the plutonium, for a total cost of 7.5 plutonium in a full cycle. I've tested this in game with an actual setup and it does work. I'd like to see a better or equal plutonium design that outputs 310eu/t or more for 7-8 plutonium cells, and runs a full cycle. If I wanted to I could run a much better reactor with a Redpower system to let the reactor cool, but I prefer full cycle reactors. Also, when I posted this, I didn't realize that there is a Gregtech post, however after looking at it, I saw only one out of about 20 designs that were any good. Again, I consider anything with an efficiency below 3 to be bad, and I always aim for over 4.

Epic Lulz · Apr 17th 2013

Quote from Crispen

I mean no offense, but I have no intention of reading anything. I've looked at many designs, and experimented with many designs, and as I stated in my original post, I am aiming for efficiency as well as decent output. Thorium causes plutonium to pulse more often, and the plutonium/thorium reactor I posted emits 310eu/t just from the plutonium, for a total cost of 7.5 plutonium in a full cycle. I've tested this in game with an actual setup and it does work. I'd like to see a better or equal plutonium design that outputs 310eu/t or more for 7-8 plutonium cells, and runs a full cycle. If I wanted to I could run a much better reactor with a Redpower system to let the reactor cool, but I prefer full cycle reactors. Also, when I posted this, I didn't realize that there is a Gregtech post, however after looking at it, I saw only one out of about 20 designs that were any good. Again, I consider anything with an efficiency below 3 to be bad, and I always aim for over 4.

You do have to consider the fact you're burning EU on reflectors unless you have an iridium one.

Also are your efficiency values obtained from the ComputerCube? Because the reactor planner is not very up to date with the new Pu/Th behaviors.

Crispen · Apr 17th 2013

Epic, I am using Iridium Neutron Reflectors, as shown in the uranium build that I posted. My efficiency values come from the reactor planner online, I wasn't aware of the thorium/plutonium problems with the online planner. However, you can see the eu/t output of individual cells on the planner, and I've tested to make sure it's correct (it is) and the 3 plutonium cells in the build that I posted output 130, 90 and 90 eu/t. The thorium is there to make the plutonium pulse more, so I'm not really worried about its output. Also it's easy to obtain, much easier than plutonium.

Since posting this, I've found a better thorium/plutonium design. The 2 plutonium cells output 170eu/t each. Therefore it's more efficient and has a higher output, but uses more thorium.

http://www.talonfiremage.pwp.b…ymxri6yeufxrqgy53n15hzq4g

I didn't design it, and the person who showed me didn't either. So I don't know who to credit.

skavier470 · Apr 18th 2013

cost optimized first:
http://www.talonfiremage.pwp.b…njrq0xzonqu78fp5s61nlc4qo

optimized for a bit lower output: building cost heavily reduced
http://www.talonfiremage.pwp.b…64xikta2pkfw2vi9neqd760ow

cost optimized hybrid: (first design)
http://www.talonfiremage.pwp.b…j6l0b9pftx6u0mwdu7lrjxa0w
cost optimized hybrid: (second design)
http://www.talonfiremage.pwp.b…j174pcjvi0741z65hpi449clc

didnt exact calcuation and there is still room for improvments.

Share