IC2Ex - Canning Machine and Nuclear Fuels.

1st Official Post

    Well, the Canning Machine has faced a major overhaul, as far as I can see. It now has 4 modes and it's usefulness is now much, MUCH higher since it can empty liquid cells now, and the liquid can be later pumped out with buildcraft pipes :D


    Apart from standard canning mode, and mode for filling the cells with the contents of its internal tank, there's the fourth mode "fluid enrich (cell or tank)". Here's the question, what the heck does that do? Of course, NEI shows no information about any recipes for this device, so it's a bit of a problem. The icon for this mode apparently shows 2 possible "recipes", but the hints it gives are nowhere near obvious. This icon has a Cell with some blue liquid, 2 items which I assume are CF powder and redstone, and there's also a Cell with red liquid, but none of those items work - redstone is not even accepted into any work slots.


    Another question is about nuclear fuels, as I've stumbled into a curious problem. First off, in order to craft uranium fuel which you can then pack into fuel rods with Canning Machine, you need 6 pieces of Uranium-238 and 3 small pieces of Uranium-235.


    Every Purified Uranium Ore Dust can be centrifuged into 5 U-238 and 2 U-235. You need BOTH of these to make regular Uranium Fuel Rods - each of them is useless on their own. The problem is that you will get much more U-238 than you get U-235 and while using Nuclear Reactor, you will build a large stockpile of it soon.


    Of course, when you get access to plutonium, you can start mixing it with your U-235 to create MOX fuel rods, which I just assume are more powerful than normal uranium fuel rods. Plutonium can be aquired by centrifuging depleted fuel rods, however normal depleted uranium fuel only yields 1 small plutonium per rod. In order to obtain enough of it to make first MOX fuel rod, (while assuming you are NOT using any of your plutonium for RTG pellets for Radioisotope generator) you need to centrifuge 27 depleted uranium rods, which will require centrifuging 41 purified uranium ore dust (and the whole operation will leave you with a useless stockpile of 43 u-238). I don't know if something has changed with the world generator, but if it did not, then finding those 41 uranium ores will be a heck of a challenge.


    I can guess what the answer's gonna be, but still gotta ask - is there any way of converting U-238 into U-235 or otherwise getting rid of imbalance between those materials?

    First off, fluid enrich mode is used to create fluid construction foam, you pump water into the first tank (can maybe use watercells?) and you put the cf mix (I forget the name, but its the thing made of stone dust) in the second slot.


    Second, MOX is a nuclear fuel that I think lasts half as long as uranium, but you get an energy multiplier based on how hot the reactor its running in is, up to 4x generation. When you thermal centrifuge the depleted MOX cells you will get 3 full plutonium per cell, 1 small pile of plutonium per cell and a certain amount of iron dust based on the cell type, so essentially MOX uses no plutonium, it is more of an upfront cost/catalyst to cause the U238 to react.

    1. Try scanner and Replicator or...
    2. Make an Addon for that ! ;)

    public void getForumUserData(Signature signature, User user) { if(user.equalsTo("Cass") && user.isOnline() { Forum.Out.println("signature")})return;}

    Quote from TuxedoSteve

    First off, fluid enrich mode is used to create fluid construction foam, you pump water into the first tank (can maybe use watercells?) and you put the cf mix (I forget the name, but its the thing made of stone dust) in the second slot.


    Second, MOX is a nuclear fuel that I think lasts half as long as uranium, but you get an energy multiplier based on how hot the reactor its running in is, up to 4x generation. When you thermal centrifuge the depleted MOX cells you will get 3 full plutonium per cell, 1 small pile of plutonium per cell and a certain amount of iron dust based on the cell type, so essentially MOX uses no plutonium, it is more of an upfront cost/catalyst to cause the U238 to react.

    Easier explained, MOX is a fuel that generates up to 4x (I think!) normal depending on the heat of the nuclear reactor.

    Quote from CastielAngelow

    1. Try scanner and Replicator or...
    2. Make an Addon for that ! ;)

    The scanner doesn't work with nuclear fuels. It will scan them, but will give you an error. But even if it did work, I'm pretty sure the energy cost of producing enough UU matter to replicate a single piece of uranium/plutonium would make the whole operation counterproductive compared to how much energy it would produce.

    What would be the purpose of this generator if we have a nuclear reactor since it need depleted cell to create plutonium to be able to craft the pellets..


    wouldnt be wiser to be able to fuel that gen with uranium cell or something similar then having to create a Reactor ? or is that gen more powerfull then a simple reactor ?

    • Official Post
    Quote from Barth

    What would be the purpose of this generator if we have a nuclear reactor since it need depleted cell to create plutonium to be able to craft the pellets..


    wouldnt be wiser to be able to fuel that gen with uranium cell or something similar then having to create a Reactor ? or is that gen more powerfull then a simple reactor ?

    Those are meant to be long-lasting (forever) low-power nuclear generators.


    You can decide to use plutonium either as MOX catalyst (for even more power) or as a RTG fuel.

    Quote from Barth


    What would be the purpose of this generator if we have a nuclear reactor since it need depleted cell to create plutonium to be able to craft the pellets..


    wouldnt be wiser to be able to fuel that gen with uranium cell or something similar then having to create a Reactor ? or is that gen more powerfull then a simple reactor ?

    The RITEG emits 16 EU/t I think, while a single U-cell emits 4 or 5 EU/t I think.

    Quote from SpwnX

    (forever)

    Really ? :/
    I thought they would last extremly long, like 30 hours per pellet but ... Why did they made another greengen spammable ?


    It'd be funnier lasting a long, long time, but with the ability to generate like 1.5^(numbersof14C-pellets-1), which you coul get from Coal Ore in very tiny amounts or ... using Coal Moderators ;)


    Soon with Molten Salt Reactors, right ? :D
    NERF THA FUSION REACTOR!

    • Official Post
    Quote from MatLaPatate

    Really ? :/
    I thought they would last extremly long, like 30 hours per pellet but ... Why did they made another greengen spammable ?


    It'd be funnier lasting a long, long time, but with the ability to generate like 1.5^(numbersof14C-pellets-1), which you coul get from Coal Ore in very tiny amounts or ... using Coal Moderators ;)

    On RL they would last for over a century, much like "forever" in MC.


    Well, it would be a kind of greengen, but for the non-renewable nuclear "forever lasting fuel".


    C14 doesnt generate enough heat for that sake.
    It has to be plutonium238 : (I just think that IC² RTG pellet sprite is based on the picture below, although it is a wrong concept, as the picture below shows uncased plutonium)


    or Strontium 90 and Americium 241. Those last two are obtained as reactor byproducts.
    Americium could last for over a millenium (although it has a considerably lower output if compared to Pu or Sr).

    • Official Post
    Quote from SpwnX


    It emits 2^(amount of pellets -1) EU/t


    to emit 16 Eu/t it needs 5 pellets.


    15 Pellets* The recipe changed.

    They're also the final destination of all nuclear fuel.


    Uranium reactors convert U-235 into plutonium and leave you with an excess of U-238. Eventually you will have enough plutonium for MOX fuel.


    MOX reactors then convert U-238 into plutonium, leaving nothing but more plutonium. MOX is fantastic - it gives huge EU/t, and you end up with more fuel than you started, not less! Considering that excess U-238 has no other use than this, it's basically free energy and you'd be stupid to go straight for RTGs and not run MOX cycles.


    Plutonium is the end product of all reactors, the "nuclear waste", so to speak. No reactor can consume plutonium alone, and it will keep piling up in your storage. Unless you keep mining new uranium ore, you will eventually run out of all uranium components... and if you do keep mining, then you'll only make your mountain of "useless" plutonium grow ever larger ever faster.


    The RTG is the answer: it's where you put your nuclear waste to rest after no reactor can use it anymore. Much preferrable IMHO to what we have IRL, where the bulk of reactor waste has no real use and needs to be buried in metal caskets deep in salt veins to avoid making your entire region uninhabitable for centuries. ;)

    Quote from RawCode

    RTG are permanent in IRL, several mouth is joke, they last for 50 years.

    Voyager spacecrafts have been flying for over three decades using them. Their power output does diminish over time but they should still continue for a while. At the moment they produce a bit over 50% of their original output due to diminishing efficiency of both the fuel and heat capture devices :)

    Quote from TuxedoSteve

    I'm pretty sure he meant pellets as in "Pellets of RTG Fuel".

    Just to clarify for anyone who gets confused by this conversation:

    • The equation controlling the RTGen is 2^(# of RTG Fuel ITEMS (red canisters)-1) EU/t
    • As of the current version (2.0.239-Experimental), crafting these RTG Fuel items requires 3 "chunks" of Plutonium per; so to obtain the full 16EU/t, you require 5 RTG Fuel which would result in a cost of 15 Plutonium and 30 iron ingots


    And now a question from myself, according to Omicron above, it's possible to convert my U-238 (Breeding Uranium) to Plutonium by roughly halving my initial Plutonium stock obtained by processing the U-235 into Depleted Uranium and turning that half into MOX Fuel which can be used in conjunction with my U-238 to produce even more plutonium, is that correct?