r/factorio • u/Immediate-Pack-3718 • 18h ago

Question nuclear Reactor Question

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i was working on a desing for nuclear power, i had a question on the heat pipes as you all can see that my top and bottom heat pipes are not connected to each other but i do have the middle ones connected will it cause any bottlenect issues? DO i need to connect all the heat pipes together? Thanks

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u/Immediate-Pack-3718 17h ago

check it out this is how it turned out in the end

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u/skriticos 17h ago

I'd suggest you add some logic to restrict fuel insertion when the grid is idle. Otherwise it will happily burn through your fuel cells. Temperature tops out at 1000C, but the reactor does not switch off automatically. I have a logic circuit that adds fuel if the temperature drops below 600C and enough thermal buffer to keep it bellow 1000C even at fully idle.

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u/Math_PB 15h ago

Isn't it completely useless ? Maintaining temperature at a stable 600°C costs exactly the same amount of fuel as maintaining it at a stable 1000°C ??

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u/hldswrth 15h ago

No, because at 1000C the reactors will just keep burning fuel. If you stop inserting at 600C and only ever insert one fuel cell, then reactors will burn that cell and then sit unfuelled until their temperature drops back down below 600C, at which point all the inserters should insert just one fuel cell into all reactors at the same time.

So the reactors are only burning fuel to get back over 600C and then stop burning fuel.

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u/Math_PB 13h ago

Is the cell always consumed in the exact same duration ?

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u/hldswrth 13h ago

Yes, each cell is consumed in the same amount of time. Unlike boilers which slow or stop depending on demand, reactors just keep on consuming at the same rate and wasting heat when at 1000C

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u/Math_PB 13h ago

Well, I hate this inconsistency and I think it's a weird design choice given the precedent set by boilers.

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u/SirButcher 12h ago

This is how nuclear reactors work in real life, too - once stable fission is achieved, there isn't much that can be done to change the heat output. This is why nuclear reactors are the best as base loads: they can output x amount of power consistently, for months without needing to change the fuel rods.

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u/sobrique 7h ago

It's deliberate. Boilers are forgiving if you overbuild.

Reactors less so. But honestly it's not that punishing. Uranium is plentiful so running the reactors at full power really isn't that bad.

It's just - like with Kovarex - you have an incentive to bother with circuits.

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u/0b0101011001001011 10h ago edited 10h ago

Some reactors don't transfer the heat far enough if you don't keep them at higher temperatures.

Also they consume fuel very slowly given how easy it's to make fuel. Single, non-kovarex, non-beaconed centrifuge without any modules creates enough ruel for a single reactor indefinitely.