Prometheus Mk. I - 10 GW Nuclear Reactor

?Mystery_United?

This is a 'zero waste' 10 GW nuclear reactor - non-modular symmetrical - with a number of features and functions I'll list below. I've been experimenting with unorthodox layouts since 2.0 released, and this is my favourite of the bunch. I would love to hear everyone's thoughts, especially on potential improvements. Global Status Indicator Circuits are set up to track steam level, reactor temperature, and power-plant status, which will be visible on the map. Steam levels & reactor temps will display in text. Lamps will glow green during normal operation, yellow during idle (low temperature) periods, and red if temperatures are too low to produce steam AND steam levels are too low for turbines to operate at full capacity. Alarms will sound globally if steam reserves are completely empty. Steam Reserve There is a sizeable steam buffer. The reason is two-fold; firstly, it allows downtime for the reactors (unless you're consuming the full 10 GW) to allow fuel production to catch up if need be. Secondly, it allows the plant to quickly jump in power output without waiting for reactors to warm back up. Extra Heat Pipes The seemingly useless/unnecessary heat pipes are either for faster heat throughput or for heat storage. It makes for a longer cold start, but improves long-term fuel efficiency at maximum load from a low of 22.7/min to a low of 20.9/min. Independent Start-Up The solar panels provide just enough power for the reactor to start itself, provided there is fuel in the chests and logistics bots available. A cold start takes 3-5 minutes. Independent Reactor Controls Instead of reading every reactor temp simultaneously and feeding fuel when the total fuel fell below a certain threshold, I opted to control fuel insertion at each reactor independently for the slight fuel efficiency improvement. This sometimes results in a few reactors deactivating when their fuel expires but internal temps are still high, which slows overall heat transfer. Luckily, the IRC allows you to adjust this per reactor if you want to speed up those heating times. Shortcomings The most glaring issue with this design is the size. It’s compact for the amount of power it makes, but it is still objectively a large facility. This can make it impractical to use, as it is too large for space, and making room in the factory can be challenging depending on your biter situation or if you have a large enough lake nearby. That brings us to the second issue: it is not easily converted for external water delivery. This will be solved in Mk.II. Finally, this design is a grossly inefficient use of resources unless you are consistently using at least 7 GW and don’t care about UPS.