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Nuclear physics
#1
Given that Cogwerks has mentioned his long-term intention to implement a nuclear reactor on his map, I figured it might be worth discussing how that might be done. To that end, here is my proposal for a nuclear fuel cycle on-station.

The Reactor

The nuclear reactor itself consists of three main elements: fuel, control rods, and coolant.

Fuel: The station would initially start out with some Uranium fuel rods. Uranium is a relatively safe and reliable fuel, enough to run the station for a bit, but you will eventually need to either switch over to solars and reduce power usage, or order/mine/synthesize additional fuel. More on this later.

Control rods: The reactor's control rods serve to slow down the reaction, their effectiveness depending on number inserted and to what depth. Standard rods are made of a mauxite-pharosium alloy, but mining can turn up materials that can be used to produce rods that are either more effective at slowing the reaction, or actually speed it up. The control room includes a SCRAM button that will shut down the reactor by fully inserting the control rods.

Coolant: Because the reactor does not burn plasma, a liquid coolant is used to transfer heat from the reactor to the heat exchanger. The standard coolant is water, although chemistry can create additives to enhance heat transfer efficiency. Welding fuel, napalm, and radium may produce adverse effects if used.

Refueling

Every so often, depending on your fuel and how far your control rods are inserted, the reactor requires refueling. This should be done quickly, though hopefully you have enough power from solars/SMES to hold you over. There are two main ways to refuel a reactor.

Slow, safe way: Using the control room computer, fully insert the control rods and order the reactor room robot to remove the fuel and place it in the fuel encaser. This will surround the fuel in a radiation-resistant coating, making it safe to handle. Place a replacement (coated) fuel element in the encaser to remove the coating, and order the robot to place it in the reactor.

Quick, dangerous way: SCRAM the reactor. Take the (only) industrial space armor suit and enter the reactor chamber through the airlock. Remove the spent fuel element, and splash it with a mixture of stabilizing agent, chlorine and hydrogen to encase it. Splash your replacement fuel with polytrinic acid to dissolve the coating and place it in the reactor. Leave, and press the SCRAM button again.

Producing fuel

Eventually, the station will deplete its fuel stocks. Once this happens, you will have three main avenues for getting more.

QM: The Quartermaster can order additional fuel at a very high price, and can only order Uranium, although traders might occasionally offer more exotic fuels.

Mining: Mining can locate additional Uranium, as well as Thorium (less power, longer life). This is dangerous, and requires that the miner have industrial space armor to perform safely.

Science: The best and coolest option, scientists can use their particle accelerator to reprocess spent fuel as well as produce better fuels. NOTE: The accelerator comes with safety interlocks to prevent operation over 100 kW. Bypassing these interlocks may allow the production of unstable elements, and should not be attempted.


tl;dr: Run engine on fuel that is mined, purchased, or refined. Accidentally breach primary coolant loop and flood reactor room with radioactive smoke. Mix uncased fuel element into cake batter. Emag the accelerator and make elements with unusual properties. Emag the SCRAM button to fully retract the fuel rods. Emag the encaser to make it spew radioactive smoke and debris into the control room.
#2
Sadly the old and very long nuclear engine thread died with the old forum.
Just an fyi, almost all of these ideas are already in the design doc for the eventual nuke engine.
#3
welp
#4
Long story short: The thermo engine is a working prototype of a gas coolant generation loop for the nuke engine system I proposed like a year and a half ago. The nuke system would use rods purchased from QM and/or refined from mining ores, fed into a reactor with control rods, and this would generate heat and pressure in the lines to feed the gas turbine. More pressure = more power, more heat = more risk of meltdown. Meltdowns and contamination would of course be a thing, as would multiple tiers of safety measures ending with SCRAM as a last resort.

The particle accelerator would be neat but that doesn't really have much basis on nuclear power fuel reprocessing. That's done with breeder reactors or lots of hideous chemistry.

I don't mean to hijack your thread or anything, but since you made it in reference to a comment I made about a nuke engine, I figured you should probably know that all this stuff has been discussed quite a few times already. I'm mostly going to avoid thinking about it for awhile though, since the thermo engine is turning out to be really goddamn fun and is capable of meltdowns all on its own. It is however designed to be mostly modular so nuke reactors can be slotted in as the heat source later on if people get bored of it, like in the 6-12 month timeframe.
#5
Nuclear coal solar pressure kinetic powered power loops. Rad.
#6
Klayboxx Wrote:Nuclear coal solar pressure kinetic powered power loops. Rad.
I hate you guys, I posted a thread for physicists like forever ago, with a nuclear engine and alot of stuff that you guys have been talking about, and everyone shot it down frown
#7
enforcer9 Wrote:I hate you guys, I posted a thread for physicists like forever ago, with a nuclear engine and alot of stuff that you guys have been talking about, and everyone shot it down frown

Physicist stuff would be fun, the biggest problem is that a lot of in-game physics are handled more like witchcraft currently.
#8
Cogwerks Wrote:
enforcer9 Wrote:I hate you guys, I posted a thread for physicists like forever ago, with a nuclear engine and alot of stuff that you guys have been talking about, and everyone shot it down frown

Physicist stuff would be fun, the biggest problem is that a lot of in-game physics are handled more like witchcraft currently.

physics is hard in 2d spaceman tiles


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