48 posts
Wellington, New Zealand
Posted 26 October 2012 - 01:37 AM
This is a turtle program and reactor design for IndustrialCraft 2 nuclear reactors. Firstly, this is for versions of IC2 before 1.106 - don't try to use in 1.106 or above! In 1.106 they reworked the nuclear reactor and changed it from being turned off by redstone to being turned on by redstone. If run on 1.106, this will explode in about 30 seconds flat - you have been warned.
The reactor:
* Can run nearly continuously, needing a refill every 1/3 of a run. No time off for cooling needed.
* With the help of nuclear control and CC, maintains a stable breeding temperature.
* Uses 8 uranium cells per run, enriching 24 replacements in the process.
* Produces 100EU/t while running.
The turtle and nuclear control thermal monitor can each independently turn off the reactor, meaning that even if the turtle crashed with the reactor on it would still stop safely.
This is possible by burning coolant cells all the way out. Each coolant cell can absorb 10,000 heat before melting. By simply providing a continuous stream of cells, we could produce 200,000 EU for each one melted. In IC2<1.106 each cell costs 1/4 tin, so we get 800,000 EU per tin used for cooling. In this breeder we use some of that heat for enriching cells instead.
The breeder works by putting in cells and running the reactor until the thermal monitor turns it off. This happens because the reactor temperature slowly declines, then suddenly starts increasing after the cells burn out. The turtle detects the reactor being turned off and replaces the cells. It then cools the reactor with a single ice block to just below the thermal monitor's theshold, and runs the next cycle. Because it heats to the threshold each time, it can be balanced to stay in the breeding "sweet spot" of just over 9000 heat.
Code is at http://pastebin.com/pCENJCk9 and attached. Save as "breeder" in the root directory (this name matters if you want to use the "remaining" script - more later).
Base for building on:
We put down the turtle, 3 iron chests (or other non-flammable inventories) surrounding it, and the reactor. We add a redstone torch on the block the turtle will sit on. This keeps the reactor turned off until the turtle activates the block below it:
We extend the reactor with 2 chambers, one of which is in front of the turtle. We place a thermal monitor on the core, with Redpower wire using that to charge the reactor chamber next to the turtle.
We add some water at least 3 blocks above the core:
We fill the chest to the turtle's left with coolant cells:
And put some ice in the chest to the right:
Put uranium cells, near-depleted isotope cells, and plating in this pattern in the reactor. The buckets are required! The only empty gaps should be the two for coolant cells.
Set the thermal monitor to 9500. Check the plating is in place first!
Start the first run of the breeder program:
Then fill in squares around the reactor until we see it losing only 3-4 heat per tick when running normally. In practice, you probably want to wire it up first. Cooling too fast will bring it out of the efficient >9000 heat region for breeding!
OK, you can leave it running now. As it runs, it will keep a "remaining" script up to date which will finish the run. I'll post my startup script here later, but it means you can leave the area and have it resume where it left off. It takes just under 30 cycles (pairs of coolant cells) to enrich a set of 8 depleted isotope cells.
In my own setup, coolant cells are automatically made using redpower. I haven't bothered with ice as it uses ice at half the rate of coolant cells & is easy to top up. I use the same concept of burning coolant cells to keep an 800 EU/t reactor running full time.
The reactor:
* Can run nearly continuously, needing a refill every 1/3 of a run. No time off for cooling needed.
* With the help of nuclear control and CC, maintains a stable breeding temperature.
* Uses 8 uranium cells per run, enriching 24 replacements in the process.
* Produces 100EU/t while running.
The turtle and nuclear control thermal monitor can each independently turn off the reactor, meaning that even if the turtle crashed with the reactor on it would still stop safely.
This is possible by burning coolant cells all the way out. Each coolant cell can absorb 10,000 heat before melting. By simply providing a continuous stream of cells, we could produce 200,000 EU for each one melted. In IC2<1.106 each cell costs 1/4 tin, so we get 800,000 EU per tin used for cooling. In this breeder we use some of that heat for enriching cells instead.
The breeder works by putting in cells and running the reactor until the thermal monitor turns it off. This happens because the reactor temperature slowly declines, then suddenly starts increasing after the cells burn out. The turtle detects the reactor being turned off and replaces the cells. It then cools the reactor with a single ice block to just below the thermal monitor's theshold, and runs the next cycle. Because it heats to the threshold each time, it can be balanced to stay in the breeding "sweet spot" of just over 9000 heat.
Code is at http://pastebin.com/pCENJCk9 and attached. Save as "breeder" in the root directory (this name matters if you want to use the "remaining" script - more later).
Base for building on:
We put down the turtle, 3 iron chests (or other non-flammable inventories) surrounding it, and the reactor. We add a redstone torch on the block the turtle will sit on. This keeps the reactor turned off until the turtle activates the block below it:
We extend the reactor with 2 chambers, one of which is in front of the turtle. We place a thermal monitor on the core, with Redpower wire using that to charge the reactor chamber next to the turtle.
We add some water at least 3 blocks above the core:
We fill the chest to the turtle's left with coolant cells:
And put some ice in the chest to the right:
Put uranium cells, near-depleted isotope cells, and plating in this pattern in the reactor. The buckets are required! The only empty gaps should be the two for coolant cells.
Set the thermal monitor to 9500. Check the plating is in place first!
Start the first run of the breeder program:
Then fill in squares around the reactor until we see it losing only 3-4 heat per tick when running normally. In practice, you probably want to wire it up first. Cooling too fast will bring it out of the efficient >9000 heat region for breeding!
OK, you can leave it running now. As it runs, it will keep a "remaining" script up to date which will finish the run. I'll post my startup script here later, but it means you can leave the area and have it resume where it left off. It takes just under 30 cycles (pairs of coolant cells) to enrich a set of 8 depleted isotope cells.
In my own setup, coolant cells are automatically made using redpower. I haven't bothered with ice as it uses ice at half the rate of coolant cells & is easy to top up. I use the same concept of burning coolant cells to keep an 800 EU/t reactor running full time.