Guide to the Nuclear Reactor

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Terminology

What your average reactor will look like Before we begin, it's important you understand a few key words that are going to be repeated throughout this guide:

• Neutrons per generation (K): Rate of heat gain in the reactor.
• Moderator: Gasses that influence the performance and power production of the reactor
• Power: The ratio between the current heat and the heat required for a meltdown

Generating Power

The Nuclear Reactor has two inputs: Moderator and Coolant. The first thing we're going to worry about is the coolant loop. Power is generated through a simple process: Uranium fuel rods are placed into the reactor which immediately starts the reaction, creating constant heat. Our coolant gas is pumped into the reactor, heats up to the heat of the reactor, and then carries said heat to a set of Turbines to generator additional power. After this is done, the gas finally enters a heat exchanger in space to cool down the gas for further use in the loop. The colder the gas you put into the loop, the faster the reactor cools down. Innately, it’s set up so that the temperature loss from coolant intake is balanced out against the heat generated by the fuel rods, represented by the controllable figure called K (Neutrons per generation). NOTE that the coolant gas can potentially retain heat and actually heat up the reactor, so, be certain to check the thermometers on the coolant loop often!

Maintenance

So you’ve started the reactor up, but your job isn’t done yet. ever. You’ve still got to prepare to shut the reactor down, change the rods, and make sure it doesn’t blow up halfway! The higher the K the more power and heat you produce, at 1k it should be stable, but if it’s not, adjust the decimal points.

Shutting down the reactor

Once your timer to change the rods is up, go ahead and turn the reactor rod control to 0 K, this will cause the reactions in the reactor to stop, and slowly settle down, while this is happening, you want to insert two co2 cans into the direct moderator input, and set the moderator to 1000-1500 kpa, this will ration out your 9000kpa odd co2 for shutdown. Once the reactor power is under 20 percent, you are then able to remove the fuel rods. This will shut the reactor down for good, now you want to unwrench your co2 cans, refill them and bring them back again. You are now good to insert new rods into the reactor and start it up again. NOTE: Please keep spent rods away from normal rods, remember to reset the moderator input amount.

Repairing the reactor

If your reactor gets damaged, either from the pressure or heat, you can repair it with a welding tool and sealant, this will repair the seals and make sure you don’t blow up next time you start it up.

Tips

• Be careful to not exhaust your plasma supply. It is recommended you don't max out the moderator input when youre running plasma + O2, or you're at a tangible risk of running out of those gasses from atmos.
• The reactor consumes moderator gasses very quickly, so keep this in mind before you use permeability gasses for riskier setups.
• You don’t need to shut down the reactor to do maintenance, you only need to bring it down to 20% power.
• This engine synergises well with other atmos based engines, try hooking it up to a TEG for free power.
• You can cook food such as steak on the reactor's surface.
• If the reactor makes banging noises, it’s not being actively cooled with coolant, and is taking damage.

Sabotage

Sabotaging the Nuclear Reactor is incredibly easy to do, but can also be incredibly easy to fix depending on how much effort you put into your handiwork. Make sure there are no competent engineers nearby, roll up your sleeves, and let's get to work. You have a choice of starting either a meltdown or a blowout, with the latter being the deadliest but easiest to fix.

Meltdown:

• Flood reactor moderator line with plasma, they won't be able to mitigate the reaction with control rods.
• Shut off coolant entirely. Raise control rods.
• Swap all fuel out with spent fuel, as it's way stronger.

Blowout:

• Shut off exit valve for quick overpressure.
• Cause a pipefire in the coolant line (LETHAL).
• Tack heater onto coolant line (can also cause straight meltdown)