The Nuclear Reactor itself is quite large, requiring 3x3x3 Tiles to place.

If not properly cooled with heatsinks, it will start to take damage, and then explode. You will get a visual warning when this happens (reactor turns red). If the reactor explodes, it will kill anything in the room and damage all nearby devices. It will require repairing again before it can be used.

Cost:

• 500 Copper
  
• 2500 Steel
  
• 500 Silicon
  
• 1500 Aluminium
  
• 1250 Lead

U-238

• Recipe (Assembler):
  
  • 300 Uranium
    
  • 150 Iron
    
  • 75 Steel
    
  • 75 Silicon
• Heat Output: 100K
  
• Durability: 40 Minutes

Pu-239

• Recipe (Assembler):
  
  • 4x Depleted U-238
• Heat Output: 200K
  
• Durability: 4 Hours

Pu-241

• Recipe (Assembler):
  
  • 4x Depleted Pu-239
• Heat Output: 500K
  
• Durability: 40 Hours

T1

• Recipe (3D Printer):
  
  • 50 Aluminium
    
  • 6 Deuterium
• Heat Capacity: 50K
  
• Durability: 4 Hours

T2

• Recipe (3D Printer):
  
  • 50 Aluminium
    
  • 12 Deuterium
    
  • 5 Beryllium
• Heat Capacity: 100K
  
• Durability: 12 Hours

T3

• Recipe (3D Printer):
  
  • 50 Aluminium
    
  • 24 Deuterium
    
  • 10 Beryllium
• Heat Capacity: 250K
  
• Durability: 24 Hours

Advanced Heatsink

• Recipe (3D Printer):
  
  • 50 Aluminium
    
  • 10 Beryllium
    
  • 20 Fluorite
• Heat Capacity: 1000K (Possibly a bug!)
  
• Durability: 88 Hours (Possibly a bug, should be 96 hours)

Iron Turbine

• Recipe (Assembler):
  
  • 300 Iron
• Max Heat: 400K
  
• Energy/Heat: 1.5
  
• Total Possible Energy Output: 600
  
• Durability: 2 Hour

Steel Turbine

• Recipe (Assembler):
  
  • 600 Steel
• Max Heat: 800K
  
• Energy/Heat: 3
  
• Total Possible Energy Output: 2400
  
• Durability: 4 Hours

Platinum Turbine

• Recipe (Assembler):
  
  • 600 Iron
    
  • 25 Platinum
• Max Heat: 2000K
  
• Energy/Heat: 7.5
  
• Total Possible Energy Output: 15,000
  
• Durability: 12 Hours

Heat mechanics are not straightforward. There are a few things to consider - for reference, "room temperature" is 293K.

• Nuclear Reactors have a basic heat capacity of 200K.
  
• Each fuel rod adds a small amount to the heat capacity
  
  • U-238 adds 10 per rod
    
  • Pu-239 adds 20 per rod
    
  • Pu-241 adds 50 per rod
• Each heat sink increases the capacity further
  
  • T1 Heatsink adds 50K
    
  • T2 Heatsink adds 100K
    
  • T3 Heatsink adds 250K
    
  • Adv Heatsink adds 1000K
• Each rod outputs different amounts of heat:
  
  • U-238 creates 100K per rod
    
  • Pu-239 adds 200K per rod
    
  • Pu-241 adds 500K per rod

So, an empty reactor has 200K heat capacity (493K).
A reactor with 4x U-238 rods has 200K + (4 x 10K) capacity (533K), and generates 400K total heat (693K).

A reactor with 2x U-238 rods has 200K+ (2 x 10K) capacity (513K), and generates 200K total heat (493K), so you can actually run a reactor with 2x U-238 rods and zero heatsinks.

Power Outputs for each turbine are listed as: PER_TURBINE(TOTAL_OUTPUT).

U-238

• Maximum Temp: 693K
  
• Required Cooling: 400K 160K
  
  • 4 x T1 Heatsink (200K)
    
  • 2x T2 Heatsink (200K)
    
  • 1x T3 Heatsink (250K)
    
  • 1x Adv. Heatsink (1000K)
• Iron Turbine: 600(1200)
  
• Steel Turbine: 1200(2400)
  
• Platinum Turbine: 3000(6000)

Pu-239

• Maximum Temp: 1093K
  
• Required Cooling: 800K 520K
  
  • T1 Heatsink = Insufficient (max 400K)
    
  • 6x T2 Heatsink (600K)
    
  • 3x T3 Heatsink (750K) - or 2x T3 and a T1 for 550K
    
  • 1x Adv Heatsink (1000K)
• Iron Turbine: 600(1200)
  
• Steel Turbine: 2400(4800)
  
• Platinum Turbine: 6000(12000)

Pu-241

• Maximum Temp: 2293K
  
• Required Cooling: 2000K 1600K
  
  • T1 Heatsink = Insufficient (max 400K)
    
  • T2 Heatsink = Insufficient (max 800K)
    
  • 7x T3 Heatsink - or 6x T3 and a T2 for exactly 1600K - not tested, may need a little more
    
  • 2x Adv Heatsink (2000K) - or 1x Adv and 3x T3, or 1x Adv and 6x T2, etc
• Iron Turbine: 600(1200)
  
• Steel Turbine: 2400(4800)
  
• Platinum Turbine: 15000(30000)

Some information for those wanting to get the highest tier of rods.

Each Pu-241 rod requires 4x Pu-239 rods to breed, which in turn requires a total of 16 U-238 rods.

• 1x Pu-241 = 4,800 Uranium (1x full cargo pad)
  
• 4x Pu-241 Rods = 19,200 Uranium (4x full cargo pads)

A single Pu-241 rod takes almost 8 hours to breed in one reactor. That's 4 runs of U-238, plus one run of Pu-239. Using one reactor, it will take 20 hours to get a full set of Pu-241 rods. Consider multiple reactors, if you can afford it.

If you're planning on going nuclear, plan ahead. You're going to need a lot of Aluminium, Lead and Uranium, as well as Platinum if you want the best output.

If you're just sick of Hydrogen power and have no interest in huge ships that draw 30,000 power, I have good news for you! You can simply reduce the number of rods at each stage in the process, and stretch a single pad of Uranium to power a ship for 38 Hours.

4x U-238 rods will get you 6,000 power with Platinum Turbines. Do this four times, and you'll have powered your ships for ~2.5 hours, and have 4 Pu-239 rods.

If you then use 2x Pu-239 rods at a time, that's two more runs of 6,000 power, lasting a total of 8 hours.

Finally, with the spent rods, you'll have a single Pu-241 rod at your disposal. You can either keep it, sell it, or use it in a reactor for a bonus 7,500 power for 40 hours!



Finally: Batteries. This is a personal choice, but it's quite likely that for the majority of your reactor's life, you're not going to be using all of it's output. I highly recommend that you invest in a ship with a large number of batteries to both store the excess power, and be able to discharge it fast enough to power your ship when the reactor runs dry.

Good luck, and have fun!