What would consume so much power from a nuclear power plant?

[DreamApart]

I wasn't chosen for the alpha test. Just curious.

In the original game solar plates seems almost enough for a whole base.

If you want luxuries, you can build an oil boiler or a regolith melter to support quite a few hydrogen rockets.

If a nuclear power plant isn't producing so much power it might be a shame as a nuclear one. What will or what do you imagine would eat so much power then?

[ZanthraSW]

Nuclear reactors are not always built for their power output. Some of the database entries suggest machines that may make practical use of the radioactivity in a directed manner similar to fluids and gasses. (A little like medical or research reactors in real life) That’s just my speculation based on the extra buildings in the database though.

[Sebastiangperez]

There is a particle accelerator that is in the GIF preview, maybe that will consume larges amount of energy. 

[SharraShimada]

Nuclear power is not just big power plants with cooling towers. Its also used with RTGs. Low power but constant output. While the material decays it generates heat, which can be transformed to electricity. Combined with an ion drive it could power a rocket for years.

[avc15]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoelectric_generator

Good for charging your car battery, or a small moon habitat.

Also a type of nuclear generator.

[babba]

"What would consume so much power from a nuclear power plant?" -> My base

As many reactors as possible, assembled by radiated dupes ! Forward ever, backward never !

[blash365]

Maybe you will need alot of power to get rid of atomic waste.

[Primalflower]

1 singular arcade machine building

[Sasza22]

Funnily enough the nuclear reactor is listed under refinement not power. It`s apparently supposed to process enriched uranium into radiation that will have other uses. The heat is a byproduct. A pretty useful one though. We could either use it for steam turbines or maybe try to melt stuff like regolith or abyssalite depending how high the temperatures go before the reactor itself melts.

[goboking]

It doesn't necessarily have to exist to power more and more demanding infrastructure.  It could be a case of letting us power what we've already got with less.  If a small(ish) nuclear power plant can provide enough electricity to run my colony, allowing me to shrink the footprint my current power setup occupies, then that's still a worthwhile addition, imho.

[Tsabo]

23 hours ago, DreamApart said:

If a nuclear power plant isn't producing so much power it might be a shame as a nuclear one. What will or what do you imagine would eat so much power then?

My hope is to use them for mining.

1. Dig huge 1-tile ladder shaft
2. Build nuclear reactor at the bottom
3. Turn off coolant
4. ???
5. LARGE HOLE IN ASTEROID

23 hours ago, DreamApart said:

In the original game solar plates seems almost enough for a whole base.

In the original game, solar power requires 9000 tonnes of steel for bunker doors and 3 PhDs in robominer arrangement and cooling. It is not realistically accessible for 99% of the playerbase.

[0xFADE]

5 hours ago, Tsabo said:

In the original game, solar power requires 9000 tonnes of steel for bunker doors and 3 PhDs in robominer arrangement and cooling. It is not realistically accessible for 99% of the playerbase.

Well said.  The true cost of solar in the core game is very high.

[kerosene]

What would consume so much power? A big enough laser to melt the entire colony at once.

[RonEmpire]

Could just be the end game requirement for building a rift. 

Simiar to base game you need liquid hyrogen and oxygen to be able to rocket into the rift. 

Or could just simply be fuel and power for rockets to allow it to stay in space and move around faster for many tiles before refuel.