Is nuclear reactor too weak?

[Gregy]

I build a nuclear power plant, using the reactor and 4 steam turbines, that are cooled with one termoacuqter. The problem I encountered is that the termoacquater is not enough to cool down these 4 steam turbines until they are too hot to operate.

It means, that in order to cool down these turbines, I would need 2 termoacquaters, and this would consume as much power as these 4 turbines are able to produce.

It does not make sense to me. I dont' know how to build this nuclear reactor in a way that would give me more power than I consume to cool it down.

Do I suck or it's really no point of producing energy in such a way?

[chemie]

to automation to turn off reactor if the steam room goes above 200C

[Electroely]

34 minutes ago, Gregy said:

I build a nuclear power plant, using the reactor and 4 steam turbines, that are cooled with one termoacuqter. The problem I encountered is that the termoacquater is not enough to cool down these 4 steam turbines until they are too hot to operate.

It means, that in order to cool down these turbines, I would need 2 termoacquaters, and this would consume as much power as these 4 turbines are able to produce.

Are you using petroleum in your aquatuners? I would recommend polluted water or super-coolant instead.

The efficiency of the aquatuner depends on the Specific Heat Capacity of the coolant used (someone correct me if I'm wrong). Petroleum doesn't have a very high SHC, so it's much less efficient than, say, polluted water for example, which I believe makes good coolant despite its relatively low thermal conductivity. Nuclear waste and Super-Coolant both make great coolers, but nuclear waste might be a little tricky to work with.

[SixbySix]

Use engineer tune up on the turbines.... it makes a big difference in output.

 

-6x6

[MiniDeathStar]

You can also block some of the inlets of the steam turbines. This allows them to still produce full power without overheating if the steam is over 200 ℃. The wiki page for the steam turbine has a table that tells you exactly how many inlets do you need at certain temperatures. https://oxygennotincluded.fandom.com/wiki/Steam_Turbine

So you can either put more turbines with blocked inlets and generate a few thousand watts, or you can control the temperature of the steam so the turbines don't overheat.

[suicide commando]

Steam from the nuclear reactor is around 400 degrees, so in order to properly use it, you have to either mix it with colder water/steam and/or close of some of the turbine's ports so it can handle higher temp steam. In addition, you will also have to add more steam turbines, as the reactor produces enough heat to feed them all. If done properly, I believe you can easily feed 8 steam turbines off of one nuclear reactor.

[babba]

45 minutes ago, MiniDeathStar said:

You can also block some of the inlets of the steam turbines. This allows them to still produce full power without overheating if the steam is over 200 ℃. The wiki page for the steam turbine has a table that tells you exactly how many inlets do you need at certain temperatures. https://oxygennotincluded.fandom.com/wiki/Steam_Turbine

So you can either put more turbines with blocked inlets and generate a few thousand watts, or you can control the temperature of the steam so the turbines don't overheat.

Great idea with the inlets

[Gregy]

Great stuff, thanks guys, it makes sense now (although it's not very intuitive).

[Tsabo]

11 hours ago, Electroely said:

The efficiency of the aquatuner depends on the Specific Heat Capacity of the coolant used (someone correct me if I'm wrong). Petroleum doesn't have a very high SHC, so it's much less efficient than, say, polluted water for example, which I believe makes good coolant despite its relatively low thermal conductivity.

You asked for a correction if you're wrong, and you're not wrong, but I still want to give an elaboration of how you're right because this is a very important point to emphasise to OP (ironically it won't solve his current problem, which is having too much localised heat energy, but it will solve a lot of problems for any form of steam generation other than nuclear power).

TO WIT: Aquatuners cool down any packet passing through them by a flat 14 degrees for the cost of 1200W; the heat energy is transferred to the aquatuner itself. This has a number of very important subtleties.

1. You really really really want full 10kg packets in your pipe. If you pass it ten 1kg packets, you end up with 10kg of cooled water, but at a cost of 10 times as much power as passing one 10kg packet. (Although OP seems to have done this right)
2. Specific heat capacity of the liquid is king here. Because the aquatuner takes out a flat 14 degrees, not a flat amount of energy, liquids with a higher specific heat capacity get more energy removed from them for the same 1200W. Petroleum has a specific heat capacity of 1.76. Water and polluted water has a specific heat capacity of 4.18. So when you use water /p.water as your coolant, you get more than double the amount of "cooling" for the same wattage cost.

So as a rule, when operating a normal base cooling loop with a normal steam box for cooling purposes, you always want to use water / p.water as your coolant - you'll be able to suck double the amount of heat out of your steam turbines with a water coolant.

So that's one thing OP should do. The other thing OP should do is just build more steam turbines. Each steam turbine deletes heat by turning it into electricity, so the more steam turbines you have, (A) the less cooling you need because the more heat is deleted, and (B) the more cooling you can do because you can always just pipe the additional electricity into that second aquatuner.

[SamLogan]

You're setup is not optimized, here's some examples :

 

 

Second thing you have to keep in mind, it's a "research reactor" not a nuclear central so it purpose is not to produce energy but certainly for futher usage will be implemented later as mutation system.

Quote

Research reactors are nuclear reactors that serve primarily as a neutron source. They are also called non-power reactors, in contrast to power reactors that are used for electricity production, heat generation, or maritime propulsion.

It's like complaining about the steam turbine's lack of electrical productivity. Its primary role is to manage an enormous amount of heat, and not to produce a lot of electricity.

 

 

1575209463_Racteurvapeurpressurise14500W.pdf

[GreezyHammer]

I really think Klei needs to update the Reactor to add Molten Salt and Molten Lead as coolants with output temperature of 1000 C.

And we can move steam to a secondary loop via a heat exchanger.

Boiling water reactors were great in the 60's, but I feel like not including Molten Salt sends the wrong message about future of nuclear.

Thoughts?

[silentdeth]

Also, you are using normal pipes for the water from the turbine. This is bleeding heat into the turbine coolant. Ideally, you do not want to run the pipes through the coolant fluid, but above it and around in a vacuum. The liquid reservoir also bleeds heat into the tiles under them. Finally, steam turbines produce heat based on how much heat is being deleted (plus a constant 4 kDTU/s). Thus, if you are using a single turbine with steam at 400C and all vents unblocked, you are producing the about same amount of heat as 3 turbines running with steam at 200C.

[goboking]

6 hours ago, GreezyHammer said:

Boiling water reactors were great in the 60's, but I feel like not including Molten Salt sends the wrong message about future of nuclear.

I doubt whatever message this game is sending about nuclear power is going to negatively impact the world in any way.

[JRup]

8 hours ago, GreezyHammer said:

Boiling water reactors were great in the 60's, but I feel like not including Molten Salt sends the wrong message about future of nuclear.

Thoughts?

Ironically enough, there are no date reference points in the lore.

Spoiler

For all I know, some secretary's brain will get stuck in a potato soon.

Eh, wrong game. Dismiss that.

[gabberworld]

best part about this reactor is when it blows up, either by you run out off water or over pressure

if talk about cooling then 1 aquatuner should able cool down the 10 steam turbines with Nuclear waste.

[Rainbowdesign]

Using pertrolium in an aquatuner is a great sin while it has really cool propertys like the evaperation point the aquatuner also only cools it half as much as it cools Water and a quarter of super coolant (in terms of actual heat removed)

[gabberworld]

12 minutes ago, Rainbowdesign said:

Using pertrolium in an aquatuner is a great sin while it has really cool propertys like the evaperation point the aquatuner also only cools it half as much as it cools Water and a quarter of super coolant (in terms of actual heat removed)

every liquid have own + and - , just need use them right places

[gabberworld]

this is my test reactor with only 1 aquatuner, i keep bottom part near 200c , this way its able use only 1 aquatuner for cool down 10 steam turbines