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Codex Energy Fuel Cycle
A Fission Reactor burns Uranium Fuel Rods. This page follows the uranium from the ore to the rod, through the reactor and back: reprocessing recovers part of a spent rod, and what is left is nuclear waste.
-
Ore: mine
Uranium Ore (deep in the overworld, from Y -48 to Y 32) and get 
Raw Uranium. -
Dust: the Crusher turns one Raw Uranium into two
Uranium Dust. -
Yellowcake: the
Chemical Reactor turns one Uranium Dust and water into one 
Yellowcake. -
Enrichment: the Centrifuge Cascade turns 4 Yellowcake into one
Enriched Uranium and the rest into 
Depleted Uranium. -
Pellets and rods: the Fuel Fabricator presses Enriched Uranium into
Uranium Fuel Pellets and fills them into 
Empty Fuel Rods. -
Reactor: a Uranium Fuel Rod burns in a Fuel Assembly and comes out as a
Depleted Fuel Rod. -
Reprocessing: the
Chemical Plant splits a Depleted Fuel Rod into an Empty Fuel Rod, pellets and 
Nuclear Waste.
These two steps run in ordinary machines; their recipes show in the recipe viewer (JEI, REI or EMI) and on the pages of the machines. One ore gives two dusts and so two Yellowcake.
The Centrifuge Cascade enriches in batches:
- 4 Yellowcake and 2,400 units of separative work give one Enriched Uranium and three Depleted Uranium.
- When there is no Yellowcake, the cascade re-enriches its tails: 6 Depleted Uranium and 4,800 units of separative work give one more Enriched Uranium.
Tip
Nothing is thrown away Feed the Depleted Uranium back into the cascade. Over time four Yellowcake give one and a half Enriched Uranium instead of one.
A single machine with two input slots, one output slot and an energy buffer. It takes energy on every side and knows two recipes:
| Inputs | Product | Time | Energy |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Enriched Uranium | 4 Uranium Fuel Pellets | 5 seconds | 40 E per tick |
| 4 Uranium Fuel Pellets + 1 Empty Fuel Rod | 1 Uranium Fuel Rod | 10 seconds | 40 E per tick |
- A run takes its inputs at the start and waits with the product while the output slot has no room for it.
- With too little energy for the next tick the run pauses and keeps its progress.
- Pipes can put inputs in from every side (only items of these two recipes) and take the product out of the output slot.
- The screen shows the energy bar and the progress in ticks.
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| Anvil | Crafter | Anvil | → Fuel Fabricator |
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Empty Fuel Rods are crafted from structural steel and glass:
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| Glass | → Empty Fuel Rod |
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Important
Pellets come out, then go back in Both recipes share the one output slot. The pellets of the first recipe land there and must go back into an input slot, next to the Empty Fuel Rods. While pellets fill the output, no fuel rod can be finished: take them out, or pipe them back in.
- Every Uranium Fuel Rod gives 10,000,000 HU of heat, divided by
volt.fuelConsumptionMultiplier(default 1.0, allowed 0.01–100.0). - A rod leaves the core as a Depleted Fuel Rod when its share of the fuel is burned.
- A failed reactor destroys all loaded fuel: no Depleted Fuel Rods come back from a meltdown.
The Chemical Plant reprocesses Depleted Fuel Rods with Nitric Acid:
| In | Out | E/t | Ticks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 mB Nitrogen, 6000 mB Hydrogen | 4000 mB Ammonia | 8000 | 200 |
| 1000 mB Plant Oil | 200 mB Ethanol, 600 mB Ethylene | 6000 | 200 |
| Depleted Fuel Rod, 500 mB Nitric Acid | Empty Fuel Rod, 2 × Uranium Fuel Pellet, Nuclear Waste | 6000 | 400 |
Every Depleted Fuel Rod gives back its Empty Fuel Rod, two pellets (half a new rod) and one Nuclear Waste.
Nuclear Waste has no further use; store it safely.
- Carried waste radiates. Every piece in a player's inventory deals 0.05 damage per second, added up over all pieces (at most 8). Below 0.25 per second nothing happens, so a few pieces are harmless.
- The radiation suit protects: every worn piece takes a quarter of it.
- Mobs that hold waste in their hands are hurt the same way (looked at within 16 blocks of a player).
- Waste in a chest, barrel or any other container does nothing.
- A held
Geiger Counter shows the waste you carry.
Warning
Do not stockpile it in your inventory
Twenty pieces already deal one damage (half a heart) per second at the default radiation.strengthScale (default 1.0, allowed 0.0–4.0). Put waste into a container as soon as it comes out of the Chemical Plant, best by pipe.
| Step | In | Out |
|---|---|---|
| Crusher | 1 Raw Uranium | 2 Uranium Dust |
| Chemical Reactor | 1 Uranium Dust | 1 Yellowcake |
| Centrifuge Cascade | 4 Yellowcake | 1 Enriched Uranium + 3 Depleted Uranium |
| Centrifuge Cascade (tails) | 6 Depleted Uranium | 1 Enriched Uranium |
| Fuel Fabricator | 1 Enriched Uranium | 4 pellets |
| Fuel Fabricator | 4 pellets + 1 Empty Fuel Rod | 1 Uranium Fuel Rod |
| Chemical Plant | 1 Depleted Fuel Rod | 1 Empty Fuel Rod + 2 pellets + 1 Nuclear Waste |
So one Enriched Uranium makes one fresh rod, and every spent rod brings half a rod back.