Nuclear Power

Nuclear power is the strongest power source and the core of Epoch 5. A reactor heats Heat Pipes, Heat Exchangers turn that heat into steam, and Steam Turbines turn steam into electricity. It needs uranium, acid, water and care: a reactor that overheats explodes.

The chain at a glance

1. Mine Uranium Ore with Auto Drills fed with Sulfuric Acid.
2. Split it into U-235 and U-238 in the Uranium Golems Refinery.
3. Craft Uranium Fuel Cells.
4. Burn them in the Nuclear Reactor, carry the heat with Heat Pipes to Heat Exchangers, and feed their steam to Steam Turbines.
5. Reprocess the Depleted Fuel Cells in the refinery.

Uranium Ore

Uranium Ore Fields only give ore to an Auto Drill that gets 1 Sulfuric Acid per ore. The acid connection is the pipe stub on the right side of the drill, in the back row. Acid needs Reinforced Pipes (see Fluids); you make it in the Chemical Plant (see Oil Processing). The research Uranium Processing allows mining with acid. More on drills: Mining.

Uranium Golems Refinery

	Uranium Golems Refinery
Epoch	5
Unlocked by	Uranium Processing
Size	3 × 3
Energy	350 kW electric
Recipe	1 Golem + 100 Concrete + 50 Steel Plate + 100 Advanced Circuit + 100 Iron Gear

A Golem works this centrifuge; it stands in front of it. Two outputs, one per product.

Recipe	Unlocked by	Input	Output	Time
Uranium processing	Uranium Processing	100 Uranium Ore	9 U-238 + 1 U-235	120 s
Golem Resonance	Golem Resonance	3 U-238	1 U-235	60 s
Fuel reprocessing	Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing	5 Depleted Fuel Cell	3 U-238	60 s

Uranium Fuel Cell (Uranium Processing): 10 Iron Plate + 1 U-235 + 19 U-238 → 10 cells. Each cell holds 8 GJ, which lasts a reactor 200 seconds.

Buildings

	Nuclear Reactor	Heat Pipe	Heat Exchanger	Steam Turbine
Epoch	5	5	5	5
Unlocked by	Nuclear Power	Nuclear Power	Nuclear Power	Nuclear Power
Size	5 × 5	1 × 1	3 × 2	3 × 5
Energy	40 MW of heat	carries heat	10 MW of heat → steam, from 500 °C	up to 5.8 MW electric
Recipe	1 Trapped Outlander + 100 Concrete + 80 Steel Plate + 100 Copper Plate + 100 Advanced Circuit	10 Steel Plate + 20 Copper Plate	10 Steel Plate + 100 Copper Plate + 10 Pipe T3	50 Iron Gear + 50 Copper Plate + 20 Pipe T3

The research Nuclear Power also unlocks Reinforced Pipe T3.

Nuclear Reactor

• Has a fuel slot and an output slot, like a furnace. Fill it by hand or with Grabbers. A Trapped Outlander is part of its recipe.
• Burns one Uranium Fuel Cell at a time at full power, whether the heat is used or not. Unused heat is wasted, so feed it only as many cells as you need.
• Each spent cell becomes a Depleted Fuel Cell in the output slot (up to 50). If the output is full, the reactor loads no new cell.
• Heat connections sit on every side, on the three middle blocks.
• Neighbour bonus: every directly adjacent reactor that is also burning adds +100 % heat. Two reactors side by side make 80 MW each; four in a 2 × 2 block make 120 MW each. Fuel use stays the same.
• The model shows Warm from 150 °C and Hot from 500 °C. The highest temperature is 1000 °C.
• You can stop a reactor with the on signal of the signal network. A stopped reactor keeps the rest of its cell.

Heat Pipe and heat network

Heat Pipes connect on all four sides and take shapes like normal pipes. Reactors, Heat Pipes and Heat Exchangers that touch through their heat connections form one heat network with one shared temperature. Heat Pipes glow Warm and Hot like the reactor.

Heat Exchanger

• Works only when its heat network is at 500 °C or more.
• The heat connection is at the back in the middle. Water enters on the left and right, steam leaves at the front in the middle.
• At full load it turns about 333 water per second into 333 steam per second and cools the network by 10 MW.

Steam Turbine

Like the Steam Generator, but much stronger. Steam runs along its right side from back to front, so turbines can stand directly in a row. At full load it uses about 193 steam per second.

Ratios

Setup	Heat	Heat Exchangers	Steam Turbines	Water Pumps
1 reactor	40 MW	4	7	2
2 reactors side by side	160 MW	16	28	5
4 reactors (2 × 2)	480 MW	48	83	14

One Heat Exchanger feeds about 1.7 turbines; one Water Pump (1200/s) feeds 3 exchangers. Steam and water travel in normal pipes (see Fluids).

Overheating and explosions

• If the heat network of a burning reactor stays at 1000 °C for 60 seconds and no Heat Exchanger in it has water, the reactor explodes. As long as an exchanger has water, the reactor just stays hot.
• A burning or warm reactor that is destroyed (by enemies or a raid) explodes too.
• The blast has a radius of 12 blocks. It damages or destroys buildings around it, including those of other teams, and can set off neighbouring reactors. Players in the radius take heavy damage. The reactor's contents are lost. Everyone in the world gets a message with the position.
• If the world setting Radiation is on (off by default), the explosion leaves a radioactive zone with a radius of 18 blocks for 20 minutes. It hurts players inside every second. See World Settings.

Protect your reactors with walls and towers, see Defense.

Nuclear waste

Depleted Fuel Cells cannot be thrown away and no machine burns them. Store them, and reprocess them into U-238 in a Uranium Golems Refinery once you have Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing.

Uranium Cartridge

U-238 also makes the Uranium Cartridge (1 Steel Cartridge + 1 U-238, research Uranium Ammunition), the strongest ammunition for the Gun Tower and the Armored Car. See Weapons.

See also

• Power
• Fluids
• Golems
• Weapons
• Defense