All Master Class Blueprints are available on FactorioBin Overview and direct links to all Blueprints: nilaus.atlassian.net/l/cp/HBEUm524 (Pastebin links no longer work)

@onlyme0349

5 ай бұрын

You kinda let me down here with nuclear blueprints Nilaus, I can understand steam storage versions are bad but some people want their powerplant to shut off when they're not using the power, I was expecting you to dig into the challenge of creating the circuit logic since there are so few tutorials on it.

I took one look at nuclear power and thought "Nope! Sticking with my 264 boilers, 528 steam engines, 14 pumps, aannnddd lots of drills." But after seeing this, nuclear is much less ominous to think about! I appreciate your video a lot :)

@dragoneyr1632

Жыл бұрын

This. I never thought it'd be this easy. Everything that goes around with all side-techs and big size builds just distracts from this easy build

@rossjaffray6392

Жыл бұрын

@@dragoneyr1632 The The

@charm1173

Ай бұрын

Same for me! Really the only thing that is annoying to set up are the drills, because (for me at least) my mining drills are very far away from my dedicated power generation area😂 but yeah its so much easier to set up than I originally thought

Sacrificing the ratio slightly to make everything more organized is definitely something I hadn't considered, but boy does it result in a nice design. Love it.

I make a setup where I train off steam to different parts of my factory as power. Why? Because it is extremely satisfying.

@PanduPoluan

2 жыл бұрын

Steampunk Factorio? 😃

@bobi_lopataru

2 жыл бұрын

Yeah, I have an artillery outpost really really far away from my base, and I train off uranium ammo, artillery shells, and obviously, steam to it and it works really well!

@dylanb2990

6 ай бұрын

@@bobi_lopataruwhy not just run big power poles?

@onlyme0349

5 ай бұрын

@@dylanb2990 he doesn't have to run power poles just steam with the train track, I can understand that it does sound really satisfying

@thethubbedone

5 ай бұрын

Dude's out here carrying buckets of steam around 😂

This was my favourite Factorio Masterclass yet. I'm not a fan of tutorials that end up feeling prescriptive, showing designs and saying "use this blueprint" rather than talking through the underlying theory and tricks being used, encouraging the viewer to try out their own ideas. I really liked how this time you deep dived into the numbers and reasoning, and provided good insight for experienced players and those following the wider community trends. In my main factory, I put off building a nuclear power plant even with a high effective Kovorax processing system*, because the effort to design my own power plant with all the adjacency bonuses was too daunting compared to the ease of just letting my bots place another solar farm. Hopefully this tutorial will help future players feel less challenged by the switch to nuclear! * When you cover Kovorax processing, please show how no circuits are required. There's very simple circuitless setups, and you really don't need any of the complexity of circuits. The one I use is simple, tileable, beaconed and doesn't need any circuit logic, and ultimately far far too effective.

@JamesHounshell

4 жыл бұрын

My sentiments exactly. Thank you!

@allannielsen4752

4 жыл бұрын

Well said, I concur. Any chance you could share the setup you mention?

@AceTycho

4 жыл бұрын

Yes!

@korayizci.01

3 жыл бұрын

Hey, could u pls share ur own system's blueprint then it may come as passion for us?

@MrBritishNinja

3 жыл бұрын

Wait, why do you need beacons for nuclear power?

hello, here's my 2 cents : - while i'm 100% OK with dumping "perfect ratios" when they're not relevant, (so, most of the time :D) - in the 4 reactor design, i'm very surprised that you choose to use the maximum potential of offshore pumps which are so cheap and trash the excess nuclear reactor potential which is so expensive. I usually go like this : 4 reactors + 6 pumps -> 6*8 heat exchangers > 6*14 steam turbines. Too many pumps & steam turbines, but every bit of the reactors power is tapped (i get 480MW out of it instead of 464 MW) - doing maths makes people leave ? what ? that encouraged me to STAY 8) - i agree with most of the opinions of the second half... although nuclear power without kovarex relies on having enough space to store excess u-238, and that's more than 1 steel chest per hour PER REACTOR, even with prod modules... so should it be advised to beginners ?.. - nice video overall, well explained, well organized.

@DavidSchmitt

4 жыл бұрын

Oh, c'mon, after getting to blue science even a "beginner" should be able to stash the trash in a couple of boxes without hand holding, no?

@FDGuerin

4 жыл бұрын

kirkmcdonald.github.io/calc.html#data=0-17-60&rate=h&min=4&k=off&items=used-up-uranium-fuel-cell:f:1 According to this, fueling 1 reactor without kovarex yields an excess of 221 U-238 per hour, or 21.7 hours to fill a steel chest. That's plenty of time to tech up to kovarex and set it up.

@dangiogames7167

4 жыл бұрын

@@FDGuerin You're right. I did the maths myself last time and I don't know where I made the mistake.

@garath_

4 жыл бұрын

I should have read your comment before I built the reactor exactly as shown in the video--except that the water was a bit further away--and then spent a couple of hours trying to figure out why I couldn't get the full 464 MW of power. I noticed I was seeing 'Low Input Fluid' in several of my heat exchangers. It was easy enough to add a 5th offshore pump to make the design start showing the full 464 ME of power.

@monad_tcp

3 жыл бұрын

" 1 steel chest per hour PER REACTOR ", nothing a machine gun doesn't solve :)

Although this master class series tackles some concepts that are mostly useful for new players, I can honestly say I learned a ton from this one. Thanks very much mate, keep em coming!

You're right about the 2x2 going to a 2x3 reactor grid that it consumes just 50% more fuel, but your power output goes from 480MW to 800MW, almost doubling the power. So very much worth it to make such a design. I made a design which is almost a perfect mirror, it even includes roboports and has 1 belt going through the design which supplies the fuel and carries the spent fuel out as well without letting the input fuel passing through, it's stopped right after the reactors. And my design also lets you tile it perfectly in case you need more power. Both belts run parallel to the steam engines, one supplies the fresh fuel, the other gathers the spent fuel and they connect nicely. I may have to redesign it someday because my roboports aren't perfectly on-grid atm.

Here I was setting up my first nuclear reactor, scratching my head, when lo and behold! Just what I needed.

Just here to confirm that I've just built a 10GW nuclear power plant, with almost exact ratios, that works at peak capacity indefinitly as long as there is fuel (it really does work, its not those ones you find on the internet that works for a few minutes before running out on water). I did it only cause I wanted a very big one, not because its highly needed. Your points are tottally valid.

This reactor design produces 480MW(th) out of which 464MW(e) is used to produce electric power. A4W reactors on US Navy Nimitz-Class Aircraft carriers produce up to 550MW(th) each (1100MW total), of which only about 100MW is used for electricity production (wikipedia), the rest of the capacity is used for ship's propulsion, plus some extra capacity for safety margin and sustaining the aircraft carrier with one of the two reactors down for maintenance or recovery from a casualty. This design uses reactors that, unlike A4W reactors, operate at 100% capacity at all times. When operating A4W reactors, we typically maintain power as low as practical for the ship's operating conditions. Let's just say with both reactors running and normal day-to-day operations when in a mission area, they're typically operating at less than 50% each. The reason for using both reactors when one could carry the load demanded of both is to have operational flexibility if one reactor needs to go offline for maintenance or in response to a casualty. Factorio reactors also use fuel enriched to... exactly 5% (1/20 parts U-235, 19/20 parts U-238) whereas the enrichment of navy nuclear reactors is... I forget exactly but it's legit well over 90%. It may be 98-99% even. This allows navy nuclear reactors to load enough power-production capability to last a ship for literally decades. Someone with a lot more dedication than me could probably calculate the mass of U-235 consumed in 200 seconds to produce... well... actually, the fact that factorio reactors have this neighbor bonus thing kind of throws off the calculations. Why does a separate independent reactor adjacent to another reactor cause the fuel to produce more usable energy?

@ctrlaltdebug

Жыл бұрын

Maybe the neighbor bonus is modelling a larger combined reactor instead of many smaller adjacent ones. In a larger reactor core, the otherwise wasted neutrons could be used.

I can’t stress how happy I am you went into the math. I love having everything make sense and having a reason. Thank you so much!!!!

One touch I like to add to my nuclear reactors is to have the fuel creation, fuel reprocessing, and the inserters for the reactors all on an independent power grid run on a few solar panels and accumulators. If you make a mistake that results in a complete blackout, it can be a nightmare to get things started again without that.

@unitrader403

3 жыл бұрын

i usually tap off some heat from the end of the reactor rows, closer than any other heat exchanger and with an own water supply, plus backed up by a Boiler fed from a chest with some surplus burnables, and an Accumulator, both with a Global Alert if it ever gets discharged/used. This powers everything directly related to the reactor (Inserters, Combinator stuff, Pumps), and also the Uranium refinement Process. The Output Turbines are then on their own Grid(s), completely isolated from the reactor-internal Grid. (a few Turbines on the Edge might feed both Grids to allow for higher consumption on the internal Grid, but i think thats not necesary)

@Alphenis

3 жыл бұрын

Unlike coal power, you are extremely unlikely to brown out with nuclear power.

@88porpoise

3 жыл бұрын

I would say that applies to coal/solid fuel power much more so. If you screw something up and lose power, kickstarting nuclear reactors isn’t that big of a deal you should be able to just clear out a clog and then manually fuel the reactors and it should get going again long enough for you to find the issue and correct it. I just keep a buffer of nuclear fuel and uranium if I need to do so. If your large coal/solid fuel generation facility blacks out (say you accidentally redirect a main fuel belt) getting that going is a pain because you need to feed coal to dozens of reactors long enough to get fuel produced and to the boilers, which is why I like to have a fuel supply on its own circuit that needs relatively few boilers to maintain that can easily be fed manually or with a single chest.

I remember my first time playing factorio and i couldn´t (and didn´t want to) figure out the nuclear reactors, so i just stamped down a random blueprint from the internet. I think with that tutorial many new players can learn it fast, great tutorial! Wish you did this when I was new to factorio :D

Hi Nilaus, Hope you are doing well! I'm aware this video is a little old. But I just started with Factorio and I'm at the stage where I'm setting up nuclear power. This guide and your blueprints are just GOLD. Like Jesus, this helped me out SO MUCH!! A very big thanks for your help and effort, you Mr are GOLD!!

Thank you for making these!

Just got into factorio two weeks back and your videos have been such a great help! I really liked this video cause you explained your methodology. Keep the great work up!

Thanks so much. I have recent been introduced to Factorio and I loving it. Your video are very insight. Much appreciated.

A few remarks: You are using assembling machine 3. Those are not unlocked at blue science, but at purple science. With only blue science, you can only use 2 modules per machine (8% prod instead of 16%), reducing the amount of fuel you gain from an ore patch. It doesn't change significantly your conclusion, nuclear power is dirt cheap in fuel and should absolutely be rushed in the mid game (as soon as you can afford the enormous oneshot setup cost and you need the enormous power generation). Productivity 3 is completely overkill in general, unless you already have a massive base. They cost a massive amount of resources for very little gain. By the time you can afford to productivity 3 your nuclear setup, you most likely have Kovarex. Using steam storage is mostly there to "future proof" your design (so you don't have to come back before a while) and to protect your grid from overloading because of laser turrets. Tanks and combinators cost next to nothing when compared to the enormous cost of the nuclear plant itself, so frankly there is little reason to not do it. If you wonder about UPS, DON'T DO NUCLEAR AT ALL, do solar. Solar cost nothing in UPS, that's why all the megabases are using solar. Once you have nuclear power up and running, you should upgrade your armor piercing bullets to uranium bullets. It only cost you U238 (the useless one) and uranium bullets does 3x the damage. They will shred through any bitters. You can do the same thing for your tank shells. Don't bother with nuclear missile however, those are next to impossible to build before Kovarex.

Thank you for another excellent master class series. I really enjoyed your math and motivations on why anything larger than 2x2 plants are irrelevant. Your arguments that a decent sized uranium patch will essentially provide unlimited power is very convincing. The modular design of these nuclear power plants are beautiful and I will be sure to use them in my next Factorio playthrough!

apropos the steam storage; I use steam storage and 20-50% extra turbines, to handle peak variable power load from laser turret arrays. My resting factory load is like 1.2gw but when the wall's getting pushed that can peak at nearly 2gw so that extra capacity just being there ready to go is v v nice, and the turbines/steam storage aren't terribly expensive especially compared to battery banks.

@VoidplayLP

3 жыл бұрын

They are incredibly expensive in the Update calculation side of things though. Each pipe and steam engine needs to do their own calculations. Battery banks are the exact opposite in that no Matter how many you have, they will always need the same amount of updates. So if youre building really big or your PC sucks, use batteries and preferably solar over nuclear.

@Max-om7bk

3 жыл бұрын

@@VoidplayLP oh yeah, that's a thing. I'm about to set up a Ryzen based system next month so I'm not super worried about it but yeah, my mega base lags a bit.

@Alphenis

3 жыл бұрын

@@VoidplayLP If UPS is a concern, you shouldn't be using nuclear power at all. You should be using solar. Solar cost 0 UPS.

@VoidplayLP

3 жыл бұрын

@@Alphenis thats...what i Said.

@jonne7725

2 жыл бұрын

@@VoidplayLP advocating solar for any purpose other than remote radar outposts is stupid simply due to the footprint needed

argument for steam storage: unexpected power surges (or not looking at power consumtion) that enables you to put more steam turbines than the heat exchangers can usually handle thus allowing for a compact battery

Overall I like it. - Totally agree with your opinion on steam storage, waste of effort. - Not sure I agree with your conclusion on 2x2 layout vs infinitely tile-able, but you make a good case. - The only thing I really disagree with is capping your design on offshore pump capacity. I would increase to 2 pumps per row (for a total of 8), or do 3 pumps per 2 rows (for a total of 6), so the reactors are your cap. I agree that nuclear fuel is cheap, but so are pumps. - I definitely agree that you can run nuclear power for quite a while before requiring kovarex, just stashing 238 in a dozen steel chests for a while. - 28:20 maybe some people, but when you said math my ears perked up! Loving this master class series!

i cant believe i just watched a 40 minute video about factorio nuclear power plants... and i gotta say, not a single minute was not needed great vid thanks for the help

It's very cool to see that you actually don't need to do anything complex to support nuclear reactors, but part of the fun I get out of Factorio is optimizing every last thing down to the stuff that doesn't even need it

Your best yet, Nilaus! I especially appreciate the theoretical background. I see your point regarding the calculations, but frankly I also see it as a challenge to do it better... :)

Another great design that is very efficient in space and power. My nuclear is blueprint of choice until now has been the KOS nuclear plant. It is modular, but not nearly this compact. Thanks for the fresh look and design!

Great design, great video, great job. Thanks all those involved.

The whole time I'm watching this, I'm also watching my Kovarex run, just making a _little_ more 235 each time. It's... calming, I guess, lol.

Thank you so much man for this tutorial, I was having so much problems with my last nuclear setup and I was running from here to there trying solutions to patch them but when i think i had fixed one then another came up. This is a like and a new subcription

Great guide! It's really surprising how few miners and centrifuges are needed even without kovarex. I always start doing on-site uranium processing as soon as I unlock the research. I don't use modules, so I go by a 10 miners : 3 centrifuges ratio. I usually start with a 2 reactor build because its cheaper to build early on and satisfies my power needs for a long time, and just the 10 miners and 3 centrifuges is enough to support it indefinitely. The nice thing about having a tiny uranium processing build is that you can put efficiency modules in everything and never have to worry about biters. Sometimes I will use steam buffering for the 2-reactor setup because you only need a couple fluid tanks (maybe 10 or 20) and the wiring isn't too bad. For the 2x2 build though its definitely not worth it, especially after you get Kovarex.

I get it and I knew about the abundance of fision material since the first time I played the game (because I can read). I still don't like running my power plant at 1000°C.

But the kovarex isn't for needing less miners, it's for allowing you to have that one patch last LONGER so you don't have to constantly run around and find new ore patches for your fuel.

@williambarnes5023

3 жыл бұрын

Kovarex is for disposing of excess 238 automatically by turning it into 235. It's not about making patches last longer, it's about making damn near everything you dig up stop being useless dead weight.

@williamrutherford553

3 жыл бұрын

@@williambarnes5023 You're both talking about the same thing. When almost 100% of the patch is U-235 because of kovarex, it lasts longer. You aren't mining lots and lots of ore just to use 0.3% of it, you can use almost all 100%. The U-238 that used to take up space, and that makes up 99.7% of what you dig up, can all be made useful. Everything you dig up stops being useless dead weight... and thus you get the maximum amount of usable U-235 from every patch. Having 100% of the result be useful absolutely means a patch lasts longer, since you're using all of it instead of the vast majority being dead weight.

@achtsekundenfurz7876

3 жыл бұрын

I agree with your point but I'll set the numbers right: It's 99.3% (or 99.28% according to some sources), and slightly less if you module the centrifuge, so ~135:1, give or take 5. Kovarex needs a substantial working set (i.e. more than the stuff it actually converts) but the net conversion is 3 U238 to one U235. Not sure how a prod mod could change that, but anyway you should use them if you can afford the power and production speed hit. Anyway, first-hand U238 is converted to ~45 times as much U235 than the first-hand U235 you get, and Kovarex ain't random. Finally, second-hand U238 from spent fuel reprocessing can be turned into even more U235, but that doesn't increase the 45:1 figure for reactors - because a batch of fuel rods takes 10 U238 to make; you're merely reclaiming that from spent rods. (Not sure how a prod mod would change _THAT_ tho...) Anyway, I got here because the math looked off to me -- 1 _thousand_ ore per first-hand U235??? But that's right; the centrifuge takes a batch of 10 ore units per unit of U235. It's essentially more than just the centrifuge. It separates uranium from acid, tailings, and other impurities before separating the isotopes. So, one miner at 18 ore per minute makes 1.8 batches, and ~0.013 of those are U235. Which is enough to make 10 (or 11.6 with prod magic) times as many fuel rods, or ~0.15 of them. Each can run the reactor for 200 seconds, so you get ~30 seconds of reactor runtime out of a minute of mining operation; two would keep the reactor more or less supplied 24/7 while ore deposits last. Multiply that by 4 if you want to multiply the output of each reactor by 3, and you get the "8 mines" bottom line which Nilaus mentioned. (His treatment was a bit confusing because he didn't mention the ore shrinkage in the centrifuge, just that 0.7% (of the total output) is U235, and a bogus "18 per second" figure when he meant per minute. I hope my math is on point. I'm interpreting the "8 miners" figure as the requirement per plant of 4, rather than a figure per reactor block.)

@Danicker

3 жыл бұрын

I don't think Nilaus was suggesting that kovarex was useless, just that you don't need it straight away, and that you can implement it later

Thanks! I've just started Factorio, and I'm considering entering the nuclear age, I appreciate the beginner's tips as well as the more advanced guide.

Thanks for another great masterclass

Came here only for the blueprint for Nuclear Reactors. Ended up with abundant amount of knowledge. Every single video you've done, you never disappoint

@sakesaurus

11 ай бұрын

i started playing a week ago. I like the setup, and it adds up compared to my calculations

One thing I like to do is add steam storage tanks and wire the system to feed fuel cells only when the steam storage runs low. This way, I use the fuel cells efficiently.

@littlebuilder8132

9 ай бұрын

34:11

@beepbop6697

17 күн бұрын

​@@littlebuilder8132then just build 1x1 reactor (lone reactor) setups if you think uranium is so plentiful that you don't need to be efficient. I love Nilaus, but his argument here makes no sense. He is saying to build 2x2 for efficiency, but then don't build steam/circuits because uranium is plentiful so you don't need to care about efficiency. Can't have it both ways.

I really really enjoy these factorio master class videos thank you for all of these. I've only been playing for a few months and every time you upload one I learn a ton.

Hey Nilaus, this was a definite master class. Factorio graduate studies vs your 4 year first degree. Btw it is so cool when things like your uranium non-scarcity math appears on YT and I can remember being in the twitch stream when the calculation first happened ((: Bravo! EDIT: I’m SO used to seeing radial symmetry nuke plans designs in your playthroughs. My eyes almost can’t believe this version. That’s the real controversial opinion hehe

Funny, I grabbed the biggest uranium patch and put 177 miners on it and then had 52 centrifuges going. Once I watched and built this, I realize that is way overkill and there is no chance of my power plant ever running out of fuel, even if I duplicate it a lot. Thanks for the awesome info as usual!

There is a good way to measure the actual power produced with an "electric-energy-interface" (you have to create it from console). When you set it to consume power, it has the lowest priority, same as an accumulator. You'll be able to see on the charts how much power is going into it. This is nice because it not only reveals flow issues but also includes all the pumps or whatever you use to keep the reactors running.

Excellent design and it seems you came to lot of the same conclusions as I did when doing my nuclear setup (although I never did the miners per reactor calculation, that is kinda crazy). I also ended up with a 2x2 reactor setup (since you've got most of the neighbor bonus by then) and pulling water from one side without circuit controls or steam buffers. I sometimes add circuit control when I run these before unlocking kovarex but just adding a single storage tank is sufficient to monitor steam levels. Full steam storage is totally unnecessary. It is good to see such a useful design getting highlighted. Cheers!

The point about larger reactor setups (2x3 and larger) is only about uranium-saving is very helpful! Now I can use my 2x2 designs peacefully without worrying that I missed something by not going to 2x3

Your content is sincerely appreciated. After finally building the nuclear plant, I can relax my worries regarding power consumption. Phew!

This was awesome. I think I'll finally get into nuclear now haha

I just started generating power w/ reactors and turbines. The emperor would be proud of how many las turrets I have built.

Lemme put it this way, I LOVE this design. It’s aesthetically pleasing, works brilliantly and is easy to put down. Then a friend and I started playing with the Space Exploration mod, and this became INSANELY useful. That reactor blueprint is as vital and as much a useful a tool for us in that game as train stations are, we decided.

@shredthecable8883

2 жыл бұрын

I would cut the turbine area in half and put it on the lower side. Just to make it more symetrical

Thanks Nilaus, if I ever come back to factorio I will know for the future on how to do a nuclear set up. My first attempt at it worked but it wasn't perfect and for some reason I NEEDED steam storage for the damn thing to be stable production. Next time I'll use your design. Love your videos and designs bro!

I use steam storage with additional turbines as a means to store energy for turret spikes. I also setup an alert system so that once it is below a certain point(power use exceeds actual power production) I can go add another module to the power plant.

@jeanf6295

3 жыл бұрын

you can also use the steam storage to prevent over heating of your reactors : nuclear plants heat up to 1000°C no matter the consumption, any excess heat is wasted. If you setup things so that you only empty your reactors when steam storage goes bellow some level, and you only fill back when emptying, you will minimize fuel waste.

Neat design as always.

I need to pull the blueprint, but I spent around 20 hours one time a year or so back trying to design the perfect nuclear power system. the end system used 6/8 reactors, double heat pipes, tanks for water and steam but not for stream storage because there was exactly 0 fluid dynamics checks because everything was moved by pumps. the water came in through the middle, between the turbines and the reactors, and across the bottom. if you flipped the blueprint 180*, you could stick another one on the bottom and get a slightly higher bonus, and if you put them side-by-side they could share heat to speed up the initial heating process, and would share a mutual water input stream. the pumping system could handle just less than 3x8 reactor setups horizontally before it would start to have problems getting enough water into the heat exchangers at the back. the last heat pipe held a constant 525 degrees when the system was fully hot and fully utilized, which is why I chose to stick to 6/8 reactor systems. can't get the heat out far enough to need any more than that. I think that's the earliest hard stopping block. when I say 6/8 reactor setups, I mean 8 to start untill all steam tanks are full, then take the bottom 2 away to leave 6 which maintain enough output to get 1.2gw steady, but built with enough turbines to do just about double that because that's what the system should be able to handle since it's duty cycle is only about 50%. the best and only argument for steam storage is the day/night cycle and solar panels. Free(ish) power, and you definitely shouldn't need all of your reactors at full steam during the day if you aren't relying solely on them for your whole base's power. why not bank the rest of the steam for later? it's only a few tanks. pump in pump out and you won't have to worry about fluid dynamics checks. sure it's a bit bigger but, like, is your map size limited or something? just tack on a tank field connected by turbines to burn off the overflow in times of very high usage. obviously I used bots to deliver the fuel. I mean, who would even consider trying to belt that stuff in and out. lol :P (I kid) getting water in was always the problem, but can be overcome with proper placement and delivery techniques (pumps mostly) All in all, that's a great guide though. well thought out and reasoned and the design is great for a 'bases first nuke field' setup. the math may work out to being able to do about 1 reactor to 8 miners, but I'd like to see that actually work in practice. what would the power consumption of 8 miners and (I think) 8 centrifuges with 8% productivity modules be compared to the power output of a reactor? what's the real power profit there? or is that just another really roundabout way of banking solar power when you think about it?

@valseedian

2 жыл бұрын

@Tommy Taffy has been a long time since I was a factorio master, but, when I designed this fluid dynamics were far more rudimentary than they are today. at the same time, it's likely that pumps bypass the standard fluid dynamics that seek to balance population and flow between connected pipes and fluid containers. pumps move fluid from one vessel directly to another with no mind to balancing or viscosity. if you chain pumps, or pump->vessel->pump, once filled, will flow at pump speed throughout the system (minus any fluid used or forked in previous steps). fullstop. the gain in flow rate and fluid availability in deep systems is not negligible. try it for yourself.. chain pipes, underground, tanks... then do pump/tank/pump and see how much faster the end tank in the pumped system fills over any other layout.... then to prove it to yourself, in the middle of the pump setup, switch 3 pumps for 2 tanks and put 3 in a row in the middle of your loop, or connect with pipes instead, and see how just 1 fluid dynamics calculation substantially slows the rate the end tank fills. I'm going to dig up that blueprint... I'm sure I still have a vanilla world from 3 years ago with it built somewhere.

Thank you so much!

Wow, great job!

What an awesome guide. It saved my macaroni factory from constant blackouts.

I have two extremely efficient designs that "just work", a 2x2 and a 2x5, both of which fit nicely within Nilhaus' city block blueprints. They feature auto start/stop for power saving and peak power boost thanks to steam storage tanks, backup power for the pumps nearest to the water input (assuming you disconnect their wires), all without a single combinator or requiring any sort of tuning. The 2x2 has a max boost power of 500MW, and sustained 464MW of a possible 480MW, and the 2x5 has a max boost of 1.6GW, and 1.37GW sustained out of a possible 1.44GW, so they are highly efficient too. I tested them rigorously to ensure they do not suffer from any of the common pitfalls that Nilaus mentions in this video. You can of course remove the steam storage if you don't care about fuel efficiency or all those nifty features. They are available on the Factorio Forums here: forums.factorio.com/viewtopic.php?f=208&t=91639&p=521863

It is only tileable if we disregard water supply. If base needs several GW of power it gets real messy real quick. I prefer more spread thin design, it also allows for +3 adjacency even though it is not a big deal. Also, it would be excellent addition to show the design in action, to demonstrate that it is indeed producing at maximum capacity. Especially after what you have said about difficulty of designs with fluids.

Very nice explanation.

An interesting point is that even if you're committed to steam storage for your reactors, you probably only need to build your first reactor with steam storage. You'll be building a second reactor because you're about to exceed the capacity of the first one, so every other reactor you build can be running at full load without "wasting" power anyhow.

@midnite1112

6 ай бұрын

This is what i do, I rush nuclear to build a 2x2 reactor with removable steam storage, I use the steam storage function while my base is under 480MW and remove the tank section when i hit full load and paste down another 2x2 reactor when I need more power. I know wasting uranium isn't really a concern but i like the puzzle of it and like not wasting things.

Great stuff and thanks for the maths on miners-reactors. To support the 8 (or 6) miners per reactor, how many centrifuges and assembly machines are needed?

I haven't ran into any lag issues concerning nuclear power plants yet, and because of this I have developed my nuclear power very well. I designed a nuclear reactor that is actually tileable, and as long as ample water is provided takes full use of neighbor bonus. It consists of a base 2x7 reactor that then can be made into a 2xHoweverManyYouWant in a row. Only caveat is it must be built on top of a lake filled with landfills, since it would be near impossible to supply water with pipes. In my solo world, I was able to build it before I launched my first rocket, and each tile generates I believe 2.2 GW, which is amazing since you don't have to worry about power and if you do use more than that you just slap another tile one it. I have also developed a very efficient kovarex refining method that involves using circuit network signals to regulate exact proportions of u235 put into the centrifuges. It does require logistic bots, but if they are available to you you can easily convert thousands of 238 to 235 to be used for fuel or, my favorite use, spidertron with nukes. Of course, using this would leave you with very little 238 for uranium ammo, but if you use lots of laser turrets like me its not much of an issue. If its requested, I can post my blueprints for either, but I'm sure there are already tons out there. Also, my reactor design requires lotsss of landfill (it has to be built ON, literally ON TOP OF a lake) and isn't going to serve as a beginner reacter lol.

Just saw the episode on twitch. That was fast. Great.

Hi Nilaus, enjoyed the vid; one concern I have is the distance covered by the steam-pipe network--I'd wonder whether steam pressure is lost due to the long pipes?

I have about 70 hours into this game (rookie!) and did not touch nuclear yet. That might change soon! Thanks for explaining this so clearly!

EXCELLENT DESIGN, VERY EASY TO FOLLOW, THANK YOU!

@talswern

11 ай бұрын

Don't shout

@basketballbroson620

11 ай бұрын

@@talswern TYPING ISN'T SHOUTING LMAO

My first reactor is always a single reactor using steam storage. Then my second is a 2x1 or 2x2 depending how my supplies are. Then I deconstruct all of my reactors and build a 2x3. I'll try just sticking with 2x2 from now on. Thank you.

i have a 2x80 power plant for almost 20Gw. Tricky part is finding a perfect lake to build on it Thank for the fluid info, I will downsize a lot of storage.

Thank you!

I managed to build a 2 GW reactor (14 reactor cores) and got it working flawlessly. No steam problems, no heat problems, no water problems, ran at full capacity. I figured the efficiency would be nice, especially in the late game, but any more than 14 reactor cores and I start having issues that I can't resolve. The problem with a 2 GW reactor, as mentioned in the video, is that it's absolutely huge. I had like 5 of the damn things, best place I could find only fit 2 of them, the other 3 were just placed wherever I could find space. I think smaller builds probably would be better, despite being less efficient. I'm going to try building a compact 1 GW design for my next run.

yiu might not need koverax but if you don't have have it you have to store U238 somwhere. Also if you don't use koverax to feed your reactors it will take even longer to get the U235 you need to start koverax since now your also using up some of it to run your reactora

Steam storage and overbuilding turbines is good for dealing with surge demands (like a seriously oversized laser defense grid) Larger nuclear reactor setups save space overall. Start mining Uranium right away, save enough to start enrichment(not much honestly), then build your reactor fuel supply. When enrichment comes you can start right away and hit those milestones for nuclear weapons and nuclear fuel for your trains.

oh how i love these

Well done

I wish I had seen this video a month ago. I have a space exploration megabase krastorio 2 game going right now. On my main planet I ran out of all nearby uranium sources and had to start importing it from other planets because I actually did my Kovarex too much/fast/whatever and completely drained all of my bad uranium. I had this huge panic when I saw my nuclear fuel generation had hit zero and it wouldn't restart because I didn't have all the needed materials. Thankfully, I had stockpiled centuries worth of fuel to keep the base defense lasers going long enough to start getting cargo rockets of uranium sent back home. TL;DR - Thanks for the math at the end, super cool stuff I wish I had known forever ago.

“You don’t need a lot of uranium” Me after searching for uranium for an hour: 👁👄👁

amazing!

I actually sitted trough this whole video. This was one of the best masterclass videos yet. More of these!

@DFPercush

4 жыл бұрын

Grammar police: You *_sat_* through. But yeah I'm really glad he did this one, one of the most useful topics so far.

Nice blueprint thx

I'm struggling to bring enough water from my distant offshore pumps because pipes really limit fluid flow. So I need some tanks and electric pumps to supply throughput. I couldn't find a good recent discussion on factorio fluid mechanics. I'm wondering why 1 electric pump with in-game listed 12000 units per second can't push more than 1200 units per second of fluid through a water pipeline supplied by 10 or more offshore pumps at 1200 units per second of water each.

DL the badass BPs if you don't feel like doing it yourself. There's a 2.6 G All circuited up and it works perfect. So yeah, figure out your own designs but once you go big don't bother, it's already been figured for you, unless you just like that kind of challenge. Very instructive video for me. Thanks for making the video.

Thanks!

great man

Hmm, this is interesting. I didn't know *just* how abundant uranium was, though I was aware it was ridiculously abundant. I enjoy designing and have made some ridiculously large power plants. I've done a 2x16 model and I think it's the best way to learn about water and flow mechanics. The amount of pumps just to increase flow for the water I had to use was staggering and the steam required a lot of attention too. I've ended up with hundreds of thousands of Uranium, both shiny and dark, and I guess I never really thought about it beyond knowing that between steam storage as batteries and efficiency from the amount of reactors I was using that I was cutting down on my uranium consumption significantly. I'll probably keep doing that. Definitely once I get to the point where I need more than 4 reactors, the design problems involved with nuclear is very entertaining :D.

thanks man

"if you are not an absolute master in designing these, don't do it, its not worth it" Its a designing game, you design something and work out to increase its efficiency.

@Danicker

3 жыл бұрын

Yea, and how are you supposed to become a master without trying?

@strategicsage7694

2 жыл бұрын

Well, I think it depends on what your goals are. Some people like to make the larger setups just to do it and because they enjoy the design process; others are more practically oriented, so beyond a certain point if it doesn't actually further benefit the functionality of the factory it isn't worth doing.

@kitsukeita

2 жыл бұрын

@@strategicsage7694 If you do not understand how a setup/blueprint design works; you shouldn't use it. Thats almost all the fun of this game. I don't know a single person who enjoys factorio just by copy pasting some blueprints off the internet and launching a rocket.

@strategicsage7694

2 жыл бұрын

@@kitsukeita Where do you draw these people you know who play factorio from? That's certain not what I observe. I see a lot of channels where the biggest request is for the blueprint downloads. A number of people specifically say it's because they can't be bothered to make their own designs and/or just want to get past whatever aspect is causing them trouble. People play Factorio for a lot of different reasons, but there's definitely a sizable group of people who are more interested in the solution (blueprint) than the understanding of it or the design process.

@kitsukeita

2 жыл бұрын

​@@strategicsage7694 People might ask for blueprints for various reasons, maybe they want to assimilate it in their own design or they want to further improve it or they just like it more than their own design; but if you do not understand what the blueprint is supposed to be doing & how, i see no point in playing; might as well copy those small starter base prints from the internet(meant for advancing faster in modded games), hand craft the components/buildings, launch the rocket and call it a day. My data of people comes from my steam friends/factorio steam groups/Bobs,Py + some other mod discord channels.

so cool!

I went with a circuit and steam storage design because otherwise of dozens nuclear power plants would have been sitting at 1000 c degree all the time (maximum capacity) and still consume fuels. All other energy demands are fulfilled by solar arrays during the day. Would you rather have fuel cells be consumed all the time? Or occasionally be turned off? It is kind of like having regular boiler consume coal/tree/etc... all the time. Lot of wastage from not utilizing all of the boiler output (1.8 MW) and miniscule power to move items.

Reminder to disable snap to grid on the reactor builds. They don't play nice if your blocks are aligned to the rails, but not to the very specific grid used to make it.

My entire factory consumed less power than a single reactor outputs (b/c solar) but I wanted better efficiency so built a 2x2 reactor anyway. No way in hell am I wasting all that fuel running full time. Definitely worth the circuit effort... though I needed to make a T-flop train circuit to keep accumulators charging on only solar. That part was a mess lol

I happen to be a very inefficient player, so my factory backs up a lot and fluctuates heavily in consumption. Steam storage always felt right to me as they are essentially “better accumulators” but the performance argument makes sense. Exchangers produce slightly more fluid than the turbines can use which ensures the pipes are always filled. I tend to just go for “max efficiency/perfect rate matching “ when the better idea is to just overbuild everything as nothing is really wasted in this game

If you use circuits to conserve fuel you would need to set the inserter to operate at 6000 steam at full output on a 4 turbine setup the heat exchangers would be at temp as the steam starts to run out.

Really great with the calculations of miners needed, and as a result of that, there is no need for more than 2*2 designs. Hope there will come a blueprint for Kovarex at a point too.

The twitch chat was .. wow, yep. I wont bother checking anything else you yours build! Great job, team. -Sean.

Who was hoping the thing would blow up when Nilaus said he had never seen it before :) and you should add accumulators as well to store any excess energy since it was built to run constantly in this form. That would make it more viable and unlike steam storage this would allow it to run without losing any energy overflow.

@Amokra

2 жыл бұрын

@Tommy Taffy Ah ok still 20 loss is better than 100 :)

i'm having a problem where some of the boilers on the 4 reactor design is at 500c but it isn't producing steam

I'm not sure if that's what the nuclear fuel recipe has always been but I swear I remember one of the main reasons you needed Kovarex was because of the sheer amount of U-238 that you'd have to store which was why so many people wanted an incinerator of some sort for the game.

@winkbrace

4 жыл бұрын

Ah, I always wondered why he invented that.. It would make sense exactly in the situation that you describe. And it would also explain why we always have way too much uranium patches by default.

@memesiclekickflip

6 ай бұрын

the dlc expansion has a recycler, from what i understand it cant un-refine raw intermediates so it should return 25% of the u-238 thrown in

So If we don't nerd kovarex to have a good suply of 235, what do you do with the 238 that wont be used??

I just put some tanks for the steam down and oversize the turbines with like 25% overhead if i run single nuclear systems that stand alone with solar. If i have peak demands it wil draw from the tanks but they will always be topped off when demand lowers. Its a safeguard for me that when i do a expansion that is energy intensive i don't make the mistake of using more energy than a single nuclear system can deliver. It gives me some time before i can upgrade.

What do you do with the thousands of U-238 ? I save them until i have rushed kovarex so i never need to mine uranium ever again :D the longer you run without kovarex,the more tens of thousands of worthless 238 you aquire... Love the videos by the way!

I don't always have abundant shoreline. Will it have fluid and heat delivery problem if you build it as narrow as possible? Just in case you've done the research already and have all numbers ready. It could make a "more tileable" design than this without losing the general idea. Also bots make sense in that no excess fuel cells are just laying on the belts.

You rock N! This is what i needed to reacquaint myself with nuclear. stopped playing for awhile after 0.12 and wanted to refresh after 1.0 and all of this free time. you are excellent at explaining.. gotta say the statement '1 fuel to 200 reactors' is a nonsense statement but it sure is attention grabbing :) I've noticed in the past that there isn't any point in steam storage - except the challenge *grin*