Factorio Forums

With the eventual nuclear power coming up in 0.14, I realize that currently there is no material that is viable to be a reactor coolant besides water, and water is boring. However, I'm already a bit sad that we have to have uranium ore that can't be used until what is most likely post-oil tier but still takes up quite a bit of the area nonetheless. Adding a second ore that also would be useless until endgame would just be annoying. What I came up with also solves a few current problems that have been getting on my nerves as well.

= ?

There is no toxic material in a poison capsule. At least, one that isn't known for being poisonous. I'm sure munching on coal would be a terrible idea, but at the same time it doesn't really work.



It bugs me that processing units are available at the same time as advanced circuits. Like, as soon as you get oil you can get both. There needs to be a clearer tier jump between the two circuits.

So I'm gonna solve all this with the introduction of a new material... Lead!

(textures are by someone named R3CONN3R. I don't know if he is on the forum, but he is on Discord)

We have no real info on how reactors are being implemented minus the fact that it'll all be realistic, and because of that I expect there to be some sort of nuclear waste processing system. Lead would be the product of this. It will be converted into Molten Lead somehow, which will be a possible reactor coolant. Not much to say about the stats of the coolant as I again do not know how Factorio reactors are going to work. This will also be used in poison capsules instead of coal, and processing units in addition to the current ingredients. And while we're at it, let's make an advanced type of ammo magazine & shotgun shell using lead plates, as bullets are typically made of lead.

What do you guys think?

Added to viewtopic.php?f=80&t=189 Lead: Reactor coolant, bullets and processing units!

For molten metals, I'd love "open pipes" so you see the glowing molten metal flow down the U-shaped channels to their destination.

aubergine18 wrote:For molten metals, I'd love "open pipes" so you see the glowing molten metal flow down the U-shaped channels to their destination.

That'd be really cool, but I don't think it's needed in any way besides looking cool. Sorry.

So by saying "lead will be subproduct of nuclear reaction" you are actually forcing player to use nuclear reactors as a lead producers, which is a very bad thing and should not happen. You will need the power plant to produce not power but some material, that is just not right.

afk2minute wrote:So by saying "lead will be subproduct of nuclear reaction" you are actually forcing player to use nuclear reactors as a lead producers, which is a very bad thing and should not happen. You will need the power plant to produce not power but some material, that is just not right.

So by saying "plastic will be the product of oil refinement" you are actually forcing players to use an oil refinery to produce plastic, which is a very bad thing and should not happen. You will need the refinery to produce not power but some material, that is just not right.

I don't think nuclear should only be about power. Power is nice, but we have a whole new tier of materials on our hands and if that's just about power it's a wasted opportunity.

Fortanono wrote:

afk2minute wrote:So by saying "lead will be subproduct of nuclear reaction" you are actually forcing player to use nuclear reactors as a lead producers, which is a very bad thing and should not happen. You will need the power plant to produce not power but some material, that is just not right.

So by saying "plastic will be the product of oil refinement" you are actually forcing players to use an oil refinery to produce plastic, which is a very bad thing and should not happen. You will need the refinery to produce not power but some material, that is just not right.

I don't think nuclear should only be about power. Power is nice, but we have a whole new tier of materials on our hands and if that's just about power it's a wasted opportunity.

Oil refinement is in a "resource" tab, thats the other thing.
Bad and very incorrect logic\example.

afk2minute wrote:

Fortanono wrote:

afk2minute wrote:So by saying "lead will be subproduct of nuclear reaction" you are actually forcing player to use nuclear reactors as a lead producers, which is a very bad thing and should not happen. You will need the power plant to produce not power but some material, that is just not right.

So by saying "plastic will be the product of oil refinement" you are actually forcing players to use an oil refinery to produce plastic, which is a very bad thing and should not happen. You will need the refinery to produce not power but some material, that is just not right.

I don't think nuclear should only be about power. Power is nice, but we have a whole new tier of materials on our hands and if that's just about power it's a wasted opportunity.

Oil refinement is in a "resource" tab, thats the other thing.
Bad and very incorrect logic\example.

Can I just say that we have NO IDEA how nuclear is going to work? It doesn't have to just be about power.

But i open the "0.15 + 0.16 roadmap" thread and see that its called "nuclear power" not "nuclear industry", so sorry i have to think the most logic way that its power only, atleast for the nearest patch.

Btw, have you any real world data what is percentage of lead that humanity gets from ores and from reactors?

afk2minute wrote:But i open the "0.15 + 0.16 roadmap" thread and see that its called "nuclear power" not "nuclear industry", so sorry i have to think the most logic way that its power only, atleast for the nearest patch.

Btw, have you any real world data what is percentage of lead that humanity gets from ores and from reactors?

I don't think they do, but it kinda makes sense even if uranium to lead takes years in reality. And yeah, I agree on it currently just being power, but it's in the planning phases and I wanna change those ideas before they come out.

Decay chain from uranium to lead takes billions of years. Of course the game should be balanced for gaming but I think that there should be some relation to real world in this kind of game.

Your idea that you could make something useful from nuclear waste is good. However, I suggest that instead of lead it would give radionuclides. Radionuclides could be used for satellites and radiothermal generators, which would be maintenance free electricity sources with relatively low output and large but finite lifetime (several hours) with exponential decay. They could be used to power distant mining outposts but too weak to be practical energy source for production facilities or laser defences. RTGs could also replace the portable fusion reactor, which is quite strange out of place artifact in my opinion..

Maybe there could be a new science potion too, which would use radionuclides. Or it could be combined with alien artifacts in the purple science and it would be moved to later researches. If you do not want to use nuclear energy you could build a small research reactor to produce radionuclides from uranium.

Ya, once you split the atom, it isn't going to decay to lead anymore, it is going to something lighter. Typical 2 reactants are krypton and barium....will decay some from there, but way below atomic mass of lead. You just aren't going to get lead from a fission reactor in much quantity, at all. There are lead cooled reactors, but that isn't the same thing, in that case you are using the lead rather than producing it.

As to making other stuff out of it, that does sound interesting. The already existing nuclear mod makes you get purple science out of reprocessed spent fuel (which gives you plutonium and you turn that to purple science). It works pretty well, spare in the mod you get access to way to much plutonium, never have to kill a single alien again!

Yes guys, it's definitely not realistic, but one of the main ideas is having something beyond water for reactor coolant without having a secondary ore. The idea progressed from there.