[0.11.x] Uranium Power

[Fatmice]

I'll look at the chemistry and see but it is possible to recover the fluorine as HF. Of course recovery is not 100 % , but it should allow reuse of most of the fluorite starting material

[tomcat]

after some reading it seems hydrogen fluoride is produced from fluorite by application of sulfuric acid (hinthint)

and to make pure fluorine from hydrogen fluoride you electrolyze it with potassium fluoride as a "catalyst" I'm assuming the potassium in the electrolysis vat isn't used up in any major proportion so you could just do a chain as such:

fluorite + sulfuric acid = hydrogen flouride,
hydrogen fluoride + coal (carbon electrode thats eaten up during electrolysis) = fluorine
fluorine + yellowcake = uranium hexafluoride
(insert uranium enrichment here)
enriched + depleted hexafluoride > uranium oxide + less hydrogen fluoride than used originally

hydrogen fluoride is stored and recycled back to fluorine to be used for reprocessing or enrichment of more mined uranium

[Fatmice]

The schema for the steps prior to fuel fabrication is fine I think. While the the mod is based on real chemistry, there must be some simplification to reduce recipe complexities. So I will incorporate a reduction step to convert UF6 -> UO2 + HF. This will allow this schema to recycle HF.

(Stoichiometry is ignored)
Yellowcake + HF -> UF6
UF6 -> Enrichment process
Enriched UF6 + H2O(steam) + H2 -> Enriched UO2 + HF (recovery 95%)

This will require the introduction of two new fluids, namely H2, steam, and one more building.

Hydrogen gas take from coal gasification (dirty process)
H2 + coal + steam -> H2 + pollution

Steam will be made from water in an assembler-prototype (consumes fuel). Note this is wet steam and not the dry steam made in the steam generator, a separate building for the reactor complex. The dry steam is also of a higher temperature.

I'm still thinking about reprocessing schema, but HF should be recoverable there in a similar fashion. Thanks for bringing the HF issue to my attention.

[mrtux]

I really like the mod
Took me a while to get a nice layout for the enrichment process, but that's what Factorio is about!

The heat exchanger never really came to use – but that may be due to Dytech providing pipes with vast capacity. I never came to the point where one pipe could not fully utilise the plant. Frankly, I had to look at other games to see that the layout with two loops is feasible.

In this thread I read about ideas to extend the mod, but there is nothing on github. Are those still only ideas? I have been thinking about making a nice blender model for the heat exchange.


One last question: There also seem to be plans for nuclear power in Dytech – will the mods still work together?

[Fatmice]

I'm glad you're enjoying the mod. The heat exchanger is an alternative where fluid carrying heat is conserved. The aim of course is to allow two closed loops like how the real nuclear reactor cools itself.

If you're not aware, I'm the developer and maintainer of this mod now and keep my own github for this. See my signature for details.

The ideas for extending the mod is being implemented. I work on the mod mostly during the weekends so the github is updated more frequently then. If everything is fine, I expect to push fluoride recycling, steam generator, and reactor recirculation pump with functional code, placeholder graphics, recipes, etc. to the github this weekend. Hopefully my friend and I will be able to make a decent blender model of the steamer for fluoride recycling.

Feel free to submit graphics as I'm a newbie at blender

Concerning Dytech, I've never play the mod so I don't know how this mod is currently working with Dytech. Users feedback is welcomed. More generally, this mod is intended to be neutral with respect to mod interaction so whatever it is currently providing should still work regardless of whether Dytech has its own nuclear power or not, at least in theory. If down the line users informed me otherwise, then I will see what to do about that. In other words, the two mod should work in tandem without one adversely affecting the other or at least I could control my side.

[mrtux]

If you're not aware, I'm the developer and maintainer of this mod now and keep my own github for this. See my signature for details.

I really wasn't. You footer contains the relevant post (on page 17, which I frankly did not read). Do you think the link could be included in the opening post?

The ideas for extending the mod is being implemented. I work on the mod mostly during the weekends so the github is updated more frequently then. If everything is fine, I expect to push fluoride recycling, steam generator, and reactor recirculation pump with functional code, placeholder graphics, recipes, etc. to the github this weekend. Hopefully my friend and I will be able to make a decent blender model of the steamer for fluoride recycling.

I have checked you github repository – looks nice.

Feel free to submit graphics as I'm a newbie at blender

I'll have a look, but it seems you have most of the stuff covered. I am a newbie, too, I have only contibuted one model so far which is pending review: https://github.com/Dysoch/DyTech/pull/276
I will try out your current release and if something comes up I might send a pull request.

Concerning Dytech, I've never play the mod so I don't know how this mod is currently working with Dytech. Users feedback is welcomed. More generally, this mod is intended to be neutral with respect to mod interaction so whatever it is currently providing should still work regardless of whether Dytech has its own nuclear power or not, at least in theory. If down the line users informed me otherwise, then I will see what to do about that. In other words, the two mod should work in tandem without one adversely affecting the other or at least I could control my side.

Thanks, I will have an eye on compatibility.

[Fatmice]

I really wasn't. You footer contains the relevant post (on page 17, which I frankly did not read). Do you think the link could be included in the opening post?

Unfortunately, that is out of my control However, it will soon be remedied after I release 0.6.0 as that is when I will start a new thread. The current situation is only temporary and transitional, so you'll have to excuse the complications. I only added a signature to my post recently when it became clear that people are confused about what to do and where to find stuff.

[mrtux]

Unfortunately, that is out of my control However, it will soon be remedied after I release 0.6.0 as that is when I will start a new thread. The current situation is only temporary and transitional, so you'll have to excuse the complications. I only added a signature to my post recently when it became clear that people are confused about what to do and where to find stuff.

Alright, then the problem will sort out itself.

Thanks for the effort you are putting into this mod. I am going to try it out just now.

[mrtux]

I tried version 0.5.3 (download link in signature) on a savegame that came from 0.5.1 with Factorio 0.11.16 and I keep getting the following message:

Error while running the event handler: __UraniumPower__/control.lua:288: attempt to perform arithmetic on field '?' (a nil value)

Klicking "ok" quits the game, Esc lets the game run, but the power plant does not have any fuel (natuarlly, as this is controlled by the event handler).


Add: line 288 contains an access to LReactorAndChest[5], which seems to be nil. It is set to 0 in line 259, but this might not have been applied for my safe-game yet. Maybe this needs to go to the upgrade-script?
I fixed it by adding the following before line 288:

Code: Select all

					if LReactorAndChest[5] == nil then
					  LReactorAndChest[5] = 0
					end

Add2: I also had to place my reactor again (maybe the link to the access port was missing)

Not sure if this fixes my issues – I could not observe used-up fuel yet. (Constant demand around 80MW.)
(Just read your comment on #1 in github, so this part is no longer relevant.)

[Fatmice]

Reactor no longer use fuel as energy is added directly to its buffer based on the amount and type of fuel assemblies in the reactor port. As for the error, breaking and replacing the reactor and its port will fix the problem. I don't quite know why the migration script did not work for you. It would seem not all instances in the glob.LReactorAndChest were initialized for the the new index [5] when the migration script clearly requested it be so.

Perhaps it is because you updated from 0.5.1 and I had only included migration script for 0.5.2. I'll add another script for 0.5.1 in the next release for good measure.

[SHiRKiT]

I don't quite understand how to get it to work. It feel really really complicated and I got lost =\

Is there any way to set this up besides copying the build from the screens?

[mrtux]

I don't quite understand how to get it to work. It feel really really complicated and I got lost =\

Is there any way to set this up besides copying the build from the screens?

Which part?

For the water heating, the simplest would be to just pipe water through the reactor and feed it to the steam engine, like you would do with a boiler setup. If this works for you, the loops and preasurized water come next.
To obtain the fuel assembly, have a look at the recipies – this is normal factorio stuff. The tricky part is to set up your factory so that you are left with only 0.2% and 4.7% parts. (The first for ammunition, the latter for fuel assemblies.)


After all, this is Factorio!

[mrtux]

Reactor no longer use fuel as energy is added directly to its buffer based on the amount and type of fuel assemblies in the reactor port. As for the error, breaking and replacing the reactor and its port will fix the problem. I don't quite know why the migration script did not work for you. It would seem not all instances in the glob.LReactorAndChest were initialized for the the new index [5] when the migration script clearly requested it be so.

Perhaps it is because you updated from 0.5.1 and I had only included migration script for 0.5.2. I'll add another script for 0.5.1 in the next release for good measure.

I have sent you a pull request that changes the script so that runtime errors do not occur when glob.LReactorAndChest[5] is nil.

[SHiRKiT]

I don't quite understand how to get it to work. It feel really really complicated and I got lost =\

Is there any way to set this up besides copying the build from the screens?

Which part?

For the water heating, the simplest would be to just pipe water through the reactor and feed it to the steam engine, like you would do with a boiler setup. If this works for you, the loops and preasurized water come next.
To obtain the fuel assembly, have a look at the recipies – this is normal factorio stuff. The tricky part is to set up your factory so that you are left with only 0.2% and 4.7% parts. (The first for ammunition, the latter for fuel assemblies.)


After all, this is Factorio!

I have no idea what are those Heat Exchangers and what they do

[mrtux]

They transfer heat from water to water.

Just try it out: Run a pipeline of 100° water through one side (marked red/hot) and cold water through the other and see what happens to the temperatures.

[Fatmice]

I have sent you a pull request that changes the script so that runtime errors do not occur when glob.LReactorAndChest[5] is nil.

Accepted.

I don't quite understand how to get it to work. It feel really really complicated and I got lost =\

Is there any way to set this up besides copying the build from the screens?

Have you tried playing the example build? You can fudge with stuff there to see how things work. A more direct approach would be a video tutorial from me, but I won't make that until the next release.

[mrtux]

I was a bit puzzled about the Heat Exchange requiring fuel. It turned out that after burning the first piece of wood the machine kept running on its own. Is this intended behaviour?
(Factorio 0.11.16 and Uranium Power 0.5.3)

[Fatmice]

The fuel requirement is because I used burner for power. At the moment, I simply add power to the building since it used so little, which is a stand-in for some loss of heat during the exchange event. You might want to take a look at the patch notes.

It's quite simple to make the thing behave like TE. I already have lua code for this and will add it for the next release so it will take power from the hot liquid once the hot and cold liquid connections are made to supply itself with power.

As for why a heat exchange requires power, that is a Factorio requirement when using assembler-prototype. Assemblers can not run on 0 power.

[mrtux]

It's quite simple to make the thing behave like TE. I already have lua code for this and will add it for the next release so it will take power from the hot liquid once the hot and cold liquid connections are made to supply itself with power.

That's a nice idea.

As for why a heat exchange requires power, that is a Factorio requirement when using assembler-prototype. Assemblers can not run on 0 power.

I suspected something like that. My train of thoughts was:

• Heat Exchange needs power? oh well, that's realistic
• Why would I need burning fuel for something that is next to electricity?
• How can the example build keep running without a fuel provider?
• Look, the thing keeps running withoug re-fueling!

I believe there are some things that can be improved with liquid handling in general (lots of issues in other mods, too). As I am using DyTech, currently the most efficient thing might be to heat lava with a nuclear power plant, which isn't very realistic.



Btw: Have you read about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molten-Sal ... Experiment ? This would be a nice milestone later on the roadmap.

[Fatmice]

I believe there are some things that can be improved with liquid handling in general (lots of issues in other mods, too). As I am using DyTech, currently the most efficient thing might be to heat lava with a nuclear power plant, which isn't very realistic.

Well Factorio fluid is very basic. The developers are aware of the limitations but they have other pressing matters to address first at the moment. I hope when they get to it, the fluid will be behave more like flowing fluid and not packets of fluid. If you are using the reactor to heat lava, you might want to know they only operate at 10% of thermal rating. Another word, the 5by5 reactor (144 MW) will only output at max 14.4 MW of heat. I had considered adding an electric liquid heater. Maybe that is something useful?

Btw: Have you read about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molten-Sal ... Experiment ? This would be a nice milestone later on the roadmap.

Yes, I'm aware of that reactor type. I suppose once I added the fast reactor then I will work on adding liquid reactors. In terms of fuel handling and reprocessing, it if far more elegant.