Uranium Processing Facility (Complete)

[vinnief]

This facility consumes these resources:

* Uranium ore (express belt)
* Iron plates (requester chest)
* Used up uranium fuel cell (requester chest)

To create these products

* Uranium fuel cell (passive provider chest)
* Split belt of U-235 and U-238
* Surplus U-235 (passive provider chest)
* Surplus U-238 (passive provider chest)

Features:

* Optimally beaconed
* Can be tiled horizontally
* Additional belts of uranium can be input from the side (shown)
* Used up uranium fuel cell output is given priority (no backups)
* Surplus U-238 is buffered automatically during the initial Kovarex bootstrapping phase
* A spare requester chest is there to accept surplus U-235 and U-238 to speed up the bootstrapping process (player deposits these items manually)
* No circuit logic

This work builds on ideas from vasek7 (forum user) and Garret Cyber (who posted this https://factorioprints.com/view/-KjmRXj1uY-0VKIPzJuB)

Blueprint string:

Code: Select all

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l7Ip1cL.jpeg (929.9 KiB) Viewed 211 times

Or get it here: https://factorioprints.com/view/-L5F2qiGFzcnPhWeSDtn

[mrvn]

You do realize that a single centrifuge is good for ~30 reactors. So how many reactors can you fuel with the beacons added?

[vinnief]

The beacons are mainly there to speed up the slow Kovarex enrichment process. I am using 80 reactors in my base currently. I agree in principle though, the nuclear processing cycle produces an absurd amount of energy resources for very few machines.

[JimBarracus]

You do realize that a single centrifuge is good for ~30 reactors. So how many reactors can you fuel with the beacons added?

nukes eat a lot of U235, if you have a lot to clear you need plennty of it

[vinnief]

nukes eat a lot of U235, if you have a lot to clear you need plennty of it

Yep, and with this design you can pull the excess U-235 straight off the belt, or have it delivered from the provider chest.

[mrvn]

Just out of curiosity: What would be the nukes / s for this setup if used exclusively for nukes?

[Ringkeeper]

don't forget nuclear rocket fuel for trains

And if you nuke artillery you will desperate need every green Uranium. Had 4k , used nuke artillery mod with 6 guns around the base and atm down to 0 green uranium within couple hour.

[vinnief]

Just out of curiosity: What would be the nukes / s for this setup if used exclusively for nukes?

Once the Kovarex processes are fully primed it generates 22.3/m U-235, and consumes 650/m uranium ore and 65/m U-238. This blueprint can be tiled horizontally if higher output of U-235 is desired. And additional belts of uranium can be added from the side.

[Voidedfactory]

For the splitters that only have one half sending out either U-238 or U-235, are those on a circuit network to make that work, a mod, or is that only allowed on the sandbox mode? I've never seen splitters be filterable on each side on vanilla, so I don't see how you avoid an inevitable buildup of 238 because of how infrequently the default uranium processing produces U-235.

The one near the basic processing could be changed to a filter inserter with belt side-loading from above. It's not pretty but it'd work.

As for the one on top of the Kovarex, you could end the line where the U-238 stack inserter is to to push that storage back one without breaking the dual sideloading you're using, then put a filter inserter at the end of the belt to start the U-238 storage chain.. You'd have to include an extra belt after the filter so that the setup remains the same.

The last one, at the Kovarex output, would have the same setup near the basic processing, though the other nearby lines would need to be shifted 1 to the left to accomodate it. The actual design around the joining splitter doesn't need to change, too, though as I said it's nowhere near as elegant as using the splitters (nor as fast).

Rest of it looks pretty nice, though.

(As an aside, I'm not on v16 nor versed on any changes from v15 to v16, so if the filterable splitters thing is a v16 option then you can ignore the above.)

EDIT: As for horizontal tiling, I'm guessing you mean that the layout for the actual fuel cell creation remains the same (including the U-238 storage), but just gets shoved as far to the right as you need to go in order to accomodate the amount of Kovarex processes that you want. Is that right?

[vinnief]

For the splitters that only have one half sending out either U-238 or U-235, are those on a circuit network to make that work, a mod, or is that only allowed on the sandbox mode?

it is a 0.16.x feature, splitters now have configurable input and output priorities and filters.

EDIT: As for horizontal tiling, I'm guessing you mean that the layout for the actual fuel cell creation remains the same (including the U-238 storage), but just gets shoved as far to the right as you need to go in order to accomodate the amount of Kovarex processes that you want. Is that right?

I mean that you can replicate the entire blueprint horizontally.

I'll note that this setup is tested in creative mode, ran it overnight with fuel being consumed and used fuel cells getting produced, and it worked great.

[Gamma]

This facility consumes these resources:

* Uranium ore (express belt)
* Iron plates (requester chest)
* Used up uranium fuel cell (requester chest)

Hi and thanks for sharing this design. It's really elegant.

I'm struggling in providing Uranium ore as there is 2 Constant combinator on the top right corner. I have two questions:

• What are they used for? I'm barely touched this mechanic yet.

• How am I supposed to input the ore? For now, I removed them and connected belts.

Gamma

[mrvn]

This facility consumes these resources:

* Uranium ore (express belt)
* Iron plates (requester chest)
* Used up uranium fuel cell (requester chest)

Hi and thanks for sharing this design. It's really elegant.

I'm struggling in providing Uranium ore as there is 2 Constant combinator on the top right corner. I have two questions:

• What are they used for? I'm barely touched this mechanic yet.

• How am I supposed to input the ore? For now, I removed them and connected belts.

Gamma

The combinators are there to show what should be on the belt. Because when you blueprint it the belts would be empty and you wouldn't know what each belt is for. It's just a sign: "Uranium ore goes here".

So removing them and connecting a belt is the right thing to do.

[Gamma]

Oh ok, clever way to share prints. Thanks!

[Ranger_Aurelien]

Once the Kovarex processes are fully primed it generates 22.3/m U-235, and consumes 650/m uranium ore and 65/m U-238. This blueprint can be tiled horizontally if higher output of U-235 is desired. And additional belts of uranium can be added from the side.

Silly question -- my habit is to put productivity modules in the kovarex accelerators instead of speed modules (thinking each u235 is precious and once all operational speed can be scaled) -- have you compared with that?

Thanks!

[hughesjr99]

This facility consumes these resources:

* Uranium ore (express belt)
* Iron plates (requester chest)
* Used up uranium fuel cell (requester chest)

Hi and thanks for sharing this design. It's really elegant.

I'm struggling in providing Uranium ore as there is 2 Constant combinator on the top right corner. I have two questions:

• What are they used for? I'm barely touched this mechanic yet.

• How am I supposed to input the ore? For now, I removed them and connected belts.

Gamma

The combinators are there to show what should be on the belt. Because when you blueprint it the belts would be empty and you wouldn't know what each belt is for. It's just a sign: "Uranium ore goes here".

So removing them and connecting a belt is the right thing to do.

I know, very old thread here .. I thought I would write that this design still works with the Factorio 1.0 release.

I actually keep in the Constant combinator on the output for U-235/U-238 and leave that output blocked. I do delete the combinator from the Ore inputs that I use .. another tactic I use on blueprints in general, if I want to keep the combinator as a label, is I will use belt undergrounds to go under and leave the combinator in the middle of them as a label. It would be so nice if they just provided a simple icon sign that was placeable at the beginning of belts.

I find that the 4 chests of U-238 in the cycle are enough for U-238 storage and that I get a full storage chest of ready fuel, then within a short time the entire process shuts down (with all the belts full of U-238 / U-235) and room for more U-235/U-238 in the storage chests.

The key to making this work smoothly is, IMHO, the requestor chest beside the top Roboport. Once you get some U-235 being made and in the one U-235 storage chest, you can put in a request for 100 U-238 and 10 U-235 to cycle items back to the output for the first set of Centrifuges, This provides feedback (so, starts to regulate the amount of new Uranium Ore needed to bring in) and also helps to kickstart/speed up the Kovarex bootstrapping phase just a bit with more U-235.

This unit will, as I posted above, stop processing when the usable fuel in the network fills up. It leaves room to collect used fuel and reprocesses that as required (along with mining new Uranium Ore) when fuel gets moved to your reactors. This seems fully self sustaining with the U238 output blocked.

I started designing my own setup .. and every time I thought of something to try, it was already in this design.

I downloaded this blueprint to learn the whole fuel making process .. I ended up keeping it as my preferred design. Great Job!

[vinnief]

I have updated the blueprint to tidy up the splitters. use tier 2 modules, label the inputs more cleanly, and remove an unnecessary roboport