Minimal nuclear power for artillery outpost?

[Ultros]

A fully powered and upgraded laser drains about 8MW (9.6 shots per second)

...what? Are you confusing peak electrical consumption with drain? Wiki says only 24kW drain, and IIRC drain doesn't increase with upgrades.

You're confusing the colloquial use of the word "drain" in the sense of "it consumes while running" as opposed to the idle vampiric drain. I don't mean the latter, of course, and the reference to shots per second should make that clear.

[Hannu]

I made one factory without global electric network. I had separated factories and rail transport between them and I used mostly small nuclear powerplants to power factories. I had also coal and solid fuel power it there was coal or oil in outpost. I had small 1-4 reactor nuclear plants and system worked flawlessly. Many small plants are not fuel efficient, but it has not any practical meaning. Even small uranium deposit and few centrifuges can produce enough fuel cells to power anything CPU can handle.

Local power production needs water. I build usually production plants near shore and with normal map settings there should be lake nearby most ore deposits. But occasionally it may not be practical to build and if you choose special settings it may be a problem.

That suggested steam transporting may be better option in game world. However, I do not like such unrealistic physics and will not use them.

[BlueTemplar]

Think of it as molten salt ?
(It's not like Uranium fuel cell efficiency doesn't scale itself in a fairly ridiculous way...)

[Dixi]

That suggested steam transporting may be better option in game world. However, I do not like such unrealistic physics and will not use them.

Hehe, my education in a field of energy production, also do not allow me to consider long time steam storage, even in game.