Factorio Forums

Hi,
When you try to load your reactors with 1 fuel cell at a time, it will not output the used one, before there is a new one inserted. This means you cant use the event "depleted fuelcell removed" to load a new cell because it wont output it until the new one is in.
Please fix it or give us uncausal controllers [/irony]

Tried this now in 15.6.

I pick up my reactor and place it again to make sure it is empty. I put in one fuel cell with an inserter. Immediately, the empty one is removed by my output inserter. So I don't think this is a bug.

It's been this way since the reactors were implemented. A reactor will eject a spent fuel cell once it starts consuming one, not after it is done consuming one. Confusing, and yes, it means the "ejected fuel cell" event is less useful for throttling reactors. I'm using the 200 second timer instead (since reactors always burn fuel at exactly 200 second intervals).

Yeah, the 200s intervall is what i thought of first, but you need an awful lot of steam-storage :/

Not really. The bulk of the energy can be stored thermally in the reactors and heatpipes. They've got a 500 to 1000 degree variance before reactor energy output is wasted, and generally that buffer is more then enough.

I think the empty fuel cell should be output once the reactor has finished consuming it and not when it first enters the reactor.

Because that's just bullcrap... how can there be a depleted fuel cell immediately (which also contains U-238 after reprocessed) when the fuel cell hasn't even been used up yet because of how the reactor is still in the process of consuming it?


In my opinion that the empty cell is output before the fuel cell is consumed is actually a bug, and I waited for someone to report it.

At least I'm pretty sure that is a bug or oversight.

MeduSalem wrote:I think the empty fuel cell should be output once the reactor has finished consuming it and not when it first enters the reactor.

Because that's just bullcrap... how can there be a depleted fuel cell immediately (which also contains U-238 after reprocessed) when the fuel cell hasn't even been used up yet because of how the reactor is still in the process of consuming it?


In my opinion that the empty cell is output before the fuel cell is consumed is actually a bug, and I waited for someone to report it.

At least I'm pretty sure that is a bug or oversight.

It's definitely weird and inconsistent with how the rest of the game treats production progress and fuel consumption.

Fixed for next release.

Harkonnen wrote:Fixed for next release.

May I ask how it has been solved now?

Is the Empty fuel cell being output when it is inserted into the Reactor?

Or is the Empty fuel cell being output when it actually consumed its entire fuel value (basically when the fuel consumption progress bar reached 0)? (like it should be)

"Or is the Empty fuel cell being output when it actually consumed its entire fuel value (basically when the fuel consumption progress bar reached 0)? (like it should be)"

Nice... You guys rock. \o/

Aeternus wrote:It's been this way since the reactors were implemented. A reactor will eject a spent fuel cell once it starts consuming one, not after it is done consuming one. Confusing, and yes, it means the "ejected fuel cell" event is less useful for throttling reactors. I'm using the 200 second timer instead (since reactors always burn fuel at exactly 200 second intervals).

Are you sure about this 200s interval? Because yesterday I placed reactors in the sandbox in various configuration, dumped in 50 fuel and watched it heat up. Each reactor used up about 3/4 of a fuel cell to reach 1000° and then it stoped. No more fuel was consumed. So the reactors do stop consumption if the heat isn't taken away.