Kovarex enrichment process

Kovarex enrichment process

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Recipe
60 + 40 + 5 → 41 + 2
Total raw
60 + 40 + 5
Prototype type	recipe
Internal name	kovarex-enrichment-process
Required technologies
Produced by

The Kovarex enrichment process is a method for reprocessing uranium in a centrifuge. Although the process requires a large amount of the much rarer uranium-235 to start, it can be a good way to get more use out of the available uranium ore.

Purpose

Uranium processing takes 10 uranium ore and returns 1 uranium-235 with 0.007 (0.7%) probability, or 1 uranium-238 with 0.993 (99.3%) probability, leading to an expected (though not guaranteed) 1 unit of uranium-235 per approximately 143 processing cycles (or about a 1:142 ratio of U-235 to U-238). This is currently the only probability-based crafting recipe in the game.

Uranium-235 is necessary to create uranium fuel cells and atomic bombs, in considerable quantities for the latter, but the probability distribution of uranium processing leads to it being produced slowly and creating large stockpiles of U-238 as a byproduct. The Kovarex process thus provides the player with a considerably faster (and deterministic) method of producing U-235, as well as a use for the surplus U-238.

It should be noted that U-238 is not useless; it is necessary (and sufficient) to manufacture uranium rounds magazines, uranium cannon shells, and explosive uranium cannon shells, and is required as a secondary ingredient in uranium fuel cells. Therefore, it is not advisable to use the Kovarex process to convert all stockpiled U-238 into U-235. (Although, in case of shortage, Used up uranium fuel cells can be reprocessed into a modest amount of U-238.)

Trivia

• The Kovarex enrichment process is named after Michal Kovařík, lead designer of Factorio and co-owner of Wube, whose online nick is kovarex (which he usually spells lowercase). [1]

• In the real world, mined uranium comes out as a mix of approximately 99.28% uranium-238 and 0.72% uranium-235. Most nuclear power plants need a higher content of uranium-235 than that, so it gets increased to 3-5% through enrichment. This is done by separating and removing some uranium-238 from the mix. This differs a bit from the in-game representation where the mined uranium output comes pre-split between uraniun-235 and uranium-238 from the miner, and uranium-235 is created in a centrifuge by consuming uranium-238.
• Uranium munitions are made from depleted uranium, a byproduct of uranium enrichment, which is mostly ²³⁸U whose natural admixture of the ²³⁵U isotope has been lowered even further through the enrichment process. Depleted uranium is minimally radioactive and the reason for its use in munitions is its very high density and other mechanical properties, not radioactivity/toxicity.

History

• 0.17.0:
  • Can be used with productivity modules once again.
  • Use with productivity modules now gives correct amount of bonus items.

• 0.15.2:
  • No longer usable with productivity modules.

• 0.15.0:
  • Introduced

See also

• Uranium-235
• Uranium processing