Fusion reactor
Fusion reactor |
Recipe |
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Total raw |
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Map color |
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Health |
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Resistances |
Fire: 0/70% |
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Stack size |
1 |
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Dimensions |
6×6 |
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Energy consumption |
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Drain |
10MW (electric) |
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Heat output |
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Fluid consumption |
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Mining time |
0.2 |
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Prototype type |
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Internal name |
fusion-reactor |
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Required technologies |
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Produced by |
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Valid fuel |
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This article is a stub, and not comprehensive. |
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Space Age expansion exclusive feature.
The fusion reactor generates plasma from fusion power cell, fluoroketone (cold), and electricity. The plasma can be used in a fusion generator to generate power. Unlike the nuclear reactor, a fusion fuel cell usage scales with the plasma output, so no energy is lost. A single reactor will output 100 MW worth of plasma. A single fusion power cell will be consumed in 400 seconds.
A reactor requires 10 MW of power to generate plasma. As such, starting a reactor setup requires some external power, but once plasma is in the generators, the reactor setup can power itself.
Fluoroketone is not permanently consumed by a fusion reactor setup; it is used as a coolant. The coolant is (effectively) converted into an equal amount of plasma by the reactor, and the generator generates hot fluoroketone based on how much plasma the generator consumes. So any cold fluoroketone consumed by a reactor will be regenerated by the generator. To keep the loop going, a Cryogenic plant must cool the hot fluoroketone back to cold before recirculating it into the reactor.
Each reactor consumes at most 4 cold fluoroketone per second. As such, you must have cryogenic plants regenerating cold fluoroketone fast enough to keep pace with the reactors' consumption. Assuming no modules are used, it requires 1 cryogenic plant to cool fluoroketone for one reactor.
Neighbour bonus
Like nuclear reactors, fusion reactors receive a bonus for adjacent operating reactors, which increases the energy potential of the outputting plasma by 100% per link. Fusion reactors have 2 connection on each side, so the highest bonus a reactor can practically receive, while still leaving room open for the necessary fluoroketone, is +500%.
Unlike other power generators, the heat of the plasma generated is variable. The neighbor bonus determines the heat of the plasma. With no bonus, the plasma generated is at 1 million C. With a 100% bonus, the plasma generated is at 2 million C. And so on. Different reactors in an array can generate plasma at different temperatures, with the temperatures averaging out within the plasma fluid system. Fusion generators will generate power based on the heat of the plasma they are consuming, up to their maximum of 50 MW each.
This also means that the amount of cold fluoroketone consumed by the reactor to generate power does not change with the neighbor bonus. It will always be 4/s (modified by quality). Two disconnected reactors and generators will consume 4 cold fluoroketone per second at max power draw as two reactors with a neighbor bonus.
Of course, larger arrays of reactors and generators will require more fluoroketone to exist in the system, simply because there are more fluid pipes for the coolant and plasma to go through. But they do not require constantly adding more to the system.