Zefram b0faa70873 Uranium enrichment via centrifuge ...

Replacing the extractor-based system, uranium to be used as reactor fuel
must now be enriched in stages using the centrifuge.  Uranium metal can
exist at 36 levels of fissile content, from 0.0% to 3.5% in steps of 0.1%.
One round of centrifuging splits two dust of a particular grade in to one
dust each of the two neighbouring grades.  Uranium of each grade can exist
as dust, ingot, and block, with all the regular metal processes to convert
between them.  Uranium from ore exists in lump form, and is 0.7% fissle.
The blocks are radioactive to a degree dependent on fissile content.
Thus the chemical refinement and processing of uranium now follows the
standard pattern for metals, and is orthogonal to isotopic enrichment.
Each form of uranium (dust, ingot, block) intentionally looks identical
regardless of fissile grade.

If technic_worldgen is used alone, it defines only one grade of uranium
(as before), but defines it in the regular metal pattern, with lump, ingot
produced by cooking lump, and block crafted from ingots.  It identifies
the metal only as "uranium".  The multiple grades of uranium are defined
by the technic mod, which identifies each grade as "N.N%-fissile
uranium".  The single grade that was registered by technic_worldgen
is redefined to be described specifically as "0.7%-fissile uranium".
For the redefinition to work, technic_worldgen must load before technic,
so technic now declares a dependency on technic_worldgen.

Each fuel rod is made from five 3.5%-fissile ingots, each of which in
turn requires one to start with five 0.7%-fissile dust, so each fuel rod
is now derived from 12.5 uranium lumps (or 25 if the lumps were first
cooked rather than being ground).  This replaces the 20 lumps required
by the former recipes.  After setting up and priming the centrifuge
cascade, enriching a full set of fuel for the reactor (six fuel rods)
takes 14700 centrifuge operations.  It's intended to be a practical
necessity to automate the centrifuge.  In the absence of EU upgrades
for the centrifuges, these operations consume 5.88e8 EU, about 0.97%
of the 6.048e10 EU that the fuel set will produce in the reactor.
The intent is that, in this respect as in others, operating a reactor
should carry a very high up-front cost, but ultimately be very profitable.

2014-07-28 13:18:51 +01:00

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