-- Preface --
This wall of text is meant to be a supplement to the two resources linked in the "Nuclear" section of the Factorio Cheat Sheet and assumes you've already read parts of both: https://factoriocheatsheet.com/#nuclear-power. *edit: It also assumes you've read the wiki page on the fluid system and pipeline throughput: https://wiki.factorio.com/Fluid_system#Pipelines
I see people often posting about their nuclear setups not at full power (despite satisfaction not at full), so I thought I'd create a friendly challenge as a way of hopefully getting people to understand fluids a bit better. I've spent a lot of time in the map editor designing nuclear power setups to try and learn exactly how the fluid system behaves. I admit I still don't know everything, but I'm hoping this can be a resource for others looking to design their own nuclear power
-- Challenge --
Keep in mind that the sole purpose of this challenge is to "teach" others how the fluid system behaves. It is NOT to maximize UPS efficiency (which is stupid anyway since solar is objectively better for UPS). This means we avoid things like using reactors as heat pipes or simply using a 2:1 turbine:exchanger ratio. Tileable/expandable designs are also NOT the focus of this challenge
Requirements:
- Must use exact amount of reactors/exchangers/turbines as noted on factorio cheat sheet. Each reactor must have two inserters
- No electric pumps or storage tanks, to force understanding of fluid behavior/management
- Must be able to reach and sustain "max power output" (See note below for details)
Bonus objectives for friendly competition
- Lowest possible number of heat pipes
- Lowest possible combined total of water+steam pipes (incl. underground)
- Lowest possible combined total of substations and extra offshore pumps
- Single roboport can construct the entire thing
- Try to be somewhat aesthetic (reflective/rotational symmetry, and/or rectangular)
Note: "Max power output" will be defined two ways: i) for smaller setups (800MW or lower) the electric network must show the correct MW of output, ii) for larger setups that round off GW of energy to only 1 decimal place, every single heat exchanger must show consumption/production of 103 water/steam per second. Alternatively for symmetrical designs: disconnecting substations with copper wire and measuring each part separately should provide the correct MW sum of all the parts
-- Starting Small: Single and Double Reactor Examples --
It's almost impossible to experience any throughput issues with just 1 or 2 reactors, so I'm just sharing my designs and how I "grade" them according to the above criteria
Single reactor examples:
https://preview.redd.it/zcavdy02rfc51.jpg?width=1643&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6d9d6609baac72a167a0d256b147bfd857fef7d2
Even though the left side has 2 extra underground pipes, it is also more aesthetically pleasing. Since 1 reactor isn't complex, I tried to fit everything within 1 substation just to see what I could do in that space
Double reactors:
https://preview.redd.it/oaf2v086rfc51.jpg?width=2258&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=da567eda4ed21fa70d637ddf7a2d7932fefc3112
Using 4 substations allows A LOT of variation, so I limited my designs to 3 substations only: "Teddy Bear" has the fewest heat pipes, but I'm guessing most of you would probably prefer "Butterfly" for symmetry. "Falcon" might be useful for narrow spaces
-- Basic Fluid Handling for 2x2 Setups: Water and Heat Flow --
2x2 is where most people will run into their first fluid issues. Since the ratio calls for 48 exchangers, many will think to use four groups of 12. This causes the first (minor) water problem, since a single offshore pump can only pump 1200 water/s, which is not enough to supply a row of 12 exchangers (needs 1236/s). This is easily fixed by adding more offshore pumps, although water throughput for a single pipeline also caps out eventually due to the heat pipes
https://preview.redd.it/qcreb7qhrfc51.jpg?width=2342&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=29234bd2c3f7371ca4daca0152eb337dba734b1d
On the topic of heat pipes, some of you may have seen people use double/parallel heat pipes in much larger designs. None of my designs up to 2x6 require this. I always try to design my nuclear power to use the fewest heat pipes possible, because even though the game treats it like a fluid, heat does not have access to electric pumps or undergrounds so it is the least flexible to work with. Heat pipes also never reach 1000°. Only reactors can actually hit the full 1000° when their heat isn't being used. Pipes cap out at 1° less heat per tile of distance from the reactors, so using long lengths of heat pipe to "transport" heat is usually pointless
https://preview.redd.it/vuxyr3flrfc51.jpg?width=2116&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=00d1ccf1e31828532b3c3deaa4acd9d7964b55ac
You can try it yourself: In the map editor, place any length of heat pipe and connect it to a heat interface or reactor full of fuel. Then set game speed to max and observe the heat of each pipe. Even with no exchangers using any heat, the first pipe will cap out at 998° (999° if you leave it for a VERY long time), the 2nd at 997°, 3rd at 996°, etc.
I've found that 44 heat pipes with 30 exchangers (15 on both sides) is sufficient
https://preview.redd.it/1zgz33ynrfc51.jpg?width=2249&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=34fad34fc6cf6c95207061b50c1ac31d2778b545
If exchangers are only on one side (not sure why you'd want to do this though), heat travels 62 pipes but would only reach 21 exchangers so it is inferior. Even having two parallel heat pipes with exchangers will only reach 42 of them (21 on each side). No matter how you look at it, using 124 heat pipes to supply 42 exchangers with the double heat pipeline is inferior to using 88 heat pipes to supply 60 exchangers with two single heat pipelines
-- Advanced Fluid Handling: Steam Throughput --
However, steam is the main cause of most people's problems. At least the heat pipe glow shows you its effectiveness and direction of flow. Steam has no visual indicators and if not handled properly, will bottleneck, preventing enough steam from reaching the turbines. Most people will probably find the wiki page about pipe throughput at some point (https://wiki.factorio.com/Fluid_system#Pipelines), but won't apply it properly because of the "pump every 17 pipes" being mentioned so often. Without realizing just how much steam is being pushed in a nuclear power plant, it becomes a stealth culprit. And since the only real way to accurately measure throughput is by using an electric pump into an infinity pipe (or something similar that uses up all the fluid), all this leads to the perfect storm for frustration. So, I will explain some of the finer details of how the steam behaves. Here are some things to consider:
https://preview.redd.it/d1ueig2wrfc51.jpg?width=2887&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c46fa7be08a239011203bfa9ede4c74746dd4336
The maximum throughput for a single pipeline is capped at 1771/s when immediately leaving the pipe where the heat exchanger produces it. This will gradually drop the further your pipes go without an electric pump. Since one turbine produces 103 steam, that means only ~17 exchangers will be able to fully output all their steam. The rest of the ones in the row won't be able to push their steam into the pipes heading for the turbines. A lot of people will simply use an electric pump to try and fix this, but the throughput will still drop back down gradually unless you literally place a pump after every pipe or two. For our challenge, there are two ways to fix this without using an electric pump:
https://preview.redd.it/i26e36nxrfc51.jpg?width=2887&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9b179b5bc46ef0bbd2d9917dad871d5e3204c4d3
- split the pipe out in both directions, or 2) double up the pipeline width by adding a parallel set of pipes like you would for parallel belts. Since most people probably run their heat pipes and exchangers radially from their reactors, the simplest way to fix this would just be to add a 2nd parallel pipe, which also allows the exchangers to line up nicely with the heat pipes already coming out of the reactors. However, this also has its own throughput cap as well. It is best to try and have your turbines consume the steam as soon as possible after the exchangers produce it
Now on to some ratios to reduce waste and keep the right entity count: While the single and double reactors both had a ratio of 4 exchangers : 7 turbines, there's actually another ratio that works even better - 1 offshore pump : 11 exchangers : 19 turbines. Here is the spreadsheet I used for my calculations (HX = heat exchanger, Water = offshore pump):
https://preview.redd.it/mf0ghzjzrfc51.jpg?width=174&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=eacd622e780173a3028b8e9dfd9fad1784ee266d
The green values are close to using a full entity, and the blue values are the "ideal" number of exchangers that I thought worked best. They consume close to the full amount without exceeding it. I wasn't able to find this 1:11:19 ratio anywhere else on the internet, so I thought I'd share it, although I admit that groups of 11 exchangers is not the most useful
I use two of these 1:11:19 ratios in the bottom rows of my "Dollar Bill" 2x2 setup:
https://preview.redd.it/i7al97w1sfc51.jpg?width=2722&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=52420b5983fc7359babd47be5a81425f59106f25
The top rows are 14 exchangers : 24 turbines on the left side, and 12 exchangers : 21 turbines on the right side. Note that there is no need to connect heat pipes to the bottom reactors since their heat flows through the top reactors and can reach the exchangers perfectly fine. Technically, 14 exchangers require 24.033 turbines to consume all the steam, so the output should be 479.8 MW but I'm guessing the game probably rounds it to 480MW. While I thought this design was decent, technically it didn't produce max output. Since I knew I could probably get away with using fewer substations given how flat/thin this layout was, I pushed to try for 6 substations only. I used some fancy pipework from my larger 2x3+ designs, which I will now show and explain:
https://preview.redd.it/r81od0m3sfc51.jpg?width=2552&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b9ba9dd2851f89e67ef72ae4121f6d0eb5bf67dc
The key thing to notice here is how the double steam pipelines are handled. You could run parallel pipes, but it's not necessary if you can get the steam out earlier. Removing two pipes between every other exchanger creates room for an underground pipe to move steam out to the turbines, avoiding the throughput issue much more easily. Alternating these sections gives more flexibility when bringing the undergrounds out to either side at various points. It doesn't completely prevent steam from bottlenecking though, as it depends on how many exchangers you have in the rows, and also where you choose to place the undergrounds. It's best if you spread out the load across the row. If you put them both at the far right, for example, the exchangers on the far left still have trouble pushing their steam
With that said, here is my "B2 Bomber" 2x2 design that uses a more 'traditional' 4x12 grouping and only 6 substations:
https://preview.redd.it/9s2ws635sfc51.jpg?width=1998&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4b8f821f9b6d4056d2253211071c160b0dcdfb9d
2x2 can never be perfectly symmetrical given that 83 is a prime number and 2x2 reactors doesn't have a perfect "center" to put the final turbine, but I think this is close enough
And that concludes the concepts on fluid behavior
-- My 2x3 to 2x6 designs --
I use the underground pipework in all my larger setups. Here they are for you to compare against (the 2x6 fails the requirements though because it has 1 extra turbine):
2x3 "Bowtie": I used 8 groups of 10 exchangers, and grouped 69 turbines on the left/right sides. One extra offshore pump compared to the required 7. Note that there is still no need to connect heat pipes to the middle reactors because their heat will flow through the outside reactors and get to the exchangers perfectly fine (This still holds true even for 2x4)
https://preview.redd.it/mdt6u52asfc51.jpg?width=2086&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7228f59303566cc025f5c0e21cb7f78fe77adb6d
2x4 "Infinity": 8 groups of 14 exchangers. I had to use the underground pipe concept twice on each side, since 14 exchangers hits the steam throughput issue much more easily. However, I could remove two more pipes in the middle sections because each group of 14 exchangers can be split in half nicely while still mixing steam across the entire network
https://preview.redd.it/zuje3j4bsfc51.jpg?width=2416&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f62cccb2f2ba4c461e0f2a7e6a03cf5d054c53f4
2x5 "Chevy": This split into 12 groups of 12 exchangers nicely, and I had to use double undergrounds again. Each quadrant uses 62 turbines and I link the steam from vertical and horizontal exchangers together. I only just realized that the offshore pumps on the right are one space outside the roboport range, so this fails the bonus roboport objective. So close yet so far
https://preview.redd.it/kny9wthcsfc51.jpg?width=1840&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=da8f61358c8567c5ce8dfa71a2804cf1daee0b06
2x6 "Cracker": 16 groups of 11 exchangers worked very well for this (I used the 1:11:19 ratio here), but it fails the requirements because it has one extra turbine (I couldn't get 303 to work well). I also needed two roboports for it. However, I felt it was worth sharing, and also because there's an issue that I can't seem to figure out: It technically doesn't hit max throughput. The circled offshore pumps always seem to have an issue. They should be at 1134 water/s, but I can't figure out what's wrong with the row of exchangers given that it's basically set up the same as all the other rows that are working fine. If anyone could enlighten me, I would love to learn more: https://pastebin.com/kfs9bTmM
https://preview.redd.it/lmxsg5vhsfc51.jpg?width=2288&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=26398e928a592e6c7d358703d6593e528c00f609
I stopped at 2x7, as I don't think the layouts can be as "nice" anymore given the requirements and the resulting turbine density
It was a long read, but you should now have sufficient knowledge to design your own nuclear setups properly. I also look forward to some smarter people pointing out new things to me too, as well as a general sharing of design ideas
TLDR: Honestly, this post is probably not for you if you don't want to learn more about how fluids behave in this game or if you never plan to design your own nuclear power
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