uranium fuel rod

[CFG]

I just noticed that these uranium fuel rods get used up even when the ship does not consume any energy. In my case Im sitting right above a star waiting for my solar panel to refuel the ships reactor (thats why my games usually take days and weeks ) and those rods get used up producing radioactive waste even when the ship does not use any energy atm. Im wondering whether this makes sense or not...
You basically "plug" these rods into you reactor and probably wont remove them until they are used up. But as we know nuclear reactors can control the rate at which the nuclear reaction proceeds by moving its control rods between or away from the "fuel rods". However a starship reactor using H³ as fuel probably has a slightly different design.

Im wondering whether the game code reflects a realistic behavior of these items here ...

[TranscendentGeek]

I just noticed that these uranium fuel rods get used up even when the ship does not consume any energy. In my case Im sitting right above a star waiting for my solar panel to refuel the ships reactor (thats why my games usually take days and weeks ) and those rods get used up producing radioactive waste even when the ship does not use any energy atm. Im wondering whether this makes sense or not...
You basically "plug" these rods into you reactor and probably wont remove them until they are used up. But as we know nuclear reactors can control the rate at which the nuclear reaction proceeds by moving its control rods between or away from the "fuel rods". However a starship reactor using H³ as fuel probably has a slightly different design.

Im wondering whether the game code reflects a realistic behavior of these items here ...

Oh my. Absolutely not. Consider the fact that uranium is a fission material not a fusion material, but in Transcendence it can be used to refuel fusion reactors. The way it works is that they refuel your ship then there is a little function that produces the waste based on a counter from the number of fuel rods you used to refuel with. So not a very realistic process to be honest.

[CFG]

Consider the fact that uranium is a fission material not a fusion material, but in Transcendence it can be used to refuel fusion reactors.

Thats one thing Im wondering about ... So - at least in Transcendence (nuclear) fission and fusion reactors must share at least some design elements which allow this to be done.

So these things should get consumed at a rate that depends on how much power the ship draws from the reactor ... (?) Is my idea.

[Star Weaver]

There was actually a rather long discussion of the physics of uranium rods a while back: http://www.neurohack.com/transcendence/ ... hilit=rods

And no, the game code just makes a timer that pops you out a radioactives barrel every N seconds until you have as many barrels as you put in.

[Dedalo]

uranium decays by itself over time.
fusion reactors basically heat their fuel to to millions of degrees, at that temperature the helium 3 nucleus acts as alpha radiation, especially if there is an heavy element like uranium in the reactor.

(U 238) + (He 3) = (Pu 241) (14,35 year's to decay, less than the 4*10^9 Years of U 238 )
if you add deuterium
( U 238) + D = Np 241 ( I guess that this one does not last a millisecond)
And add the fact that some nuclear fusion reactions release neutrons.
yap Uranium can be used in nuclear fusion reactors, and might not even release radioactive waste ( but I'm not sure of that)
Fusion reactors might even use radioactive waste as fuel provided that it has a percentage of helium 3 (or other fusion fuel)
This is all in theory (but i'm not sure of it)

[shanejfilomena]

I was just reminded : can we use Bananas ?
Bananas are naturally radioactive with Potassium 40 ..... wonder how many Hands to build a Fuel Rod .....

[Dedalo]

you can build an rod for a fusion reactor from almost any chemical element. (provided that you have the right conditions for such)
But remember to never use iron as fuel. (iron kills fusion reactors)

As for the banana rod, it would work mainly due to the large amount of hydrogen in the banana and not due to the Potassium 40.

[christian]

So, we can use bananas as fuel...hum...
...a 500mw Banana-Fusion reactor, powered by 25000t of bananas would be great...

[Dedalo]

yes you can
but would the monkeys that would be without them
Speaking of bananas and uranium, what about plutonium and deuterium rods???

[digdug]

well, it's not such a bad interpretation.
Basically Transcendence refueling is instantaneous. Rods are used up and your fuel bar is recharged.
The reactor then will spit out radioactive waste barrels on a timer.
It doesn't matter if you disabled all devices and are consuming zero.

Can we change this behaviour with some code ? probably. Is it a decent approximation of reality? yeah, in my opinion.

Maybe all rods and all refueling events should spit on a timer some "empty rod casing" item ? This could be interesting for a fuel mod.