Some ideas I never posted on my old reactor thread (because you reply directly after your own reply), which are quite close to the redstone control concept, but instead of controlling the fuel rods, the fuel would be controlled by different redstone controlled control rods:
I think “Flow channels” is a good name for the liquid/gas-storing components that I previously envisioned as heat vents.
For the actual heat vents, I think it would be good if they only function when supplied with electricity. So people would need to directly supply electricity to the reactor if they want to use those, so they don’t become overpowered or underpowered compared to flow channels. Backup generators are recommended.
A new component that would be possible because of covers would be control rods. These are components with an effect strength that could be dynamically changed by the strength of a redstone signal provided to a special cover. The components and covers could also be set to an int with a selector tag to group them and allow control of multiple groups of control rods in the same reactor:
- Moderator control rods: A neutron moderator with a variable moderation rate.
- Reflector control rods: A neutron reflector with a variable reflection rate.
- Absorber control rods: A control rod which controls the neutron, base heat and fuel rod energy output of adjacent fuel rods, changing durability (remaining fuel) loss accordingly.
These control rods allow fine tuning of the reactor in operation, but are more expensive and in the case of the absorber, take up valuable space that could be used by other components. Maybe they should even require energy (ku) to operate or else be in their default state.
I think alternative cooling mechanics, like coolant cells or condensators, are a good thing to spice up the gameplay, but I also see a balance issue with them: Having them instantly feed into the reactor when they are destroyed due to overheating. To prevent this, components that overheat should not just be destroyed, but “disable” the slot they had occupied. The disabled slots may only be fixed by players with the right tools, preferably if the reactor is shut down, if not wanting to end up as radioactive waste.