Enriched Naquadah and Naquadria availibility

Minecraft & Mods GregTech 6
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With the new release removing most radioactive ore byproducts and thus the ability to obtain plutonium from ore processing, the reactor fuel progression has been improved quite a bit. Before this change, the plutonium could be used to run efficient (non-moderated) critical reactors and therefore also breeder reactors to produce more high-grade fuel. This allowed just skipping uranium hexafluoride processing altogether.

With this change however, the player is required to either setup the uranium hexafluoride processing chain or burn enough U238 in reactors to obtain nuclear fuel with a factor of 1/4 or higher, requiring some more investment.

But… there is one they fear. In their tongue he’s ‘Nq-528’: Enriched Naquadah. Enriched Naquadah was a nuclear Fuel, so powerful and so abundant it could use its exceptional properties to influence players to never create uranium hexafluoride processing…

Enriched Naquadah is quite easy to find, located at the underside of the end island.Though it may not exist there in huge quantities, the ease of locating it and the power before processing allows quickly accumulating a big amount of Enriched Naquadah, probably also alongside some even more powerful Naquadria as an ore processing byproduct. Why track down a uranium deposit and setup complex processing chains and setup breeder reactors, when obtaining one of the best fuels is so easy? There is also a point to be made, exactly how powerful Nq-528 is, i.e. how many neutrons per fuel rod can be extracted.

Lets first look at U-238 as an example of a lower grade fuel. The theoretical maximum energy output would be 512 Neutrons per tick, however, since the factor is lower than 1/4, archiving this output requires using moderator rods and therefore incurs the moderation penalty, making the rod deplete four times faster, thus reducing overall energy produced to a forth. When using industrial coolant and absorber rods, it is possible to extract a bit more energy from the fuel rod: 144 HU per tick. So U-238 runs for 50_000 minutes at 144 HU/tick, resulting in: 8_640_000_000 HU per rod

Now lets look at U-235. Since it has a factor of 1/4, it can be run in a critical reactor without moderation. This allows archiving an energy output up to the full neutron maximum of the rod, 2048 Neutrons. Realistically, the neutron output won’t be stable nor exactly reach 2048, best case being at an average of 7/8 of the neutron maximum, so we will use that for our calculation. U-235 runs for 10_000 minutes at 1_792 HU/tick, resulting in: 21_504_000_000 HU per rod

The best (non-Nq) fuel is Pu-239 which can be breed from U238. Since it has a factor of 1/3, it can be run a bit more efficiently in a critical reactor, since there is one free side for a absorber rod, resulting in neutrons that produce double the energy and additionally aren’t counted towards the neutron maximum. Since there are however only three sides with reflectors, controlling the reactor occurs a greater neutron loss, resulting in a an best case average of 5/6 of the neutron maximum, however times 5/3, because of the additional energy from the neutrons on the absorber rod. Pu-239 runs for 20_000 minutes at 5_688 HU/tick, resulting in: 136_512_000_000 HU per rod

So, now lets look at Enriched Naquadah. Having a factor of 1/4, like U235 we can expect a neutron output of 7/8 of the neutron maximum in a critical reactor. Nq-528 runs for 100_000 minutes at 7_168 HU/tick, resulting in: 860_160_000_000 HU per rod

For completeness, Naquadriah is just Pu-238, but lasting 5 times longer and having a 4 times greater maximum. Nq-522 runs for 100_000 minutes at 22_752 HU/tick, resulting in: 2_730_240_000_000 HU per rod

I think the numbers clearly show, that Naquadah is very very powerful. However the problem isn’t necessarily that they are so powerful, a Naquadria rod being 316 times as powerful as a U-238 rod is imo reasonable, but rather that they are so easy to obtain. My proposal would therefore be to make Enriched Naquadah and Naquadria harder to obtain. The necessary first step would be to remove Enriched Naquadah from worldgen and Enriched Naquadah and Naquadria as byproducts of Naquadah ore processing. I’d leave depleted Enriched Naquadah fuel rods as the only way to obtain Naquadria and for obtaining Enriched Naquahah, there needs to be added a new way. Since Enriched Naquadah is an isotope of Naquadah, this realistically leaves three plausible ways of enriching it:

  • A new isotope separation processing chain, like the uranium hexafluoride chain.
  • A new fusion recipe
  • A new fission breeding “recipe”

A new isotope separation processing chain alone would not be enough, as it would potentially still let players skip the nuclear fuel progression, it would need to be tied into either requiring materials from fission or being applied on the result of a fission breeding recipe instead of on the ore.

Same issue with the fusion recipe, but here I would be fine with it theoretically being able to skip some nuclear fuel progression, since the startup power of the recipe would need to be even higher than the vibranium recipe and the whole prospect of building and running a fusion reactor without having gone through fission for energy seems so ludicrous, that rewarding the player here is appropriate.

I’m however convinced that a fission breeding recipe would be the best option, since it is the most natural way to integrate it into the fuel progression and also allows the required energy imput to be more finely tuned.

For a potential Naquadah breeder rod I’d suggest these stats:

Neutron Loss: 10_000 Neutrons
Reasoning: Refining a non-fuel material into a such a powerful fuel should be a real challenge, not being just able to throw the breeder rod into any breeder reactor. A higher value wasn’t chosen, as this already gets quite close to the maximum measurable neutron count of 65535.

Neutrons Required: 4_096_000_000
Reasoning: While a Enriched Naquadah rod isn’t 16 times more powerful than a Pu-239 rod (more like ~6 times more powerful, ~9 times if also accounting for Naquadria from depletion), I feel like it doesn’t need to be the most efficient or meta fuel, it is more of an luxury item anyway. Nobody really needs to run Enriched Naquadah or even something as ridiculous as a Naquadria Thorium-Salt reactor. Maybe the required amount of neutrons could even be even higher.

What is the general consensus here on this topic?

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Okay one thing, I forgot about Naquadah when I removed the Ore Byproducts and Ores for Radioactive Stuff. Enriched Naquadah and Naquadria will no longer be generated in Ore form.

A Naquadah to Enriched Naquadah Breeder Rod would probably be preferable, that way you have to do SOMETHING with Reactors first before rushing Naquadah.

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Uranium hexafluoride chain is not something “very hard”. It’s just that:

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Why were most radioactive byproducts removed?
I was thinking about 1x1 reactor core (uncraftable with default config). It could use draconium (because very expensive and obtainable from bedrock drill as an alternative to adamantium) instead of lead as casing. Maybe I’ll try how that “feels” in my world.

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Because getting Plutonium from Uranium Ore is not very balanced whatsoever, especially with how abundant Ores are in Minecraft.

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Most things give radium now… Last time I cheched, it wasn’t the same, as HBM nuclear tech’s radium.

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Might be a different Isotope of Radium then

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I created a pull request for the breeding and enriched rods and did some more math on potential breeding setups when going with 10_000 Neutron Loss and 4_096_000_000 Neutrons Required. Overall the numbers seem very reasonable, requiring what some would consider a constant nuclear explosion worth of neutrons, quickly eating through fuel rods, however outputting ~5 Enriched Naquadah Enriched Rods per Pu-239 Fuel Rod in a matter of hours.

It is fairly straightforward of a processing chain, however much more difficult compared to just getting plutonium as a byproduct from ore processing.

Making the 1x1 reactor more expansive wouldn’t fix any of its problems. It is only mildly more powerful than the 2x2 reactor (allowing higher moderator rod outputs, but the neutrons are not “free” anymore with the “new” neutron maximum system, however much worse for breeding as double the neutron loss would be applied with the “new” breeding system), its most powerful feature probably is being easier to automate than the 2x2 reactor. The issue with the 1x1 reactor is that is simply behaving in (for users) confusing ways with moderators and breeding, resulting from how it is implemented.

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CO2 and Helium comparison with mNeutronDiv is outdated. Should be compared with 4. Molten tin and sodium - with 5.

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If I read MT.java right then GT’s Radium is aliased as “Radium226” which matches NTM’s Radium. If it doesn’t work for the recipes it’s probably my fault.

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Wait what, why is it aliased as 226, 88 + 136 = 224

Edit: Fixed that in Code, my Radium is the 224 kind, lol. Obviously I COULD add the 226 kind but there is currently no point in doing that.

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Where does GT Radium come from? NTM uses 226 because it’s a decay product of U238 so it’s relatively easy to get in small amounts from Uranium ore.

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It is just an Ore Byproduct of most Radioactive things such as the Uranium Ores (Uraninite, Pitchblende). It is 224 because according to Wikipedia that is the most stable one.

I added everything in the Periodic Table very early on, so I chose the stable ones to be the ones that are named without Isotope Number at the end.

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226 is the most stable one of >1500a, Radium-224 has a half-life of only about three and a half days. Admittedly it would make for a much more potent neutron source, but I don’t think it would be very practical :stuck_out_tongue:

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What the heck, the Wikipedia Article I originally used now says 226 too…

Well time for some RETCON!

Edit: It is gonna be 226 now. I will fix the Neutron Count in MT.java

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Wait a second, I actually unificate towards your Radium, what exactly is the Issue then???

	OreDictManager.INSTANCE.setTarget(OP.dust           , MT.Ra                     , MD.HBM, "item.powder_ra226"               , 0);
	OreDictManager.INSTANCE.setTarget(OP.nugget         , MT.Ra                     , MD.HBM, "item.nugget_ra226"               , 0);
	OreDictManager.INSTANCE.setTarget(OP.billet         , MT.Ra                     , MD.HBM, "item.billet_ra226"               , 0);
	OreDictManager.INSTANCE.setTarget(OP.ingot          , MT.Ra                     , MD.HBM, "item.ingot_ra226"                , 0);
	OreDictManager.INSTANCE.setTarget(OP.blockIngot     , MT.Ra                     , MD.HBM, "tile.block_ra226"                , 0);

Yeah I really messed up in reverse, which still is a mess up but geez… well now its retconned to be 226 so this Unification is correct now.

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Good catch, had me scared there for a moment when reading the text, before realizing it just being a tiny issue with the tooltips. Yeah, Helium and CO2 should be compared to 4, while Sodium and Tin to 5, hoping Greg fixes these four numbers.

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Wait which Numbers are wrong? I could fix it if I had directions lol.

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So, will radium be useful in GT without NTM? Otherwise, I think it is meaningless to use it as a byproduct in pure GT.

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Sometimes Materials just exist, okay?

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I still think that thorium (maybe also pitchblende) should have uraninite byproduct, because it causes no plutonium balance problems and byproducts are fun.

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