| | |
| | | blocks, so several latex lumps can be extracted from a tree in one visit. |
| | | |
| | | Raw latex isn't used directly. It must be vulcanized to produce finished |
| | | rubber. This can be performed by simply cooking the latex, with each |
| | | latex lump producing one lump of rubber. If you have an extractor, |
| | | however, the latex is better processed there: each latex lump will |
| | | produce three lumps of rubber. |
| | | rubber. This can be performed by alloying the latex with coal dust. |
| | | |
| | | ### metal ### |
| | | |
| | |
| | | in both locked and unlocked flavors. All of the chests work with the |
| | | pneumatic tubes of the pipeworks mod. |
| | | |
| | | radioactivity |
| | | ------------- |
| | | |
| | | The technic mod adds radioactivity to the game, as a hazard that can |
| | | harm player characters. Certain substances in the game are radioactive, |
| | | and when placed as blocks in the game world will damage nearby players. |
| | | Conversely, some substances attenuate radiation, and so can be used |
| | | for shielding. The radioactivity system is based on reality, but is |
| | | not an attempt at serious simulation: like the rest of the game, it has |
| | | many simplifications and deliberate deviations from reality in the name |
| | | of game balance. |
| | | |
| | | In real life radiological hazards can be roughly divided into three |
| | | categories based on the time scale over which they act: prompt radiation |
| | | damage (such as radiation burns) that takes effect immediately; radiation |
| | | poisoning that becomes visible in hours and lasts weeks; and cumulative |
| | | effects such as increased cancer risk that operate over decades. |
| | | The game's version of radioactivity causes only prompt damage, not |
| | | any delayed effects. Damage comes in the abstracted form of removing |
| | | the player's hit points, and is immediately visible to the player. |
| | | As with all other kinds of damage in the game, the player can restore |
| | | the hit points by eating food items. High-nutrition foods, such as the |
| | | pie baskets supplied by the bushes\_classic mod, are a useful tool in |
| | | dealing with radiological hazards. |
| | | |
| | | Only a small range of items in the game are radioactive. From the technic |
| | | mod, the only radioactive items are uranium ore, refined uranium blocks, |
| | | nuclear reactor cores (when operating), and the materials released when |
| | | a nuclear reactor melts down. Other mods can plug into the technic |
| | | system to make their own block types radioactive. Radioactive items |
| | | are harmless when held in inventories. They only cause radiation damage |
| | | when placed as blocks in the game world. |
| | | |
| | | The rate at which damage is caused by a radioactive block depends on the |
| | | distance between the source and the player. Distance matters because the |
| | | damaging radiation is emitted equally in all directions by the source, |
| | | so with distance it spreads out, so less of it will strike a target |
| | | of any specific size. The amount of radiation absorbed by a target |
| | | thus varies in proportion to the inverse square of the distance from |
| | | the source. The game imitates this aspect of real-life radioactivity, |
| | | but with some simplifications. While in real life the inverse square law |
| | | is only really valid for sources and targets that are small relative to |
| | | the distance between them, in the game it is applied even when the source |
| | | and target are large and close together. Specifically, the distance is |
| | | measured from the center of the radioactive block to the abdomen of the |
| | | player character. For extremely close encounters, such as where the |
| | | player swims in a radioactive liquid, there is an enforced lower limit |
| | | on the effective distance. |
| | | |
| | | Different types of radioactive block emit different amounts of radiation. |
| | | The least radioactive of the radioactive block types is uranium ore, |
| | | which causes 0.25 HP/s damage to a player 1 m away. A block of refined |
| | | but unenriched uranium, as an example, is nine times as radioactive, |
| | | and so will cause 2.25 HP/s damage to a player 1 m away. By the inverse |
| | | square law, the damage caused by that uranium block reduces by a factor |
| | | of four at twice the distance, that is to 0.5625 HP/s at a distance of 2 |
| | | m, or by a factor of nine at three times the distance, that is to 0.25 |
| | | HP/s at a distance of 3 m. Other radioactive block types are far more |
| | | radioactive than these: the most radioactive of all, the result of a |
| | | nuclear reactor melting down, is 1024 times as radioactive as uranium ore. |
| | | |
| | | Uranium blocks are radioactive to varying degrees depending on their |
| | | isotopic composition. An isotope being fissile, and thus good as |
| | | reactor fuel, is essentially uncorrelated with it being radioactive. |
| | | The fissile U-235 is about six times as radioactive than the non-fissile |
| | | U-238 that makes up the bulk of natural uranium, so one might expect that |
| | | enriching from 0.7% fissile to 3.5% fissile (or depleting to 0.0%) would |
| | | only change the radioactivity of uranium by a few percent. But actually |
| | | the radioactivity of enriched uranium is dominated by the non-fissile |
| | | U-234, which makes up only about 50 parts per million of natural uranium |
| | | but is about 19000 times more radioactive than U-238. The radioactivity |
| | | of natural uranium comes just about half from U-238 and half from U-234, |
| | | and the uranium gets enriched in U-234 along with the U-235. This makes |
| | | 3.5%-fissile uranium about three times as radioactive as natural uranium, |
| | | and 0.0%-fissile uranium about half as radioactive as natural uranium. |
| | | |
| | | Radiation is attenuated by the shielding effect of material along the |
| | | path between the radioactive block and the player. In general, only |
| | | blocks of homogeneous material contribute to the shielding effect: for |
| | | example, a block of solid metal has a shielding effect, but a machine |
| | | does not, even though the machine's ingredients include a metal case. |
| | | The shielding effect of each block type is based on the real-life |
| | | resistance of the material to ionising radiation, but for game balance |
| | | the effectiveness of shielding is scaled down from real life, more so |
| | | for stronger shield materials than for weaker ones. Also, whereas in |
| | | real life materials have different shielding effects against different |
| | | types of radiation, the game only has one type of damaging radiation, |
| | | and so only one set of shielding values. |
| | | |
| | | Almost any solid or liquid homogeneous material has some shielding value. |
| | | At the low end of the scale, 5 meters of wooden planks nearly halves |
| | | radiation, though in that case the planks probably contribute more |
| | | to safety by forcing the player to stay 5 m further away from the |
| | | source than by actual attenuation. Dirt halves radiation in 2.4 m, |
| | | and stone in 1.7 m. When a shield must be deliberately constructed, |
| | | the preferred materials are metals, the denser the better. Iron and |
| | | steel halve radiation in 1.1 m, copper in 1.0 m, and silver in 0.95 m. |
| | | Lead would halve in 0.69 m if it were in the game, but it's not, which |
| | | poses a bit of a problem due to the drawbacks of the three materials in |
| | | the game that are better shielding than silver. Gold halves radiation |
| | | in 0.53 m (factor of 3.7 per meter), but is a bit scarce to use for |
| | | this purpose. Uranium halves radiation in 0.31 m (factor of 9.4 per |
| | | meter), but is itself radioactive. The very best shielding in the game |
| | | is nyancat material (nyancats and their rainbow blocks), which halves |
| | | radiation in 0.22 m (factor of 24 per meter), but is extremely scarce. |
| | | |
| | | If the theoretical radiation damage from a particular source is |
| | | sufficiently small, due to distance and shielding, then no damage at all |
| | | will actually occur. This means that for any particular radiation source |
| | | and shielding arrangement there is a safe distance to which a player can |
| | | approach without harm. The safe distance is where the radiation damage |
| | | would theoretically be 0.25 HP/s. This damage threshold is applied |
| | | separately for each radiation source, so to be safe in a multi-source |
| | | situation it is only necessary to be safe from each source individually. |
| | | |
| | | The best way to use uranium as shielding is in a two-layer structure, |
| | | of uranium and some non-radioactive material. The uranium layer should |
| | | be nearer to the primary radiation source and the non-radioactive layer |
| | | nearer to the player. The uranium provides a great deal of shielding |
| | | against the primary source, and the other material shields against |
| | | the uranium layer. Due to the damage threshold mechanism, a meter of |
| | | dirt is sufficient to shield fully against a layer of fully-depleted |
| | | (0.0%-fissile) uranium. Obviously this is only worthwhile when the |
| | | primary radiation source is more radioactive than a uranium block. |
| | | |
| | | When constructing permanent radiation shielding, it is necessary to |
| | | pay attention to the geometry of the structure, and particularly to any |
| | | holes that have to be made in the shielding, for example to accommodate |
| | | power cables. Any hole that is aligned with the radiation source makes a |
| | | "shine path" through which a player may be irradiated when also aligned. |
| | | Shine paths can be avoided by using bent paths for cables, passing |
| | | through unaligned holes in multiple shield layers. If the desired |
| | | shielding effect depends on multiple layers, a hole in one layer still |
| | | produces a partial shine path, along which the shielding is reduced, |
| | | so the positioning of holes in each layer must still be considered. |
| | | Tricky shine paths can also be addressed by just keeping players out of |
| | | the dangerous area. |
| | | |
| | | electrical power |
| | | ---------------- |
| | | |
| | |
| | | reaching maximum output at elevation +50 or higher. Its surroundings |
| | | don't otherwise matter; it doesn't actually need to be in open air. |
| | | |
| | | ### nuclear generator ### |
| | | |
| | | The nuclear generator (nuclear reactor) is an HV power generator that |
| | | generates a large amount of energy from the controlled fission of |
| | | uranium-235. It must be fuelled, with uranium fuel rods, but consumes |
| | | the fuel quite slowly in relation to the rate at which it is likely to |
| | | be mined. The operation of a nuclear reactor poses radiological hazards |
| | | to which some thought must be given. Economically, the use of nuclear |
| | | power requires a high capital investment, and a secure infrastructure, |
| | | but rewards the investment well. |
| | | |
| | | Nuclear fuel is made from uranium. Natural uranium doesn't have a |
| | | sufficiently high proportion of U-235, so it must first be enriched |
| | | via centrifuge. Producing one unit of 3.5%-fissile uranium requires |
| | | the input of five units of 0.7%-fissile (natural) uranium, and produces |
| | | four units of 0.0%-fissile (fully depleted) uranium as a byproduct. |
| | | It takes five ingots of 3.5%-fissile uranium to make each fuel rod, and |
| | | six rods to fuel a reactor. It thus takes the input of the equivalent |
| | | of 150 ingots of natural uranium, which can be obtained from the mining |
| | | of 75 blocks of uranium ore, to make a full set of reactor fuel. |
| | | |
| | | The nuclear reactor is a large multi-block structure. Only one block in |
| | | the structure, the reactor core, is of a type that is truly specific to |
| | | the reactor; the rest of the structure consists of blocks that have mainly |
| | | non-nuclear uses. The reactor core is where all the generator-specific |
| | | action happens: it is where the fuel rods are inserted, and where the |
| | | power cable must connect to draw off the generated power. |
| | | |
| | | The reactor structure consists of concentric layers, each a cubical |
| | | shell, around the core. Immediately around the core is a layer of water, |
| | | representing the reactor coolant; water blocks may be either source blocks |
| | | or flowing blocks. Around that is a layer of stainless steel blocks, |
| | | representing the reactor pressure vessel, and around that a layer of |
| | | blast-resistant concrete blocks, representing a containment structure. |
| | | It is customary, though no longer mandatory, to surround this with a |
| | | layer of ordinary concrete blocks. The mandatory reactor structure |
| | | makes a 7×7×7 cube, and the full customary structure a |
| | | 9×9×9 cube. |
| | | |
| | | The layers surrounding the core don't have to be absolutely complete. |
| | | Indeed, if they were complete, it would be impossible to cable the core to |
| | | a power network. The cable makes it necessary to have at least one block |
| | | missing from each surrounding layer. The water layer is only permitted |
| | | to have one water block missing of the 26 possible. The steel layer may |
| | | have up to two blocks missing of the 98 possible, and the blast-resistant |
| | | concrete layer may have up to two blocks missing of the 218 possible. |
| | | Thus it is possible to have not only a cable duct, but also a separate |
| | | inspection hole through the solid layers. The separate inspection hole |
| | | is of limited use: the cable duct can serve double duty. |
| | | |
| | | Once running, the reactor core is significantly radioactive. The layers |
| | | of reactor structure provide quite a lot of shielding, but not enough |
| | | to make the reactor safe to be around, in two respects. Firstly, the |
| | | shortest possible path from the core to a player outside the reactor |
| | | is sufficiently short, and has sufficiently little shielding material, |
| | | that it will damage the player. This only affects a player who is |
| | | extremely close to the reactor, and close to a face rather than a vertex. |
| | | The customary additional layer of ordinary concrete around the reactor |
| | | adds sufficient distance and shielding to negate this risk, but it can |
| | | also be addressed by just keeping extra distance (a little over two |
| | | meters of air). |
| | | |
| | | The second radiological hazard of a running reactor arises from shine |
| | | paths; that is, specific paths from the core that lack sufficient |
| | | shielding. The necessary cable duct, if straight, forms a perfect |
| | | shine path, because the cable itself has no radiation shielding effect. |
| | | Any secondary inspection hole also makes a shine path, along which the |
| | | only shielding material is the water of the reactor coolant. The shine |
| | | path aspect of the cable duct can be ameliorated by adding a kink in the |
| | | cable, but this still yields paths with reduced shielding. Ultimately, |
| | | shine paths must be managed either with specific shielding outside the |
| | | mandatory structure, or with additional no-go areas. |
| | | |
| | | The radioactivity of an operating reactor core makes starting up a reactor |
| | | hazardous, and can come as a surprise because the non-operating core |
| | | isn't radioactive at all. The radioactive damage is survivable, but it is |
| | | normally preferable to avoid it by some care around the startup sequence. |
| | | To start up, the reactor must have a full set of fuel inserted, have all |
| | | the mandatory structure around it, and be cabled to a switching station. |
| | | Only the fuel insertion requires direct access to the core, so irradiation |
| | | of the player can be avoided by making one of the other two criteria be |
| | | the last one satisfied. Completing the cabling to a switching station |
| | | is the easiest to do from a safe distance. |
| | | |
| | | Once running, the reactor will generate 100 kEU/s for a week (168 hours, |
| | | 604800 seconds), a total of 6.048 GEU from one set of fuel. After the |
| | | week is up, it will stop generating and no longer be radioactive. It can |
| | | then be refuelled to run for another week. It is not really intended |
| | | to be possible to pause a running reactor, but actually disconnecting |
| | | it from a switching station will have the effect of pausing the week. |
| | | This will probably change in the future. A paused reactor is still |
| | | radioactive, just not generating electrical power. |
| | | |
| | | A running reactor can't be safely dismantled, and not only because |
| | | dismantling the reactor implies removing the shielding that makes |
| | | it safe to be close to the core. The mandatory parts of the reactor |
| | | structure are not just mandatory in order to start the reactor; they're |
| | | mandatory in order to keep it intact. If the structure around the core |
| | | gets damaged, and remains damaged, the core will eventually melt down. |
| | | How long there is before meltdown depends on the extent of the damage; |
| | | if only one mandatory block is missing, meltdown will follow in 100 |
| | | seconds. While the structure of a running reactor is in a damaged state, |
| | | heading towards meltdown, a siren built into the reactor core will sound. |
| | | If the structure is rectified, the siren will signal all-clear. If the |
| | | siren stops sounding without signalling all-clear, then it was stopped |
| | | by meltdown. |
| | | |
| | | If meltdown is imminent because of damaged reactor structure, digging the |
| | | reactor core is not a way to avert it. Digging the core of a running |
| | | reactor causes instant meltdown. The only way to dismantle a reactor |
| | | without causing meltdown is to start by waiting for it to finish the |
| | | week-long burning of its current set of fuel. Once a reactor is no longer |
| | | operating, it can be dismantled by ordinary means, with no special risks. |
| | | |
| | | Meltdown, if it occurs, destroys the reactor and poses a major |
| | | environmental hazard. The reactor core melts, becoming a hot, highly |
| | | radioactive liquid known as "corium". A single meltdown yields a single |
| | | corium source block, where the core used to be. Corium flows, and the |
| | | flowing corium is very destructive to whatever it comes into contact with. |
| | | Flowing corium also randomly solidifies into a radioactive solid called |
| | | "Chernobylite". The random solidification and random destruction of |
| | | solid blocks means that the flow of corium is constantly changing. |
| | | This combined with the severe radioactivity makes corium much more |
| | | challenging to deal with than lava. If a meltdown is left to its own |
| | | devices, it gets worse over time, as the corium works its way through |
| | | the reactor structure and starts to flow over a variety of paths. |
| | | It is best to tackle a meltdown quickly; the priority is to extinguish |
| | | the corium source block, normally by dropping gravel into it. Only the |
| | | most motivated should attempt to pick up the corium in a bucket. |
| | | |
| | | administrative world anchor |
| | | --------------------------- |
| | | |
| | |
| | | |
| | | This manual needs to be extended with sections on: |
| | | |
| | | * power generators |
| | | * nuclear |
| | | * powered tools |
| | | * tool charging |
| | | * battery and energy crystals |
| | |
| | | * sonic screwdriver |
| | | * liquid cans |
| | | * wrench |
| | | * radioactivity |
| | | * frames |
| | | * templates |