Getting Started (NuclearCraft)

This is a guide for getting started in NuclearCraft. The object of this Getting Started guide is to take you from punching trees to your first Fission Reactor.

A short note on early power generation. NuclearCraft offers two low-power RF generators for the early game: the Basic Solar Panel (5 RF/t during daylight) and the Uranium RTG (4 RF/t constantly). Unfortunately, as of version 2.5a, you will need an RF generator from another mod to power the Manufactory before you can build them. You may care to skip these since you'll already have power from the other mod, but the advantage of Solar Panel and RTG is that they do not require fuel.


 * 1) Start by stockpiling all the NuclearCraft ores that you find. You'll need a lot. In addition, you'll also need quite a lot of  and, some , , and
 * 2) Manufactory: The Manufactory is the first NuclearCraft machine to build. With it, you will create Coal Dust and Quartz Dust, and can double your ores. You'll need: 4 Iron Ingots, 4 Lead Ingots, 8 Copper Ingots, and a Piston. Use the Iron and Copper to make 4 Copper Solenoids then craft with the Piston and Lead Ingots to make a Manufactory.


 * 1) Alloy Furnace: The Alloy Furnace is used to combine metals into new materials. Once you have your Manufactory powered, make another one! Grind 4 pieces of Coal to make Graphite Dust. Combine with Lead to make Basic Plating pieces. 4 Basic Plating pieces and 4 Iron Ingots around a Manufactory make an Alloy Furnace. You'll be using this machine a lot, so you might want to make one or three extra. If you already have a good RF power generation setup, you might want to add some Speed Upgrades.


 * 1) Isotope Separator: The Isotope Separator is probably the most important part of the nuclear power process. It separates radioactive materials into their constituent Isotopes. You'll need: Another Alloy Furnace, 14 pieces of Coal, 4 Lead Ingots, 10 Iron Ingots, 6 Boron, 4 Lithium and 16 Redstone. Make 12 piles of Coal Dust, and craft 4 of them with 4 Lead Ingots to make 4 Basic Plating. Cook the remaining 10 graphite dust into bars and smelt them with 6 Iron Ingots in the Alloy Furnace to make Steel Alloy. Craft the 6 pieces of Steel Alloy with 6 Boron to make Ferroboron Alloy. Craft 4 pieces of the Ferroboron Alloy with Lithium to make Tough Alloy. With the Tough Alloy, Redstone and Basic Plating, make 4 pieces of Advanced Plating. Wrap the Alloy Furnace in Ferroboron Alloy and Advanced Plating to make an Isotope Separator.


 * 1) Put 16 Rhodochrosite gems (which can be acquired by mining Redstone Ore) into the Manufactory to make Crushed Rhodochrosite. You'll need it soon and it will take some time to grind.
 * 2) Put 8 Uranium Ingots into the Isotope Separator to extract the Uranium-238 isotope.
 * 3) Make 4 pieces of Advanced Plating. You should already have plenty of Sulfur from mining Coal. Craft the Advanced Plating with Sulfur and Uranium-238 to make DU Plating.
 * 4) Craft each piece of DU Plating with 4 Boron ingots and 4 pieces of Crushed Rhodochrosite to make Elite Plating.
 * 5) Nuclear Furnace: Make 4 more pieces of Tough Alloy and 4 pieces of Basic Plating. Craft with a Furnace to make a Nuclear Furnace.


 * 1) Fission Controller: The Fission Controller is the heart of a Fission Reactor. It is made using a Nuclear Furnace and some Elite Plating. In the Alloy Furnace, craft 4 Magnesium ingots and 8 Boron ingots to make 12 pieces of Magnesium Diboride. Combine with 4 pieces of Tough Alloy to make 4 pieces of Magnesium Diboride Solenoid. Now craft the Nuclear Furnace with the Solenoids and the Elite Plating to make your Fission Controller.

At this point, you should check your stock of Iron, Coal, Boron and Lithium. We're almost ready to make a Fission Reactor but we're going to need a lot of Basic Plating and Tough Alloy to make one. The main article on Fission Reactors describes how to build a Fission Reactor. You'll need to decide how big a reactor to make. Due to the complex nature of how Fission Reactors work, it's not possible to recommend a size, you're going to have to experiment. As a demonstration, we will construct a very small, simple, water-cooled Fission Reactor.


 * 1) Empty Cooler: Make 20 Tough Alloy and 20 Steel Alloy. Using these, craft 10 Empty Coolers. Craft each Empty Cooler with a Water Bucket to make Water Coolers.
 * 2) Reactor Casing: Make 8 Tough Alloy and 32 Basic Plating and craft them together to make 32 Reactor Casing blocks.
 * 3) Reactor Cell: Craft 8 Tough Alloy and 8 Glass together to make 2 Reactor Cells.
 * 4) Grind 9 pieces of Coal in the Manufactory to make Graphite Dust then re-grind to make Graphite Ingots. Craft the 9 ingots into a Graphite Block.
 * 5) Place 6 Reactor Casings on the ground in a 2x3 shape.
 * 6) On top of the Reactor casings, Place 3 Water Coolers in one row and then the two Reactor Cells with a Graphite Block between them in the other.
 * 7) Place 6 Water Coolers on top of the second layer. You should have one left over.
 * 8) Cover all exposed surfaces with Reactor Casings.
 * 9) Place the Fission Controller on one of the edges.
 * 10) Open the Fission Controller GUI with a right-click. Insert your TBU fuel rod into the inventory slot on the left.

If you've done everything correctly, it should report a 3x2x2 Fission Reactor that generates 255 RF/t, with a heat of -64 H/t and an efficiency of 212%. If not, check the steps and images above to find where you went astray. If it all looks good, apply a redstone signal with a Lever and it will start generating power!

A note about Heat: Following the exact steps above will result in a safe reactor that will not overheat and melt down. Using a different fuel with a different heat number may damage your reactor. Such details are outside the scope of this Getting Started guide. Please see the article on Fission Reactors for a more in-depth discussion about heat, fuels and coolers.