Getting Started (NuclearCraft)

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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 Coal and Iron, some Nether Quartz, Redstone, Lapis Lazuli and Gold.
 * 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, 4 lead, 8 copper and a Piston. Use the iron and copper to make 4 Copper Solenoids then combine with the piston and lead to make a Manufactory.
 * 3) 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. 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.
 * 4) Isotope Separator: The Isotope Separator is probably the most important part of the nuclear power process. It separates radioactive materials into the constituent Isotopes. You'll need: Another Alloy Furnace, 14 coal, 4 Lead, 10 iron, 6 Boron, 4 Lithium and 16 redstone. Make 12 coal dust use 4 dust with 4 lead to make 4 Basic Plating. Cook the remaining 10 graphite dust into bars and alloy it with 6 iron to make Steel Alloy. Combine the 6 steel with 6 boron to make Ferroboron Alloy, then combine 4 pieces 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.
 * 5) Put 16 Rhodochrosite gems (which you get from mining Redstone) into the Manufactory to make Crushed Rhodochrosite. You'll need it soon and it take a while to grind.
 * 6) Put 8 Uranium ingots into the Isotope Separator to extract the Uranium-238 isotope.
 * 7) Make 4 pieces of Advanced Plating. You should already have plenty of Sulfur from mining Coal. Combine the Advanced Plating with Sulfur and Uranium-238 to make DU Plating.
 * 8) Combine each piece of DU Plating with 4 Boron ingots and 4 pieces of Crushed Rhodochrosite to make Elite Plating.
 * 9) Nuclear Furnace - Make 4 more Tough Alloy and 4 Basic Plating. Combine with a Furnace to make a Nuclear Furnace.
 * 10) Fission Controller - The heart of a Fission Reactor, a Fission Controller is made using a Nuclear Furnace and some Elite Plating. In the Alloy Furnace, combine 4 Magnesium ingots and 8 Boron ingots make 12 pieces of Magnesium Diboride. Combine with 4 pieces of Tough Alloy to make 4 pieces of Magnesium Diboride Solenoid. Now combine 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. For the purposes of demonstration, we'll now construct a very small, simple, water-cooled fission reactor.


 * 1) Empty Cooler - Make 20 Tough Alloy and 20 Steel Alloy. Using these, make 10 Empty Coolers. Combine each with a Water Bucket to make Water Coolers.
 * 2) Reactor Casing - Make 8 Tough Alloy and 32 Basic Plating and use them to make 32 Reactor Casing blocks.
 * 3) Reactor Cell - 8 Tough Alloy and 8 Glass and use them to make 2 Reactor Cells.
 * 4) Grind 9 Coal in the Manufactory to make Graphite Dust then re-grind to make Graphite Ingots. Turn 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 a row, then the two Reactor Cells with a Graphite Block between them.
 * 7) Place 6 Water Coolers on top, you should have one left over.
 * 8) Now cover all exposed surfaces with Reactor Casings.
 * 9) Finally, 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 it will generate 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: Using the steps above will result in a safe reactor that will not overhead and will never melt down. If however, you use a different fuel with a different heat number, you 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.