RGS Heating Unit

[lukiono]

Hello

i have a question about this unit:

i tried to repair the damaged radioactive heater unit in phase 3.

so, i dismantled it and try to repair on the desk. but the unit switches everytime back to my hand.
after a few trys it disappear completly.

bug or feature?

kind regards

[Hyper]

So you say you take the heater out of the RSG which is known to be broke since it tells you when you open the service panel on the unit yes?
You take this unit to a repair bench and select repair.
It places the unit back in your hand at this point ... Does it tell you any information.?
If the unit is damaged beyond repair it will do that. And if that is the case, you have been challenged to operate the base with one generator down... Can you do it? Things like this is what the game is about.
I will research the fail mode on it disappearing, until then survive ......

[Balazur]

And why not add it to list of craftable items?.. 

[Hyper]

It could be added but to get uranium and refine it would be a bit beyond the scope of setting up a remote base. Mars 2 may have that ability.

[Balazur]

It could be added but to get uranium and refine it would be a bit beyond the scope of setting up a remote base. Mars 2 may have that ability.

"Some reactors, for example the Canadian-designed Candu and the British Magnox reactors, use natural uranium as their fuel."
From world nuclear association site...
I guess energy output will be less in that case...
And in case of MCC 2 there are some technologies that require laser for U235 enrichment, more compact than centrifuge I assume...
But I don't remember what isotope was exactly mentioned in RGS... Might be not uranium at all...
(exmpl = Deuterium or Helium 3) 
Anyways, irreplaceable part in generator seemed to be more annoyin' than challenging...

[Hyper]

Point taken, will add it to the design list for discussion.. Thanks...

[profit004]

RSG's Use plutonium and they do not have a nuclear reaction going in them.   It is called decay heat and it is the heat given off as radioactive isotopes decay.  I believe it may be plutonium 238 that they gather from reactors used in RSG's.

[Balazur]

Question is: can it be crafted then?..

[Hyper]

No they can't be crafted in this version. Making that material would be rather difficult even on earth but we could get a supply from Earth to work. Add it to the list for version 2

[Balazur]

I'm just curious... 238 Pt is mined or refined?.. If mined = then why not?..
(In MCC 2.0 at least)

[Hyper]

It is refined with a centrifuge facility I believe.
I will look into other products like thorium that we might mine and refine easier.

[profit004]

Plutonium 238 is neither mined nor refined, it is created by exposing the element neptunium-237 to a high neutron flux and separating out the isotope.   Before you ask, you get neptunium-237 from nuclear waste, it is created in a high neutron flux environment, but it has to be separated out and exposed separately in order to get the more pure plutonium that is needed for an RSG.

Thorium-232 is used in reactors, but it itself is not fissile, it must capture a neutron and become protactinium then beta decay to uranium 233.  the uranium is fissile and can be used in a standard nuclear reactor, but would not work for a RSG.

[Balazur]

So centrifuge or particle accelerator needed in any case?..

[profit004]

You actually need a nuclear reactor for the neutron flux required for any measurable production.