Fusion Reactor

The Fusion Reactor is an LuV tier multiblock for producing plasmas and molten rare metals through nuclear fusion. Every fusion recipe has a high start cost (EU) but then is very easy to sustain afterwards. Energy hatches increase the total energy capacity of the machine and evenly split the required power. The voltage of the energy hatches is irrelevant as long as it is above the minimum tier and supplies enough EU/t to sustain the reactor. Overclocks only occur when the tier of the Fusion Reactor exceeds the minimum recipe tier. The first three tiers run 2/2 perfect overclocks while the last two tiers run 4/4 perfect overclocks. The Fusion Reactor is superseded by the Compact Fusion Reactor which offers up to 320 parallels to meet the high demand for plasma in the later tiers.

The Fusion Reactor is primarily used for unlocking new materials, but it can also generate an immense amount of power in the Large Plasma Turbine, the XL Turbo Plasma Turbine, or the Extreme Heat Exchanger (EHE) with a series of XL Turbo Steam Turbines behind it. There is even a whole processing line for obtaining rare plasmas with increasingly higher energy densities. The culmination of the plasma line is celestial tungsten plasma (720k EU/L) which is 288x denser than high octane gasoline (2.5k EU/L) and 450x denser than nitrobenzene (1.6k EU/L). Use the planner linked below for full setup breakdowns.

Spreadsheet: GTNH Power Planner 2.9

The Fusion Reactor has several restrictions on the location of the buses/hatches. Input hatches are limited to specific top or bottom casings on on each side, output hatches are limited to specific middle casings on each side, and energy hatches are limited to specific middle casings on each curve. Multi-amp and laser energy hatches are not supported, but there can be multiple regular energy hatches for increasing the energy capacity of the machine and splitting the required power. Every tier has a minimum voltage for the energy hatches. There is no maintenance hatch. Use the Multiblock Structure Hologram Projector to visualize/build the structure.

Structure

• Controller: Middle center, 2nd layer
• 79-123 Fusion Machine Casing^[1]
• 32 Fusion Coil Block^[1]
• 1-16 Energy Hatch: Specific middle casings on each curve
• 1+ Input Hatch: Specific top or bottom casings on each side
• 1+ Output Hatch: Specific middle casings on each side

Wallsharing

Fusion Reactors may wallshare each of their sides to save on casings and buses/hatches. It is also possible to share the three fusion coils on each edge which can actually save a fair amount of resources given that the fusion coils are by far the most expensive part of the machine. However, all fusion coils and casings must be the same tier for the structure to form.

The Fusion Reactor functions differently than nearly every other multiblock in GTNH. There can be up to 16 energy hatches per machine to increase its total energy capacity and split the total power consumed. Every recipe has a minimum energy capacity or start cost that must be met before the machine can begin processing. Consecutive recipes do not pay the start cost which means a lot of power can be saved by continuously running the Fusion Reactor or at least increasing the size of crafting requests.

The voltage of the energy hatches is irrelevant as long as it is above the minimum tier and supplies enough EU/t. Energy hatches never draw more than 1/16A of power so there is absolutely no reason to upgrade them without also upgrading the Fusion Reactor itself. That also means an entire Fusion Reactor never uses more than 1A power--they are very easy to sustain after the initial start cost.

Overclocks only occur when the tier of the Fusion Reactor exceeds the minimum recipe tier. They have nothing to do with the tier of the energy hatches or the available power. The first three machine tiers run 2/2 perfect overclocks while the last two tiers run 4/4 perfect overclocks.

The Fusion Reactor has no parallels and a fixed batch size of 8. Even the GUI of the controller has nothing but the internal energy of the machine. Information about the current recipe is only visible in WAILA when looking at the controller, or a NuclearControl2 information panel. Enable/disable the Fusion Reactor with a machine controller cover or by using a soft mallet on the controller. Void-protection is permanently enabled so the machine automatically stops processing whenever the output hatch(es) are full.

Some fusion recipes use plasma as one or both of their input ingredients. This forms a chain that culminates with celestial tungsten plasma. Each combination is more energy dense than the last which reduces the penalty of using the XL Turbo Plasma Turbine for power. The following tables list the order of plasmas and the ratio of Fusion Reactors to sustain ONE running the highest tier plasma available, assuming they all have enough power for the maximum number of overclocks.

The required L/s refers to how much fluid is needed for the highest tier plasma and the per reactor L/s refers to much one Fusion Reactor can actually produce. The latter is responsible for the ratios. Note that it may be easier to just pattern fusion recipes and level-maintain the highest tier plasma available rather than dedicate Fusion Reactors to specific recipes. The ratios also do not have to be perfect--it is significantly easier to overestimate the lower tier plasmas than to follow these numbers exactly.

Plasmas are incredibly energy dense and generate an immense amount of power in the Large Plasma Turbine, the XL Turbo Plasma Turbine, or the Extreme Heat Exchanger (EHE) with a series of XL Turbo Steam Turbines behind it. The most popular plasmas are highlighted blue in the following table and the remaining subsections cover a few example setups. Use the planner linked at the top for a complete list of turbine materials and full setup breakdowns.

See More: Large Plasma Turbine

The Large Plasma Turbine (LPT) consumes plasma every second to generate up to 4A power. However, a turbine must be placed inside the controller for the machine to run, the input rate of plasma must be carefully regulated, and it must be running for at least 50 seconds to fully warm-up. Consumed plasma is returned as its molten variant.

See More: XL Turbo Plasma Turbine

The XL Turbo Plasma Turbine (XLPT) consumes plasma every second to generate an immense amount of power. It has 16x the throughput as the LPT with only 12 turbines, supports multi-amp and laser dynamo hatches, and does not explode if the dynamo hatch is broken while the machine is running. However, the turbines must be identical for the machine to run, there are harsher penalties for exceeding the optimal flow rate, there are penalties for using lower density fuels, and the machine must be running for at least 50 seconds to fully warm-up. Consumed plasma is returned as its molten variant.

See More: Extreme Heat Exchanger

The Extreme Heat Exchanger (EHE) evaporates distilled water into dense supercritical steam with the heat from plasma regardless of the input rate. The dense supercritical steam must then pass through a series of XL Turbo Steam Turbines (XLST) to generate an immense amount of power. The supercritical, superheated, and regular variants of the machine all have 16x the throughput as the Large Steam Turbine, support multi-amp and laser dynamo hatches, and do not explode if the dynamo hatch is broken while the machine is running. Consumed plasma is returned as its molten variant.

The Fusion Reactor does not need to be automated because it should be running passively or at least for long periods of time. The only issue that it could run into is powerfailing when quickly switching between recipes because it does not have enough time to completely fill its internal energy buffer. The recommended solution is to increase batch or pattern sizes to keep the machine running for at least a few seconds per recipe.