Guide to Power
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Singularity Engine
The Singularity Engine is a powerful generator that uses a contained singularity to produce energy for the station. It generates power by collecting the radiation emitted by the singularity using Radiation Collectors and gaseous plasma.
Starting the Singularity Engine
To start the Singularity Engine, engineers must follow these steps:
- Place the Singularity Generator in the middle of the containment field. Some stations start with the generator already in place, while others require engineers to bring it from cold storage.
- Turn on the four Containment Field Generators.
- Turn on and lock the Emitters.
- Confirm that the Containment Field Generators have created a Containment Field around the Singularity.
- Turn on the Radiation Collectors. These require plasma to produce power. They might not come fueled, so be sure to refill them.
- Construct the Particle Accelerator.
- Turn on the Particle Accelerator Control Computer and set the power level to the desired power level.
Once these steps are complete, the Singularity Engine will start producing power for the station. Be sure to monitor the singularity's power level and containment field to prevent it from escaping and destroying the station. Check in to refill the collectors often, as they will run out of plasma over time.
Containment Field
To prevent the singularity from escaping and destroying the station, engineers must contain it within a Containment Field.
It is suggested to use a max size containment field for the singularity. Any smaller and the singularity may outgrow its field and escape.
Containment field generators should be arranged in a square, with 7 tiles of spacing between each field generator.
Power Levels and Decay
Because singularities emit radiation, they decay, losing power over time.
To counter this decay, the Particle Accelerator emits particles that collide with the singularity, feeding and sustaining it.
Singularities have defined power levels, which determine their radiation output. Engineers can increase or decrease the singularity's power level by adjusting the power level on the Particle Accelerator Control Computer.
Particle Accelerators normally operate between power levels 1 and 3, which translate to a power level of 1 to 3 on the singularity.
Power levels also determine how big the singularity is, with higher power levels sustaining larger singularities capable of producing more power.
Producing Power
The Singularity Engine produces power by capturing the radiation emitted by it using Radiation Collectors. They require gaseous plasma to function. The plasma containers attached to the collectors must be filled with plasma to produce power.
You can turn on the collectors by interacting with them using Use.
You can also eject the tank by interacting with the collector using Alt. From here, you can refill the tank with plasma using a plasma canister and reinsert it into the collector.
The maximum power the radiation collector can produce is determined by:
- The amount of radiation it is capturing (which is effectively the Singularity's power level)
- The amount of plasma it has in its connected tank
Over time the collector will drain the tank of plasma, which reduces it's effective power output. Eventually the tank will be empty, and the collector will stop producing power. Be sure to refill the tank often!
Radiation Protection
The singularity emits a massive amount of radiation, which can kill crew members who are not wearing proper protection. Be sure to wear a radiation suit or an engineering hardsuit when working near the singularity. This won't completely negate the radiation, but it will reduce the damage you take.
The Chief Engineer has a special hardsuit that negates all radiation damage, which allows them to work near the singularity without fear of accumulating radiation damage over time.
Singularity Properties
The Singularity has several properties, which both make it dangerous and useful for power generation:
- It has a strong gravitational pull that can suck in objects and crew members.
- It has an event horizon, which can permanently destroy any object that touches it, whether it be a crew member or station equipment. Any object swallowed by the singularity is lost forever, and feeds the singularity.
- It constantly emits radiation that can harm crew members who aren't wearing proper protection.
- The singularity can decay over time, losing power and radiation output.
Loosed Singularity (Singuloose)
If the singularity escapes its containment field, it will begin to consume the station, destroying everything in its path. The more it consumes, the larger it grows, making it harder to potentially contain it again.
The singularity can be destroyed by firing antiparticles at it using a Portable Particle Decelerator, but this is a risky and dangerous operation that requires careful planning and execution. Often multiple decelerators firing at once are needed to destroy a singularity.
Portable Particle Decelerators can be either researched and made by the Research Department, or they can be bought from Cargo.
Tesla Engine
The Tesla Engine is a powerful generator that uses a contained ball of lightning to produce energy for the station.
It generates power by harnessing the lightning strikes produced by the lightning ball using Tesla Coils.
Containment Field
The Tesla Engine requires a containment field to prevent the lightning ball from escaping and destroying the station.
It is suggested to use the minimum size containment field for the lightning ball. Larger containment fields allow the lightning ball to reach closer to sensitive equipment and potentially strike it, ignoring placed grounding rods and tesla coils.
Lightning Strikes
When the Tesla Engine is active, the lightning ball will periodically strike objects surrounding it.
The Tesla prefers to strike some objects more than others, such as Tesla Coils and Grounding Rods.
If the tesla can't find any Tesla Coils or Grounding Rods to strike first, it will strike almost any station object capable of being powered, such as Substations, APCs, and general machinery.
Certain objects aren't struck by the tesla, such as batteries, lights, PDAs, and other handheld items.
It will also strike mobs and crew members, shocking them. Make sure to wear insulated gloves before approaching it.
Tesla Coils
Lightning strikes can be harnessed using Tesla Coils, which convert the lightning strikes into power for the station.
Tesla Coils should be placed around the lightning ball to capture the energy from lightning strikes, as well as to prevent the lightning from striking sensitive equipment further away.
Tesla Coils take damage every time they are struck by lightning, and will eventually break if not repaired. Be sure to monitor the condition of the Tesla Coils and repair them as needed.
When lightning strikes Tesla Coils, they fill an internal battery, which is rapidly discharged to the grid. It will discharge this power even if there is no consumer to take it, so it's a good idea to have an SMES nearby to store the power and discharge it smoothly.
Grounding Rods
Grounding Rods help protect sensitive equipment from being struck and prevent a loosed tesla (tesloose).
Grounding rods do not take damage from lightning strikes. This makes them beneficial for forming a safety net of grounding rods to rely on in case the tesla coils are damaged or destroyed.
Engineers should use grounding rods to protect sensitive equipment from lightning strikes, such as the Emitters powering the containment field generators.
Loosed Tesla (Tesloose)
If the lightning ball escapes the containment field, it is referred to as a loosed tesla, or tesloose.
An escaped tesla will randomly walk around the station, attracted to objects that can be powered, such as APCs, Substations, and machinery. It will also gladly strike crew members and mobs, shocking them.
Wearing insulated gloves will protect you from being shocked by the tesla, but it won't prevent the tesla from striking you.
The tesla can be destroyed by firing antiparticles at it using a Portable Particle Decelerator, however, the Tesla is much more powerful than the Singularity, and it will take a lot of antiparticles to destroy it. A group of people using decelerators is recommended to destroy a tesloose.
Portable Particle Decelerators can be either researched and made by the Research Department, or they can be bought from Cargo.
Nuclear Generator
The Nuclear Generator generates power by heating a gas through fission reactions in a Nuclear Reactor, which then spins a Gas Turbine.
The Nuclear Reactor
The Nuclear Reactor is the primary source of heat the generator uses to make power.
It is represented as a grid of Reactor Rod ports, which engineers can insert different fabricated rods into.
Heat is generated through fission reactions inside fuel rods and transferred into the coolant gas by gas channels.
Reactor Rods
Reactor Rods are the parts that go into the Reactor grid and cause it to function.
They transfer heat and interact with neutrons within the Reactor.
If a Reactor Rod's Temperature reaches 1426C (1700k), it will begin to melt.
Once melted it will become much more active and able to transfer heat into the Reactor, which may cause a total meltdown.
Handling hot Reactor Rods can cause serious burns.
If it is hotter than 80C you'll need gloves to be able to handle them. At 400C, not even gloves will protect you.
There are four different types of Reactor Rods that can be manufactured from a variety of materials and placed into the Reactor grid: Fuel Rods, Neutron Reflectors, Gas Channels, and Heat Exchangers.
Fuel Rods
Fuel Rods are the source of neutrons and heat within the Reactor.
They can emit neutrons through spontaneous decay or from interacting with existing neutrons, creating heat.
They have two statistics that determine their effectiveness and volatility:
- Neutron Radioactivity: Creates high-energy neutrons and large amounts of heat. Decays into Radioactivity.
- Radioactivity: Creates neutrons and heat. Decays into Spent Fuel.
Every fuel rod assembly contains control rods which start out fully inserted.
Retracting the control rods allows neutrons to pass through the fissile fuel and start nuclear chain reactions.
Be careful to not retract them too quickly, lest you create another Chernobyl disaster.
They also keep track of how much Spent Fuel they contain, which does not affect the Fuel Rod's performance, but can indicate when it is time to replace it.
Once a Fuel Rod contains enough Spent Fuel, it can be reprocessed by a nuclear centrifuge to create plutonium, which can be used to make plutonium fuel rods.
Neutron Reflectors
Neutron reflectors reflect neutrons usually in the direction they were emitted from.
Some materials are better than others, with graphite reflectors reflecting almost all neutrons.
Reflectors allow you to decrease the critical mass for your fuel, so don't let your screwdriver slip.
Gas Channels
Gas Channels transfer heat from themselves into the coolant gas that flows through them.
Each Gas Channel will increase the flow rate by 100 L/s, allowing the Reactor to process more gas at once.
Heat Exchangers
Heat Exchangers guide the spread of heat within the Reactor.
They are exceptionally good at transferring heat and don't interact with neutrons, making them ideal for getting heat from a Fuel Rod into a Gas Channel without interfering with the fission process.
Controlling the Reactor
The Reactor is controlled and modified through its UI, which also provides information on the Reactor's status.
The Reactor UI has three major panels: Targeting, Grid View, Status Panel
Targeting
The targeting panel has controls for inserting and removing rods into and out of the Reactor grid.
The position of the target are adjusted through the arrow buttons buttons, with the exact coordinate shown in the center.
Reactor Rods can be inserted or removed through the Insert/Remove button below the position buttons.
If there is a Reactor Rod at the target position, it will show information on that Reactor Rod, including its:
- Name
- Temperature (T)
- Neutron Radioactivity (N)
- Radioactivity (R)
- Spent Fuel (S)
The bottom of the panel displays the name of the part that in the Reactor's inventory, which is ready to be inserted into the grid or taken out of the Reactor.
Grid View
The grid view gives a graphic visualization of the status of the Reactor grid.
The Change View button can be used to alternate between the different views:
- Temperature View: shows the temperature of the components
- Neutron View: shows the number of neutrons at any given position
- Target View: shows the current target location
- Fuel View: shows the fuel level of the components
Status Panel
The status panel gives information on the Reactor as a whole and provides control of the control rods.
The Temperature Gauge shows the current temperature of the Reactor, in a range between -273C and 1726C (0k to 2000k).
If the Reactor ever reaches 1726C (2000k), it will meltdown.
The Radiation Gauge shows the current radiation being emitted by the Reactor, in a range between 0 and 50 rads.
The Thermal Power Gauge shows an estimation of the amount of thermal power being made by the Reactor, in a range between 0 and 10 000 000 thermal watts (Wt).
Thermal Power is a decent estimation of how much power can be extracted from the gas by the Turbine.
Thermal Power has a tendency to increase and decrease as the Reactor runs, rarely remaining stable.
The Control Rod Gauges show the actual and set insertion levels of the control rods within the Reactor, and provide buttons to change the insertion level.
100% insertion means the control rods are as effective as possible and 0% insertion means the control rods are functionally disabled.
Circuit control
Integrated circuits can work well with reactors.
You can read the current control rod insertion percentage, casing temperature and thermal power generation as integer inputs.
You can write the target control rod insertion percentage too, allowing you to indirectly control the fission rate.
Cooling the Reactor
The Reactor is cooled through the use of gases, but some gases have effects on the Reactor when in sufficient quantities:
Plasma has a reactive effect, creating more neutrons and decaying into Tritium.
If there is enough plasma within the Reactor, it may end up going into a runaway reaction and melting down.
Carbon Dioxide has a moderative effect, removing neutrons that come into contact with it.
This can be used to regulate a plasma reaction or slow down the Reactor.
Tritium transmutes within a Reactor, randomly decaying into a wide variety of gases:
- Oxygen
- Nitrogen
- Ammonia
- Nitrous Oxide
- Frezon
In the presence of Oxygen and at the temperatures of the Reactor, Tritium will begin to burn, creating large amounts of heat.
Reactor Radiation
The Reactor sometimes allows some radiation to leak out, which can pose a danger to unprotected crew.
The radiation level of the Reactor is determined by how many neutrons are escaping the Reactor grid.
Proper protection and shielding are highly recommended when working near the Reactor.
The Gas Turbine
The Gas Turbine is where the power actually gets made.
It takes in hot gas from the Reactor and outputs electricity and sends colder gas back to the Reactor.
The amount of energy made by the Turbine is affected by its RPM, which is adjusted through Flow Rate and Stator Load.
Flow Rate
The Flow Rate determines how much gas goes through the Turbine every second.
The higher the Flow Rate, the higher the RPM of the Turbine.
Flow Rate is usually set to allow maximum flow through the Reactor core, which can be found by the following equation: 100 * number of gas channels + 200.
Stator Load
The Stator Load determines how much power is made by each revolution of the Turbine.
The higher the Stator Load, the lower the RPM of the Turbine.
Stator Load is usually adjusted to ensure the Turbine stays at optimal RPM.
RPM
The RPM (Rotations Per Minute) represents how fast the Turbine is spinning.
The Turbine has an optimal RPM, where it will produce the most power.
Going faster or slower than optimal will result in poor performance.
Circuit control
Like a reactor, turbines can be controlled by integrated circuits.
Both the flow rate and stator load can be set to integer values.
You can read the current speed as well as the power generated and being used.
Turbine Status Indicators
The Turbine has a set of status indicators to warn operators of dangerous conditions or faults.
Overspeed
The Turbine RPM is too high.
If the Turbine RPM gets too high, it will start to take damage.
Prolonged time spent at overspeed or excessive overspeed will cause the Turbine to tear itself apart.
Damage to the Turbine can be repaired with a welder, though it will likely take multiple attempts to fully repair it.
Overtemp
The gas going into the Turbine is too hot.
If the gas coming into the Turbine is hotter than 2726C (3000k), it will trigger an emergency purge valve and dump the gas into the room.
This hot gas can cause serious burns to personnel or even a fire, if the gas is flammable.
Stalling
The gas is not hot enough for the set stator load.
Stalling is where the gas going into the Turbine isn't "pushing" hard enough to overcome the stator load's resistance.
Undertemp
The gas going into the Turbine is too cold.
If the gas is at or below room temperature (20C), there is no energy for the Turbine to take out of it.
Turbine Parts
Turbine parts are what define how well the turbine functions.
Turbine parts are made in the Nuclear Fabricator from a set of materials.
The Turbine is capable of accepting two different types of parts: Blades and Stators
Turbine Blades
Turbine blades govern the integrity and inertia of the turbine.
Higher integrity means it can take more damage before failing, making it generally safer.
Higher inertia means it will take more energy to change the RPM, which leads to smoother operation.
Stators
Stators affect the power efficiency and output of the Turbine.
Starting the Nuclear Generator
To start the Nuclear Generator, engineers must follow these steps:
- Fill the coolant loop with a gas.
- Set the Turbine's Flow Rate according to the Reactor setup.
- Insert the Fuel Rods into the empty spots in the Reactor grid, typically by a control rod(s) and surrounded by heat exchangers and gas channels.
- Retract the Control Rods to start warming up the Reactor.
- As the Reactor warms up, engineers will want to keep adjusting the Turbine's Stator Load to maintain optimal RPM.
- Once the Turbine is making enough power for the station, the Control Rods should be inserted to the point of maintaining Reactor temperature.
Over time, the Fuel Rods will lose radioactivity, meaning the Control Rods should be retracted further or the fuel rods replaced.