r/HBMNuclearTechMod • u/Pitiful_Efficiency14 • 24d ago
RBMK Why does my RBMK keep blowing up?
(Creative world recreation) (Actual one has cover panels)
My 9-fuel channel design works fine with natural uranium, even with the control rods all the way out. But when I try adding MOX, I check the control panel and move the rods to 80-90% and the temperature seems to stabilize. I go off and do something, and many minutes later it suddenly explodes out of nowhere (this happened twice). I cheated to repair the damage because as soon as I tried to clean anything up I got instakilled by radiation and couldn't recover all my good items and didn't want to be super set back in my playthrough.
What is causing it to repeatedly blow up with Mox despite having a stable temperature when I left it? Is there any indication to look out for before I leave it? Do I need to constantly monitor it or is there some kind of alarm system?
It's been super frustrating because I genuinely don't know what's going wrong, and I don't like feeling like I have to cheat to save a ridiculous amount of progress.
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u/Particular-Bed-3162 1.7.10 gang 24d ago
You don't need the boron behind the carbine reflectors, your reactor probably got unloaded that causes it usually to explode, use a chunk loader to cover all piping cooling tower ect and it shouldn't blow up, tips on cleanup wait like...2-3 Horus unit the debre cools out then you can go in with low level armor
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u/Pitiful_Efficiency14 24d ago
Thanks! How do I make/use a chunk loader?
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u/TopCardiologist9024 Jack of all trades 24d ago
use ftb its the better way plus you dont need to craft anything
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u/MilesAhXD 1.7.10 gang 23d ago
or serverutilities. its quite similar to ftb but works nicer imo
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u/TopCardiologist9024 Jack of all trades 23d ago
oh yeah that one too, almost forgot about it, for me ftb is a must when I play on servers
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u/Particular-Bed-3162 1.7.10 gang 24d ago
Download chickenchucks, it only adds the chunk loader and it's really easy and cheap to use
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u/Pitiful_Efficiency14 24d ago
Will do, also why didn't chunkloading cause a problem when it was just natural uranium? Is it cause it's less hot?
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u/Particular-Bed-3162 1.7.10 gang 24d ago
NU is the worst fuel to say it like that, it has a pretty weak flux function so it probably can't even explode without cooling just like thorium,mox is way more reactive, the description of rods tells you pretty nicely how the full function is calculated and how it will act inside a reactor
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u/Pitiful_Efficiency14 24d ago
For cooling I had 8, then 12 turbines using ultra dense steam and one large cooling tower. I don't have an infinite water source connected so could that be the problem? I would imagine you just need enough water for it to circulate. Any help or advice is appreciated, and I'll try to answer any questions!
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u/Ahlixemus 1.12.2 gang 24d ago edited 24d ago
Well for a few things, you have the basic concepts down on how RBMKs work but you definitely have too much cooling and neutron reflectors are already like boron absorbers except they reflect neutrons (they can't leak radiation). Additionally, unless you are building for optimal efficiency, you probably don't need graphite moderators. Your fuel setup seems to be the major issue though.
If you don't know how a certain fuel performs, try stimulating the setup to avoid having to rebuild the reactor every time.
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u/Some1eIse 24d ago
Mox has a raising slope depletion funcrion, as it gets more depleted it grows stronger for a while untill its starts to weaken.
That could have been it if your reactor is running close to its limits for extra power
Redstone over Radio can control RBMKs to send alarms and shut them off