This mod is a tweak upon a brilliant "Realistic Reactors" mod. The goals are:

1. to have the reactors react more smoothly to temperature changes

   • I dislike reactor's performance jump once temperature reaches 500 degrees. I think, so do you. With this mod, this is no longer the case.
   • the power and efficiency charts are no longer straight lines. They curve up and down taking you onto an exploration journey

2. to extend the fun into higher temperatures

   • regular RealisticReactors mod provides little incentives to run your reactors hot. Yes - you can do it, but usually you don't need to. It's much easier to set up an alarm if your reactor temperature goes over 800 degrees and may be even automatic shutdown.

3. Make different reactor types shine at what they are designed for and discourage abuse

   • For me the typical gameplay was: once breeders researched - replace all reactors to breeders; once breeder fuel cells researched - stop producing regular fuel cells. With this mod nerfs both breeders and breeder cells in terms of energy production. At the same time breeding with regular reactors is inefficient. So you'll likely use both - just as intended.

4. to allow getting the "Fusion is for men" Krastorio 2 achievement

   • Krastorio 2 has a Fusion reactor, which requires Deuterium, which requires U-235. With this mod breeding should become feasible - as long as you enable "classic" fuel cycle in the Nuclear Fuel mod. NOTE: version 4.0.0 has introduced enough changes to possibly make this point not true anymore. [Re]balancing might be needed.

So it is a different mod to RealisticReactors?

This mod is currently considered to be a test drive - I might eventually deprecate it and incorporate the changes into the upstream mods (RR, NF and K2).

So what's different, exactly?

1. Reactors will be less powerful at lower temperatures. Usually that's what you want anyways at early stages of the game
2. The sweet spot might be at different temperatures than in the original mod. It also depends on how many reactors you have.
3. It makes less sense to use regular reactors as breeders and breeders as regulars than in original mod (that's something that bugged me a lot).
4. New features! Control rods. Reactors stop to reload. Cell fullness mechanics.

The reactor operational envelope (cell fullness explained)

Below is an example of a not necessarily typical yet possible history of your reactor power over the span of a single fuel cell.

• Here I assume a constant reactor temperature over the whole chart. Had it not been the case, the red-green edge would have had certain curviness to it.

• The reactor power axis goes from down up.

• The time goes from left to right. Or, to be more precise, the cell fullness axis goes from right to left. The fuel cell is 100% full at the left edge and completely empty at the right edge.
• The red band above is the power region that will damage your reactor. It is disabled by default.
• The yellow triangle top right is the "starvation region" - at that time the cell is used up enough to limit your reactor power.
• The blue triangle bottom right is the "shutdown region" - don't enter it if you want to keep your reactor running.
• The shadowed region top left is the "runaway region". It causes the reactor to keep increasing its power uncontrollably.
• The black line is the chart of the reactor power over time. It is one of many possible and is determined by the circuit logic you built. Let's pretend that your circuit logic took you on this particular ride. Please excuse my unsteady hand.

1. New cell is loaded
2. Reactor start up complete. The power growth stops being linear and becomes exponential (as long as circuit logic dictates power increase)
3. Circuit logic decides to slow down a bit. This is for illustration purposes, albeit if it didn't do it - it would have certainly entered the "runaway region" which would have been catastrophical.
4. Power level reaches the maximum safe level. Since circuit logic keeps increasing power, the reactor starts taking damage. The red region is forbidden by default so if you didn't change your settings, your power chart will just slide along the red-green edge until it reaches point 6.
5. The power level touches the starvation region which reflects the cell fullness. The region was off the chart on the left, but now it became low enough for the power line to hit it. Reactor power starts dropping.
6. The fuel starvation caused the reactor power to get low enough for the reactor to not take damage anymore (if it is still alive).
7. The fuel starvation caused the reactor power to get low enough to enter the shutdown region. That region is also dictated by the cell fullness (the cell is almost empty at that point). Reactor shutdown begins.
8. The reactor shuts down. The cell is almost empty now and is automatically replaced by a fresh cell (if available). The power chart starts again from the left.

How to switch to this mod from Realistic Reactors

Unfortunately, this is a bit tedious.
1. Read all these instructions first
2. Shut down all your reactors
3. Demolish all your reactors
4. Save your game (a different name is recommended)
5. Install the mod
6. Load the save WITHOUT syncing the mods
7. Go to the "settings" -> "mod settings" and select "classic" as fuel cycle for Nuclear Fuel mod.
8. Re-read "tips and tricks" pages. All of them have changed and some new were added.
9. Rebuild and restart your reactors.
10. Demolish and rebuild your cooling towers. This will restore animations.

How to switch back.

Do all the same steps, but for the original mod.