Radioactive Elements FAQ
What versions and expansions does it support?
Factorio 2.1.23 or later. It works with or without Space Age and Quality enabled. You need to own Space Age either way, because cartridges use spoiling.
Do I need a new map or new ore patches?
It adds no ore. You can add it to an existing save, but it changes yellow science and rockets, so a new map gives you the intended progression.
Does it add another science pack?
No. Every new technology uses normal science packs. Yellow science takes a calibrated detector on top of its normal ingredients.
What do I need to launch a rocket?
In the base game, all four production lines. With Space Age, your first rocket needs none of them, because they come in later science packs instead. In the base game, polonium makes the detectors for yellow science, and cobalt, strontium and yttrium, and californium together make avionics. The silo needs 20 avionics and 10 calibrated detectors, and each of the 100 rocket parts needs 1 avionics.
How do I load a cartridge?
Put it in the machine's normal input slot, by hand or with its own inserter. Old and expired cartridges come out through the output, so use a filtered output inserter. To remove one early, take it out of the slot by hand.
Are cartridges used up by every recipe?
No. The recipe lists the cartridge as used and returned, like U-238 in Kovarex. One cartridge serves many jobs.
Why do I need nuclear power before Fulgora?
With Space Age, each supercapacitor takes 1 insulation, and insulation needs a cobalt cartridge. Electromagnetic plant research needs Gamma processing, so you build the nuclear and cobalt lines first. It only takes red, green and blue science.
Do cartridges age in storage or while the game is closed?
They age while the game runs, including in chests, on belts and in unpowered machines. They don't age while the game is closed or paused. A running multiplayer server keeps them aging.
Why does the daughter generator wait?
A strontium parent builds up its yttrium reserve slowly, and the reserve also decays. It takes about 12 minutes for one cartridge from an empty reserve at full strength. The progress bar and status line show how far along it is. The collection itself takes 5 seconds and needs one empty housing and power.
Do the reactors have to make electricity?
No. The isotope reactor and advanced campaign reactor keep running at maximum temperature, and using their heat is optional. Take out each finished assembly so the next can start. Cobalt-loaded cells burn in normal nuclear reactors, which make their usual power.
Why is my bench not getting detectors?
Like any machine, it stops being fed once finished products pile up in its output. Empty the output and it continues.
What happens to old cartridges?
A machine returns its cartridge at the strength you set. One that's still active can serve another machine set to a lower strength. A hot cell recovers the housing from old or expired cartridges using sulfuric acid.
Can cartridges clog my belts?
They can. A cartridge that expires on a belt stays there as a spent cartridge, and enough of them can block the belt. Keep cartridge belts short, and don't make more yttrium than you need, since it expires fastest.
How do I avoid piling up a recovered material?
Balanced recovery makes 6 U-238, 2 strontium concentrate and 2 actinide concentrate from 10 depleted cells and 40 acid in 60 seconds. Either selective mode makes 6 U-238 and 3 of the material you choose, using 60 acid and 90 seconds. Use selective recovery when one material would otherwise fill your buffers. A full output holds the finished batch in the machine until there's room.
Which other mods are integrated?
Cadmium, Caesium, Tellurium, Magnesium, Antimony and Neodymium add parts directly. Gallium and Phosphorus come in through their own circuits, and Molybdenum adds steel and rhenium alloy to the reactors and its own parts to the rocket silo and rocket parts. The Bismuth and Cobalt2 mods can supply the metal for targets. With Cerys, its Fulgoran reactor can make californium. With Antimony, each module 2 takes 1 antimony memory and module 3 no longer takes its own 2, which changes the balance slightly.
Does it work with Cerys?
Yes, and it's the planet mod we recommend with it. Research High-flux irradiation on Cerys, and the repaired Fulgoran reactor makes a californium cartridge in one burn of a high-flux target. A hot cell also recovers actinide concentrate from depleted mixed-oxide cells. Empty the reactor's output with an inserter, because the reactor stops after its next fuel cell while a finished target waits there. Nothing in Cerys itself changes.
Does it work in multiplayer?
Yes. It has been tested with a server and two clients, including joining mid-game. If you find a problem, please report your Factorio and mod versions, your mod list and a save.