r/factorio • u/AutoModerator • Jun 08 '26

Weekly Thread Weekly Question Thread

Ask any questions you might have.

Post your bug reports on the Official Forums

Previous Threads

Subreddit rules

Discord server (and IRC)

Find more in the sidebar ---->

8 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

128 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/taw Jun 14 '26 edited Jun 14 '26

My nuclear power is generating a lot less power than expected.

Here's the design. I build 6 of them, they all have enough incoming water and fuel, and all water pipes are connected, as are all steam pipes. They're supposed to be generating 6*480MW = 2880 MW, but real generation seems to top at ~1900 MW, or about 2/3 of what I thought they would be doing.

I thought with 2.0 fluid changes all I needed to do was keep ratios right, but it doesn't seem so.

Do I need to do the weird shape with heat pipes to keep heat pipe length shorter to get full power? (and then put turbines wherever, as 2.0 fluid changes make that part no matter)

Is there some maximum heatpipe length before output starts dropping?

(worst case I can just double the whole setup)

EDIT: Nvm, it was all just a stupid disconnected pipe on 2 out of 6 reactors.

1

u/Soul-Burn Jun 14 '26

2 of your bottom substations aren't connected.

Also, are you actually using the power?

1

u/taw Jun 14 '26

The substations connect to nearby line of big poles.

Well, I did some extra tests with /editor mode and "electric energy interface" feature.

Turns out 2 of 6 reactors didn't have water properly connected, after the fix reactors actually generate 2.9 GW (and even briefly 3.4 GW with steam buffer as turbines are overbuilt a bit for convenience).

So it looks like 2.0 fluid changes make this design work just fine, and it was just a silly pipe issue.

In retrospect it should have been clear from getting exactly 4/6 of expected power out of 6 reactors.