This is a small circuit to limit the rate that nuclear fuel is inserted into reactors and only when required.
Nuclear reactors consume fuel constantly regardless of demand, limiting the input improves efficiency.
Requirements
- Steam storage with at least one tank connected to a decider combinator, see setup.
- Regular inserters for the fuel with the stack size set to 1 and connected to the circuit network, enabled on nuclear fuel signal.
Setup
- Connect all fuel inserters and the steam detect to the same circuit network.
- The Steam detector should be set to output a steam signal when the steam level in the tank is below a set point (20,000 is suggested)
- Connect this network to the input of the left-most decider combinator.
- Connect the output of the right-most decoder combinator back to the network.
Theory of Operation
(See screenshot)
Nuclear fuel is consumed every 200 seconds or 12,000 ticks. The circuit is setup to output a signal for half a second every 200 seconds to allow one fuel to be inserted.
- A outputs a single steam signal when any steam signal is received
- B and F form a counter with a 2-tick cycle time
- D contains the system reset point. 6000 or half the ticks as the counter is incremented every other tick.
- C outputs the inserter enabling signal once the counter reaches the set point. (After 200 seconds)
- E adds 15 to the set point (half-second) which is read by F.
- F resets once the counter reaches the output of E (After 200.5 seconds)