Architect Archive

I am considering purchasing a fusion generator but I have a few questions about them.

1. What kind of resource (if any) do they need to be placed on.

2. What is the maintence cost of them.

3. If there is no resource associated with them how much power to the produce.

1. They need to be placed on radioactive material

2. Their maintenance rate is 30, so therefore 1440 credits a day, same as a medium harvester.

3. These things churn out TONS of power, max 13Kg/h(!), and are great value considering they burn so little creds in maintenance. Market value for these things starts at 150k and up at the moment.

Arrgh!

The physics geek in me gets a twitch whenever I see fusion generators using radioactive fuel.

Fusion occurs using small, stable atoms. Most models currently in discussion would fuse hydrogen molecules into helium.

Radioactive elements are used in fission reactions. The large nuclei are unstable, and their breakdown releases energy and particle radiation.

I guess I can tell myself that the fusion reaction uses a fission starter, like hydrogen bomb warheads.

I accept a whole bunch of other silly things in the interest of game design, but it would just take a little name change to make the dork in me happy...

Ok, /geekrant off. . .

Yeah, they could have thrown us a bone and called them Fission Generators.

well.. their version of fusion might be more advance.. it is after all star wars... I remember star trek using crystals to get power... what is that? fission? fusion?? who cares

granted in our current technological understanding.. some words are like that.. but this is on a galaxy far far away.. they might have name it something different.. also.. the word water could be a curse word in other languages.. who knows

I know its been posted here before, but how do you work a fusion generator? What resource am I looking for with it, radioactive? If so, how is it better than a Heavy Mineral Harvester?

Look for radioactives under the Mineral Surveyor.

Reactors pull a lot more radioactives then a heavy Harvester wouldplus the harvester needs power. The Reactor does not need power.

Thanks.

Details:

Heavy Mineral Harvesters extract a maximum of 700 units per hour, costs 2160 credits per day to maintain, and 1800 power per day to run.

Fusion Gens extract a maximum of 1300 units per hour, cost 1440 credits per day to maintain, and don't require power.

Fusion Generators do NOT harvest radioactive minerals. It needs to be placed on a radioactive mineral source to work, but it turns them into radioactive energy. This resource will not work in the mineral, metal or radioactive mineral slot of a schematic. It will ONLY work to power a factory or harvester.

Um you can hand sample radioactives and use them as power. The fusions don't do anymore than harvest at a much greater rate.

Mineral survey tool... Radioactive.

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Chibi-Bar wrote:

well.. their version of fusion might be more advance.. it is after all star wars... I remember star trek using crystals to get power... what is that? fission? fusion?? who cares

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Actually, dilithium crystals were used in Star Trek as a means of controlling a matter-antimatter reaction, as a inhibitor, somewhat similar to the use various graphite composites are put to today in fission reactors.

Star Trek's version of M/AM was deuterium collected magnetically in the collectors at the front of the engine nacelles, combined with a magnetically stored quantity of anti-hydrogen.

And today's version of fusion does actually work better with the semi-stable isotope of helium, Helium-3. This symmetrically fused to produce one stable helium atom, plus energy. Work with TOKOMAK is well on it's way to making this method more practical.

Basically, when you want to change the subatomic sturcture of something, it's easier to work with an atom that's ready to change, takes less energy to make it change state. Until you hit the Iron limit, then it takes more energy to put the two components together than you can usefully extract.