Plutonium Fuel Rod
Plutonium Fuel Rods are a very late-game fuel produced by reprocessing 
Uranium Waste. They give off extremely strong radiation.
Burning Plutonium Fuel Rods in Nuclear Power Plants produces 
Plutonium Waste, which, unlike Uranium Waste, cannot be reprocessed and has to be stored indefinitely. By sinking the rods in an AWESOME Sink instead, no Plutonium Waste is produced. This means the player has a choice between producing additional power but having to store permanent Plutonium Waste, or sinking the rods, producing no extra power but getting rid of all Uranium Waste, therefore, running a waste-free nuclear power setup.
Alternatively, they can be used as vehicle fuel, without producing any Plutonium Waste.
Obtaining
Crafting
| Recipe | Ingredients | Produced in | Products | Unlocked by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plutonium Fuel Rod | 30 ×  Encased Plutonium Cell7.5 / min18 ×  Steel Beam4.5 / min6 ×  Electromagnetic Control Rod1.5 / min10 ×  Heat Sink2.5 / min |
Manufacturer 240 sec |
1 ×  Plutonium Fuel Rod0.25 / min |
Tier 8 - Particle Enrichment |
| Plutonium Fuel Unit Alternate |
20 × Encased Plutonium Cell10 / min1 ×  Pressure Conversion Cube0.5 / min |
Assembler 120 sec |
1 × Plutonium Fuel Rod0.5 / min |
Tier 8 - Particle Enrichment |
Alternate recipes analysis
The following shows different ways to produce 1 Plutonium Fuel Rod / second, or 60 / min:
| Recipe | Iron Ore /min (WP) |
Copper Ore /min (WP) |
Limestone /min (WP) |
Coal /min (WP) |
Caterium Ore /min (WP) |
Raw Quartz /min (WP) |
Sulfur /min (WP) |
Crude Oil m3/min (WP) |
Bauxite /min (WP) |
Nitrogen Gas m3/min (WP) |
Total WP | Total Energy /item (MJ) |
Space (m2) |
Building counts |
Nuclear Waste/min |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Default | 4805.77 (682.83) |
2880 (997.92) |
4821.43 (912.11) |
4500 (1456.31) |
1200 (1086.96) |
2892.86 (2755.10) |
4050 (5921.05) |
1026.67 (877.49) |
4800 (4907.98) |
16200 (13500) |
33097.76 | 94362.50 | 502002 | 2755.95 | 10125 |
| Unit | 3639.41 (517.11) |
1732 (600.14) |
5374.29 (1016.70) |
2120 (686.08) |
780 (706.52) |
2700 (2571.43) |
2700 (3947.37) |
1416.44 (1210.64) |
7160 (7321.06) |
12720 (10600) |
29177.05 | 73054.76 | 391436 | 2300.81 | 6750 |
- The optimum production rate for Plutonium Fuel Rod is 22.4 / min due to the Uranium Waste capped at 2520/min. The calculation above is normalized at 60 / min for comparison only.
- If the production rate of Uranium Fuel Rod is sacrificed, then the maximum production rate can be up to 30.54 / min.
- Weighted Point is the weighted consumption rate which is calculated by:
(resource consumption rate / maximum extraction rate) * 10,000. The lower the better. - Energy per item can be used to measure how much power is consumed for the entire production chain. The lower the better.
- The net energy for each Plutonium Fuel Rod, after subtracting manufacturing energy and energy to supply Water to the Nuclear Power Plant, are written in green under the product.
- Space refers to building space, excluding belts and pipes. The lower the better.
- Among multiple ways to produce each of the ingredient, the recipe with the lowest WP is chosen. Exception is mentioned below:
Usage
Crafting
| Recipe | Ingredients | Produced in | Products | Unlocked by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plutonium Fuel Rod (burning) | 1 × Plutonium Fuel Rod0.1 / min2,400 ×  Water240 / min |
Nuclear Power Plant 600 sec |
10 ×  Plutonium Waste1 / min |
Tier 8 - Particle Enrichment |
AWESOME Sink
Sinking of Plutonium Fuel rods is intentional, as it gives players the choice described above.[1]
Vehicle Fuel
Plutonium Fuel rods can loaded into the fuel tank of wheeled vehicles be either manually by the Pioneer or automatically through a Truck Station. Caution should be used as the Plutonium Fuel Rods will still generate intense radiation in a Truck Station or while in a fuel tank waiting to be consumed. Once consumed by the vehicle, the radiation will cease.
Plutonium Fuel Rods are the most effective form of fuel for vehicles, providing hours of power with a single fuel rod.
- The Tractor runs for 7 hours 34 minutes 32 seconds per fuel rod.
- The Truck runs for 5 hours 33 minutes 20 seconds per fuel rod.
- The Explorer runs for 4 hours 37 minutes 46 seconds per fuel rod.
- The Cyber Wagon runs for 2 hours 46 minutes 40 seconds per fuel rod.
Tips
- Uranium Waste can be completely eliminated if the Plutonium Fuel Rods are sunk. If the Plutonium Fuel Rods are burned in Nuclear Power Plants, the amount of Waste is still greatly reduced.
- Depending on the recipes used, Uranium Waste is converted to Plutonium Fuel Rods at a rate between 200:1 and 200:5.33. As 1 Plutonium Fuel Rod makes 10 Plutonium Waste, the Plutonium Waste will be between 5% and 26.67% of what the Uranium Waste was. This means that storage will last between 20x and 3.75x as long compared to if the Uranium Waste were unprocessed.
- The storage area will, however, be more radioactive as Plutonium Waste is more radioactive than Uranium Waste.
- When making Plutonium Fuel Rods in order to destroy Uranium Waste, the default recipes are best since they have the highest ratio of waste consumed to power used.
- Without Overclocking or using alternate recipes, one Manufacturer creating Plutonium Fuel Rods can use all the Uranium Waste of five Nuclear Power Plants with no Uranium Waste left over and constant Plutonium Fuel Rod production.
- The Uranium Waste-handling chain consumes 483 MJ/Uranium Waste, not counting other inputs which make up only a small portion of consumption. By comparison, a uranium-burning Nuclear Power Plant produces 15,000 MJ/Uranium Waste.
- A production module using whole machines includes 3 Assemblers, 2 Manufacturers, 2 Blenders and 1 Particle Accelerator not counting other inputs. This setup consumes 100 Uranium Waste/min (or the output of 10 Nuclear Power Plants), and uses 805 MW.
- Consuming Plutonium Fuel Rods increases the nuclear power generation capacity by 89% when compared to sinking them.
- Given the extremely long burn time and intense radiation it is not recommend to automatically refuel vehicles with Plutonium Fuel Rods. Automatic refueling will create intense radiation from the Plutonium Fuel Rods stored in the Truck Station performing the refueling, and it will create a moving intense radiation area from the vehicle loaded with fuel that could take hours, days, or weeks to consume.
Trivia
- The most Plutonium Fuel Rods that can be made per minute is 30.54 alongside 22.91 Uranium Fuel Rods.[2] However, this does not yield the most power. Producing 22.4 Plutonium Fuel Rods alongside 50.4 Uranium Fuel Rods does,[3] sustaining a total of 476 Nuclear Power Plants producing exactly 1,190,000 MW (or 1.19 TW) of power.
- After subtracting the power used to run this system itself (~99.8 GW), the net power is about 1.090 TW. Cost of Miners and Extractors included. The cost of transportation, such as trains, is not included.
- The smallest amount of Plutonium Fuel Rods that can be made per 100 Uranium Waste is 0.5, and the largest amount of Plutonium Fuel Rods that can be made per 100 Uranium Waste is 2.66667.
Gallery
Production Line maximizing Uranium Waste used.
Production plan showing max amount of Plutonium Fuel Rods produceable per 100 Uranium Waste.
Stackable layout for producing Plutonium Fuel Rods. By Reddit user oldshavingfoam.
The production plan of maximizing the Uranium and Plutonium Fuel Rods.
History
- Patch 0.4.0.8:
- Halved Plutonium Waste output per minute (was 2 per generator, is now 1).
- Energy value increased from 375,000 MJ to 1,500,000 MJ
- Default recipe:
- Changed recipe craft time from 120 to 240 seconds
- Changed Encased Plutonium Cell cost from 15 to 30
- Changed Steel Beam cost from 8 to 18
- Changed Electromagnetic Control Rod cost from 3 to 6
- Changed Heat Sink cost from 5 to 10
- Alternate: Plutonium Fuel Unit:
- Changed recipe craft time from 60 to 120 seconds
- Changed Encased Plutonium Cell cost from 10 to 20
- Patch 0.4.0.0: Introduced
