Neutrons, breeder reactors, plutonium, and cherenkov radiation

[Troodontid]

Some thoughts I had regarding breeder reactors in the mod:

Neutron radiation: along with the regular (gamma?) radiation that fission reactor cores currently emit when active, they should also emit a large amount of neutron radiation to their surroundings. This would behave in a similar manner to the radiation currently in the mod, except it has the ability to "activate" exposed blocks, and is shielded rather effectively by water and coal blocks.. This would contaminate those blocks until they were emitting as much radiation as they were receiving in neutron radiation. Additionally, exposing other fission reactor cores to neutron radiation would boost their heat and radiation output while causing them to use up fuel faster.

Breeder reactors and plutonium: while breeder fuel rods are currently in the mod, it might be more interesting if they required neutron radiation from a reactor core fueled with fission fuel in order to function. If a reactor core fueled with breeder fuel is exposed to neutron radiation, it will generate heat and radiation in a similar manner to a core fueled with fission fuel, but no neutron radiation will be emitted. In addition, the higher the neutron flux, the faster the breeder fuel is consumed. Once the fuel is used up, right-clicking the reactor core will return a fuel cell filled with toxic waste and a small amount of plutonium-239. The plutonium-239 can be used to make fission fuel rods that are more powerful than the uranium-235 based ones, but at the expense of a shorter lifetime as well increased radiation and toxic waste production.

Cherenkov radiation: this would appear as a fuzzy blue glow around active reactor cores, perhaps using something like the blue spherical glow that the EMP explosives from ICBM-Classic use.

[DarkGuardsman]

Cherenkov radiation -> this is currently in the mod as the green particles. I plan to replace it later with better effects but will be leaving it green. This is to make the mod more sci-fi like rather than fully realistic. Though it wouldn't be hard to add configs to change visuals.

Breeder reactors -> I will need to do more research on how these work in real life. The plan was to use the breeder rod as a way to enrich dead rods to get a little more % out of the fuel. This is sorta how the original mod worked as far as I remember. Not sure how these mechanics will be implemented. As I need to balance realism, creativity, and gameplay.

Neutrons -> Plan is to already boost reactors output this way. This will include graphite rods in the future. At the moment I am keeping it low tech until more systems are finished.

As for contaminating blocks via neutrons. From what I could tell in my research this is not how radiation works. Radiation is just energy that is transferred into objects and can cause damage. For contaminate to happen material must be transferred.

Activation is planned as a mechanic through several sensors.

[Troodontid]

While radiation does not normally make things radioactive, neutron radiation can under certain conditions. This is due to the neutrons having a chance of merging with the nuclei of the exposed material. Sometimes this results in another stable isotope, such as hydrogen becoming deuterium, but it can also result in an unstable isotope. It was this generation of unstable isotopes that the contamination was meant to represent.

[DarkGuardsman]

hmm sounds interesting, will make sure I read up on it. There are a lot of mechanics that I can play around with that concept. Such as the idea of turning hydrogen into deuterium. This would work well to balance out fusion reactors. Since the old mod made it far to easy to get fuel. Then build a stable reactor to create free power.

So long as we keep this to a sorta mutation system, turn 1 object into another, then I can see this working well to add to the gameplay. Anything outside of that will need some research.