Why should I upgrade to Thorium Reactors?
I've been playing this game for about 6 months. Almost all of the upgrades have had some reasonable basis for taking them as I've gone along. But I can't figure out why I'd want to do the Thorium Reactors upgrade since I don't have any reliable source of Thorium. If I put all of my factory workers on Thorium I could produce 9.64 Thorium/second. That would get burned up pretty quick by 53 reactors at .25/second. There are no buildings or planets for producing Thorium. Plus it is taking a week's build-up of Thorium at this point for me to get the next level of Heatsink so it would take months if the Thorium was also getting eaten by the Reactors. So why should anybody upgrade to Thorium Reactors?
Best Answer
Thorium can be crafted from Uranium, which can be generated from Accelerators or planet crackers.
If this upgrade doesn't do anything for you now, that's fine. Don't use it now. It'll be useful in the future.
Not all upgrades are immediately useful, and late game has many cases of this.
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Why thorium reactors are better?
Thorium-based reactors are safer because the reaction can easily be stopped and because the operation does not have to take place under extreme pressures. Compared to uranium reactors, thorium reactors produce far less waste and the waste that is generated is much less radioactive and much shorter-lived.Why dont we use thorium in reactors?
Thorium cannot in itself power a reactor; unlike natural uranium, it does not contain enough fissile material to initiate a nuclear chain reaction. As a result it must first be bombarded with neutrons to produce the highly radioactive isotope uranium-233 \u2013 'so these are really U-233 reactors,' says Karamoskos.What are the benefits of thorium Power?
Benefits. Thorium is safer and more efficient to mine than uranium, thus making it more environmentally friendly. [5] The percentage of thorium found in its ore is generally greater than the percentage of uranium found in its ore, so it is more cost-efficient.Are thorium reactors more efficient?
Thorium reactors are a different way to generate electricity that could benefit the world. More efficient than their fossil fuel counterparts, safer than a conventional nuclear plant, and generating no carbon emissions as a byproduct, LFTRs are a viable solution for the future of our world's energy needs.Thorium and the Future of Nuclear Energy
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Answer 2
Here are some hard numbers from my game to give you an idea when thorium mode becomes practical.
Overview: 1801 total years played (about a year in real time, with breaks). Just before 6th reset. Had all techs and upgrades obtainable without AM or TC. All rates below are without Tempus Fugit.
At this point, I was producing 407 U/s. With crafting at 1694%, I could craft 29.2 Th/s. In thorium mode, my 85 reactors were consuming only 15.9 Th/s.
There are two points that would affect other players’ experience, relative to mine. First, I didn’t need Th for anything else; I’d already bought all the upgrades and flown to all the planets I could, and I wasn’t building any heatsinks or tectonics.
Second, I always play interactively, so I can craft Th manually whenever I need to. My 94 engineers could not at first keep up with the 85 reactors. After I promoted everyone to the max (Rank 4), they could keep up, barely. With no engineers, each 1K Th lasts about a minute. With all engineers, the drain would be slower, but I couldn’t easily measure it.
Details:
Uranium from 73 accelerators, 160 quarries, 24 planet crackers. +290% from 480 paragon and 230 burned, +1280% from 64 magnetos with 60 steamworks, +855% from 435M praised faith, +40% space conversion (94 factories, 32 space elevators, 4 orbital arrays).
Craft ratio from 187 workshops, 94 factories, +8 from artisan leader with 230 burned.
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Images: Pavel Danilyuk, Sami Abdullah, Designecologist, Kerde Severin