Boron

Boron
Properties
Type	Element
Difficulty of Production	Medium
Exists in Reality	Yes
Atomic Number	5

Boron is a rare bluish grey metalloid. Its atomic properties make it useful as a neutron absorber.

Production

Boron has no associated ore, but is a fairly common byproduct from processing many different materials and ores, the main early game method for production being from processing rare earth chunks in an anvil.

Anvil (Steel or above)

Boron can be produced in small amounts from centrifuging coal ash or rare earth ore chunks.

Centrifuge
2 6
2 2 2 3

It is also a result of processing red mud or gravel in a SILEX. It may also be produced from processing borax in an acidizer or arc furnace, with the former being more efficent, given the use of effectiveness modules.

Ore Acidizer
500mB 3

Arc Furnace

Beyond these methods of producing tiny piles of powder, is the use of the electrolysis machine to produce larger quantities from rare earth ore and lithium crystals, which will produce molten boron.

Electrolysis Machine
100mB 6 Nuggets 2 Nuggets 3
100mB 6 Ingots 2 Ingots 2 2

Larger amounts of boron can be produced in the cyclotron either by bombarding beryllium with lithium or vice versa, or even by processing gravel in a SILEX.

Cyclotron

Laser Isotope Separation Chamber (SILEX)
4.0x 80.0% 10.0% 5.0% 5.0%

Uses

Boron has a wide range of specialised applications.

Its primary use is as a neutron absorber and control rod material in several reactors such as the RBMK, PWR, Chicago pile and watz.

Crafting Table

RBMK consoles.

Crafting Table

It is also used directly to craft the ZIRNOX.

Assembly Machine
Details	Recipe
ZIRNOX Nuclear Reactor Duration: 30.0s Consumption: 100HE/t	4 8 8 16 16 16 4

Can be used to make aluminium and coal powders in the cyclotron.

Cyclotron

Additionally, boron can be used to craft boron sand, which in turn can be smelted into boron glass. Boron glass can be crafted into RBMK glass cover panels and boron laboratory glassware. Boron powder is also a component of desh blend, but crafting desh from powders is not advised as producing the blend from rare earth ore directly is more efficient.