Inertial Confinement Fusion Reactor

The Inertial Confinement Fusion Reactor, most often referred to simply as the ICF, is a late game nuclear fusion reactor that uses two immensely powerful modular laser emitters focused onto a small pellet of fusible materials in order to generate conditions conducive for elements to fuse. Besides from the DFC, it is the most powerful energy producing device in NTM with a thermal output that can readily produce upwards of multiple GHE/s. The core of the ICF is not modular, but the laser emitters are, allowing for the level of power production and fuel consumption to be carefully balanced to individual needs.

Once constructed, the ICF can be run efficiently on relatively inexpensive fuels and at a very efficient fuel usage rate, making it require minimal processing infrastructure to supply automatically with fuel relative to its power output. It can also work with a variety of kinds of fuel pellets which each have their own specific properties, making tuning of its output dynamically relatively easy. This efficiency, power, and adaptability is offset by its immense cost of manufacture, taking thousands of ingots of various metals and expensive late game materials to make along with extensive heat exchanging setups to accommodate the immense thermal output of the reactor.

Components

Reactor Chamber

The primary reaction chamber of the ICF where fusion and heat production occurs. Accepts input from lasers at both ends through the small red input hole and receives fluid input and output from the multiple ports set both on the sides of the laser chambers and on top of the main chamber itself. The reactor chamber is the only machine in the whole ICF assembly that has a GUI with most of the important information and controls being contained within it, though lasers must still be externally controlled.

Thermal Output. Total thermal input the pellet is receiving. A sum of the total power output of both lasers in TU.
Cold Cooling Fluid Buffer. Total amount out of 512,000mB of cold cooling fluid of a specified type that is used to transfer heat out of the reactor.
Fluid Identifier. Specifies the type of cooling fluid that will be used in the reactor.
Pellet Input. Input for filled fuel pellets. Fuel pellets will be pushed automatically to slot 5 if it is currently empty.
Current Pellet. The pellet that will undergo fusion if the reactor is fed laser input. Can be removed and placed back in the reactor during operation without consequence.
Pellet Output. Output for depleted fuel pellets. Depleted fuel pellets in slot 5 will be pushed automatically to itself.
Hot Cooling Fluid Buffer. Total amount out of 512,000mB of hot cooling fluid of a specified type that can be piped out of the reactor to transfer heat.
Reactor Heat. Current heat stored in the reactor out of 1,000,000,000,000 TU. Will be transferred into the cold cooling fluid if possible.
Stellar Flux. Quantity of stellar flux stored in the reactor out of 24,000mB.

Construction

The reactor chamber is made in the same manner as the other multiblock structures such as the fusion reactor vessel and watz power plant. It is a 17x6x5 multiblock structure.

Plasma Forge
Details	Recipe
Inertial Confinement Fusion Reactor Core Component Duration: 150.0s Consumption: 200.0MHE/s Total: 30.0GHE Plasma Input Energy: 20.0MTU/s	16 1616 16 32 32 16

The ICF containment vessel wall blocks are welded using a blowtorch or acetylene welding torch which consume 1 cast bismuth bronze plate per operation.

The ICF casing blocks are riveted using a pneumatic rivet gun which consumes 4 high-speed steel bolts and 1 cast steel plate per operation.

All ICF part recipes below are made in the plasma forge and consume 200.0 MHE/s of power and 20.0 MTU/s of plasma input energy at a duration of 40 seconds.

Part	Recipe
x50 ICF Stability Elements	4 2
x117 ICF Containment Vessel Walls	2
x117 Cast Bismuth Bronze Plates	3 Ingots
x240 ICF Casing	2 2
x240 Cast Steel Plates	3 Ingots
x960 High-Speed Steel Bolts	16
x1 Pneumatic Rivet Gun
x1 Blowtorch or Acetylene Welding Torch
x1 Blowtorch or Acetylene Welding Torch

Laser

The initiator of fusion in the ICF. Composed of multiple blocks utilizing a similar system to a PWR, including ports, a controller, laser cells, laser capacitors, and more. Lasers cannot be reflected or redirected and thus must be placed outputting directly into the ICF reactor chamber. the exact nature of their operation is quite complex and involves multiple specific rules about where each component can be placed and what the ideal ratio of elements is for efficiency or thermal output, but their general behavior is outlined here.

Note: Each block is prefixed with "ICF" in game.

Laser Controller

The Laser Controller is the most important component of an ICF laser, it will designate where the laser will point to. It must be placed in line pointing toward the ports on the side of the ICF reactor chamber. To construct a laser, the controller can be right-clicked. A grey border should form around the edges of the laser if it has been assembled correctly.

Plasma Forge
Details	Recipe
ICF Laser Controller Duration: 40.0s Consumption: 200.0MHE/s Total: 8.0GHE Plasma Input Energy: 20.0MTU/s	16 16 1616 16

Laser Cell

The Laser Cell is a required component of an ICF laser, required to extend the laser length-ways. A laser cell must be placed in a straight line directly behind the controller, and can extend as far back as desired.

Plasma Forge
Details	Recipe
ICF Laser Cell Duration: 40.0s Consumption: 200.0MHE/s Total: 8.0GHE Plasma Input Energy: 20.0MTU/s	2 4 16

Laser Flash Tube

The Laser Flash Tube is a required component of an ICF laser, which must be placed directly adjacent to a laser cell, as laser capacitors and laser turbochargers cannot connect directly to a laser cell.

Plasma Forge
Details	Recipe
ICF Laser Flash Tube Duration: 40.0s Consumption: 200.0MHE/s Total: 8.0GHE Plasma Input Energy: 20.0MTU/s	16,000mB 4 16

Laser Capacitor

The Laser Capacitor is a required component of an ICF laser, and is the primary part that decides the thermal output of the laser. The calculation used to determine laser power is based on the formula (not including turbochargers):

$P = {\sqrt{x}}_{c a p a c i t o r s} \cdot 2, 500, 000$

Adding more capacitors to a single laser has diminishing returns.

Plasma Forge
Details	Recipe
ICF Laser Capacitor Duration: 40.0s Consumption: 200.0MHE/s Total: 8.0GHE Plasma Input Energy: 20.0MTU/s	16 2

Laser Turbocharger

The Laser Turbocharger is an optional component of an ICF laser, and is used to significantly boost the laser's output. The calculation used to determine the power of a laser using turbochargers is based on the formula:

$P = {\sqrt{x}}_{c a p a c i t o r s} \cdot 2, 500, 000 + {\sqrt{x}}_{t u r b o c h a r g e r s} \cdot 5, 000, 000$

Adding more turbochargers to a laser than capacitors will have no effect.

Plasma Forge
Details	Recipe
ICF Laser Turbocharger Duration: 40.0s Consumption: 200.0MHE/s Total: 8.0GHE Plasma Input Energy: 20.0MTU/s	22 4 4

Laser Casing

The Laser Casing is a required component of an ICF laser, which must be placed on the outside of a laser to encase all internal parts, similar to a PWR.

Plasma Forge
Details	Recipe
ICF Laser Casing Duration: 40.0s Consumption: 200.0MHE/s Total: 8.0GHE Plasma Input Energy: 20.0MTU/s	4 4 1616

Laser Port

The Laser Port is a required component of an ICF laser, which can replace any laser casing block. It accepts power input for the laser. One laser can have multiple ports.

Plasma Forge
Details	Recipe
ICF Laser Port Duration: 40.0s Consumption: 200.0MHE/s Total: 8.0GHE Plasma Input Energy: 20.0MTU/s	4 1616 16

Utilities

Below is a calculator for calculating the total power consumption of the laser in HE/s. The thermal power output of the reactor will be equal to this number. Dividing it by 20 will convert the number from HE/s to HE/t.

Fuel

The fusible material contained within the ICF. An ICF fuel pellet can contain a combination of two fuels contained in a lead-zirconium sphere, which can be fluids and/or items. ICF fuel pellets are made in the ICF Fuel Pellet Maker.

Plasma Forge
Details	Recipe
ICF Fuel Pellet Maker Duration: 40.0s Consumption: 200.0MHE/s Total: 8.0GHE Plasma Input Energy: 20.0MTU/s	8 4

ICF fuel pellet makers accept empty ICF Fuel Pellets, and 1000 mB of two fluids or items. Each fuel has its own reactivity multiplier and fusing difficulty which is multiplied with the second fuel for the final result. Pellets can also be muon catalysed, which divides the heat required by 4, with 16 uses per capsule. The calculator below will calculate the reactivity multiplier and heat required for a certain fuel combination.

Once depleted, a fuel pellet will yield an empty pellet housing along with some helium-4, ionized particles and iron powder as a marginal fuel reprocessing benefit.

PUREX
Details	Recipe
Reprocessing of Depleted ICF Fuel Pellet Duration: 15.0s Consumption: 300.0kHE/s Total: 4.5MHE	1,250mB

Utilities

This calculator returns the amount of hot coolant the ICF reactor produces per second using coolant and fuel pellet values.

Stellar Flux

Stellar flux is a byproduct of the ICF reactor's operation, and is necessary for progression (namely Gerald). If the stellar flux buffer is full, it does not impede operation, similar to the Cyclotron.

Stellar flux production rate is based on the following formula:

$Q = E \cdot 1 0^{- 11}$

Q represents the Stellar flux production rate in mB/t.
E represents the energy inside the reactor in TU.

The table below shows the maximum power generated in the reactor required for a given stellar flux production rate. It should be noted that the power mentioned is calculated by the following formula:

$H = I \cdot r$

H represents the heat power shown in the table below in TU/t.
I represents the input power from the laser(s) in HE/t.
r represents the fuel's reactivity multiplier.

This means that to get the laser's output power, the desired value indexed in the table has to be divided by the fuel's reactivity.

The values shown in the table all refer to a passively cooled reactor. Any amount of coolant should be taken into account.

ICF Stellar Flux production
Flux (mB/t)	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Heat (TU/t)	101.6 M	203.0 M	304.5 M	406.1 M	507.6 M	609.1 M	710.6 M	812.1 M	913.7 M	1.015 G

Pros and Cons

Pros

Physically cannot melt down, the only hazard is standing in front of the lasers while they are active.
Immense power output.
Variable laser power output allows for the same fuel to have its power production tuned.
Can be easily shut down by simply turning off each laser.
Cheap, simple to manufacture fuel.

Neutral

Produces a byproduct passively through operation which will not impede progress if the buffer containing it is filled.

Cons

Immensely expensive, especially if powerful laser setups are being utilized.
Absolutely massive, wider than a chunk lengthwise.
Requires a large amount of power over an extended period of time to start up, making auxiliary power generation a necessity in the event of a blackout.

Trivia

Based on a real life fusion reactor design of the same name and applying the same underlying principles. Most well known because of the National Ignition Facility which operates strictly as a proof of concept and research device rather than as commercial power generating equipment.