Reactor Coolant Port

Reactor Coolant Port
Name	Reactor Coolant Port
Source Mod	Big Reactors
ID Name	Unknown
OreDict Name	reactorCoolantPort
First Appearance	MC 1.6.4
Type	Block
Stackable	Yes (64)
Solid	Yes
Transparent	No
Affected by Gravity	No
Emits Light	No
Flammable	No
Required Tool	Any tool

The Reactor Coolant Port is a Block used in the construction of Reactor Structures from Big Reactors

It provides an interface for pumping coolant in and superheated steam out of the Reactor. Installing one or more of these on a reactor will change it from producing energy to producing steam. This is called Active Cooling Mode.

Reactors that run steam turbines use coolant ports to feed the turbine with steam.

A Coolant Port is not required to complete a reactor. An actively cooled reactor requires at least two Coolant Ports: one each for input and output. Coolant Ports do not have a limit to their flow rate in the 1.7.10 versions and before. The best way to provide enough water for the reactor is to use Transfer Nodes from the Extra Utilities mod and transport the fluids with a Tesseract.

Any number of Coolant Ports may be placed in a reactor. They must be on vertical faces, inside the outer frame.

Recipe

You can craft it on:

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More

Port Mode

Coolant Ports have 2 built in modes, Inlet and Outlet.

1. Inlet ports can be recognized by light blue, inward-facing arrows.
   • Provides access to the reactor's coolant fluid tank (water)
2. Outlet ports have bright red, outward-facing arrows.
   • Provides access to the reactor's hot-fluid tank (steam). The port will automatically attempt to pump fluids into compatible adjacent blocks or pipes.

To switch between these modes, simply right-click the Coolant Port with a Wrench or an empty hand.

UPDATE: In recent versions (e.g. 1.12), the empty hand no longer works for changing port modes, and neither do most wrenches. Extreme Reactors' Extreme Wrench works, though. Also in the 1.12.2 versions and later, the Coolant Port has a maximum output flow rate of 4000mb/t. In the 1.12 versions, if you are planning to use more than 2 turbines, you will need 1 coolant port for every 2 turbines you have.

Active Cooling Mode

When one or more Coolant Ports are present, the reactor will be placed into active cooling mode. An actively cooled reactor will not generate any RF energy on its own. Water must be pumped in, and the resulting steam pumped out. The steam can be used in a Steam Dynamo or in the multi-block turbine structure.

While this is more complex, it provides a way to increase the efficiency and output of a reactor without expanding the reactor itself.

See Reactor Controller for complete information about Passive and Active Reactor Cooling.