R-UST Fusion Reactor

The R-UST is an experimental fusion reactor that acts as the primary source of power for the Frostfold Outpost on Sif. It consists of a fusion core, fuel injectors, a gyrotron and a few control consoles. Fuel comes in two forms - Tritium and Deutrium fuel rods. If mismanaged, the R-UST can cause a huge EMP that will disable APCs as well as cause some machinery, like PACMAN generators, to explode. The maximum output is far less than the Supermatter Engine, but it is enough to power the outpost. While operating, it produces a large amount of radiation, so radsuits must be worn when working with the R-UST.

Basic Operating Principals

The R-UST is about as complex as the Supermatter Engine and far less dangerous, however certain mistakes can cause the R-UST to immediately destabilize. The basic operating principles are as follows:

The Fusion Core

The fusion core is the centerpiece of the R-UST, all reactions take place there and it is where the power is generated. It sits within an evacuated chamber where it cannot interact with other machinery or objects.

First a note on safety - The reactor will produce large quantities of radiation when operational. Ensure that you wear appropriate protective gear, even within the control room if the observation shutters are down! There is a radiation suit closet in the airlock area.

The R-UST is capable of creating a devastating EMP if operated improperly. Do not exceed the limits specified in this guide, or it will create a large EMP, wipe the charge from affected SMES's and cause some machinery to explode as well as irradiating the reactor containment complex. The R-UST will create this EMP when its instability reaches 100% or if it is turned off without being allowed to cool below 1000K first. Instability will be discussed below.

R-UST Control Interface

The fusion core is controlled by the R-UST Mk. 8 core control console in the control room. As you can see from the image, this tracks many properties of the fusion core.

• Power Status - This tells you the current power output and power draw of the Fusion Core. Power draw is dependent on the field strength, and power output is dependent on the fusion reactions taking place within the core.
• Field Strength - This determines the field size of the fusion core; this is important for catching fuel pellets and can be set to 100 or higher for the default R-UST configuration. Field strength must not exceed 200 tesla. If it exceeds 200 tesla then the field size will exceed that of the R-UST chamber, causing a catastrophic rise in instability and near-instantaneous destruction of the R-UST. Increasing the field strength makes the R-UST take more power, but this is negligible compared to the R-UST output when it is operating.
• Instability - Instability is raised by two things, the fusion reactions taking place and the fusion core field touching machinery or objects. It is controlled by using the Gyrotron to fire a beam of energy into the fusion core field that maintains its containment. If your instability is rising above 10% then you must immediately adjust the Gyrotron settings, field strength and/or reduce the amount of reactants being added to the field.
• Plasma temperature - This determines the reactions that can take place. Initially your fusion core will be at room temperature, and it will take some time to warm up. Once it is above a few thousand kelvin the rest of the reactions will kick in and it will keep itself stable. When turning off the fusion core this value must be below 1000K or it will cause an EMP. To cool this down stop adding reactants and turn the gyrotron power up, then wait.
• Reactants - Determined by the fuel rods, these are what produce power. With every tick of the R-UST, it will try and react these reactants together and create some radiation, instability and power based on what reactions are possible. Reactants exceeding 10,000 total reactants will be removed and turned into radiation (this is not something to worry about, just don't try to add more reactants if you are consistently hitting this threshold). Under normal operating circumstances, this will never happen.

Fuel Injectors

These are used to add solid fuel into the R-UST. They are controlled using the Fuel Injection Control Computer within the monitoring room. They must be provided with a fuel rod that can be created by putting solid fuel types into the Fuel Compressor, and then toggled on from their control computer. They will then start firing pellets through the glass into the fusion core field and be absorbed.

The Setup Process

Now that you understand the important components of the R-UST, we will discuss how to set it up at the start of the shift.

• First, you must ensure that the two parallel SMES's have at least a 15 percent charge. Turn off the inputs to both and maximize the outputs. If the charge is below 15 percent, you may need to provide additional power from with the pair of PACMAN generators in the atmospherics section of mining, attached to the reactor complex.
• Go to the monitoring room and drop the core blast doors as well as the monitoring room blast doors.
• The fusion core and gyrotron have a heavy power drain when operational. You may need to use the PACMANs to provide this until the fusion process becomes self-sustaining. Wire the geneators into the grid next to the gyrotron, wrench down and insert some phoron. Once done, maximize power output, but do not turn them on until ready to start the reactor.
• Go to the fuel storage room and grab 1 tritium fuel rod and 4 deuterium fuel rods. Insert these into the fuel injectors, one per injector.
• If necessary, turn on the PACMAN generators.
• Access the R-UST control console and set the reactor's field strength to 150 and turn it on.
• Set the gyrotron to fire delay 2, power 35. If the parallel SMES's are completely drained, you may need to set the power lower. Watch the APC in the reactor room to make sure you are not exceeding the power supply.
• Once the reactor temperature has reached 1,000 degrees, turn on all the fuel injectors. You may need to manually refresh the GUI in order to see the temperature rise.
• Temperature should rapidly climb once fusion begins. After the temperature has reached over 20,000 degrees, head to the SMES room and set input to 700kW and output to max on both parallel SMES's. The reason the input is lower is because both SMES's outputs are linked to their inputs and will cause a drain if both input and output are maximized.
• Turn off the PACMAN generators and return them to storage, if necessary. They will explode if running too long and will detonate if the reactor releases an EMP.
• You can now adjust the gyrotron power to a lower setting, such as fire delay 3, power output 7. Check that the instability is staying low after adjusting the gyrotron.

Shutdown Procedure

In the event that you need to shutdown the R-UST, follow these steps:

• Set the gyrotron to maximum power and minimum firing delay.
• Turn off all fuel injectors.
• Turn off the gyrotron when there are no more reactions taking place.
• The R-UST will now start to cool over time. Once it is below 1,000 degrees, it can be switched off on the fusion core control console. DO NOT TURN OFF OR ALLOW POWER TO BE INTERRUPTED TO THE R-UST BEFORE IT IS BELOW 1,000 DEGREES

Reaction Combinations

There are currently only two possible fusion reactions in the R-UST. Only one of them actually produces a net positive of power. The setup above uses the basic deuterium-tritium reaction, which follows this path:

• Deuterium + Tritium -> Helium + 1 Power + Radiation
• Deuterium + Helium -> Nothing + 5 Power