Eccentric Tech – Fusion Power
Across the breadth of colonized space are high-tech worlds known as "glitterworlds", named so for the vast amounts of artificial light they cast in the void of space. They might never have been built, however, without the mastery of nuclear fusion reactors, a technology that grants nearly limitless energy from some of the simplest building blocks of the universe.
Fusion Power adds the following items related to advanced energy production:
- 4 new research projects.
- 5 new resources, including fusion reactor fuels and components.
- 7 new buildings related to the generation of power and storage of fuel, as well as fuel pipelines to link them together.
- 2 new orbital trade ship types with large stocks of reactor fuel and components.
At the heart of Fusion Power is the MMFS, a compact fusion reactor adapted from models used on military starships. Although fusion reactors are considered too inefficient to be used for decades- or centuries-long journeys between the stars, their high energy output is ideal for powering military-grade starship engines, directed-energy weapons, and other interplanetary applications. Furthermore, the MMFS can run in a number of different modes, allowing it to adapt to local fuel availability.
Fusion stellarators can generate immense amounts of power, but unlike simple generators, they require time and a great deal of energy to start up, which must be stored in specialized storage devices called Ignition Capacitors. Fusion reactors also require industrial reactor fuels to operate; while deuterium can be extracted from seawater and tritium can be produced in dedicated fission reactors, helium-3 can only be obtained from orbital trade ships.
Finally, while fusion reactors are considerably safer than fission reactors and neither produce significant amounts of toxic waste nor run the risk of meltdown, an operational reactor is still a complex, high-energy device that can deal considerable amounts of damage if they malfunction. Fusion reactors also have a limited operational period, as the inner reactor hull will degrade over time under the bombardment of high-energy neutrons from fusion reactions. Reactors must eventually be shutdown in order to be serviced and repaired; pushing a reactor with critical hull integrity could result in a major malfunction and emergency vent, during which the reactor’s plasma is directly dumped into the surrounding area, causing extreme heat and lighting flammable objects on fire.
Unlocking Fabrication and building a Multi-Analyzer unlocks the Fuel Storage research project, which leads to additional technologies for the Deuterium Extractor and Tritium Breeder. However, building a MMFS requires a TFG Module, a precision nano-scale device that is only produced by advanced glitterworlds. They can occasionally be obtained from exotic goods traders, factions offering important quests, or from passing Mobile Refinery or Fuel Tanker trade ships.
Fusion Power does not require Eccentric Tech – Core. However, having Core installed enables an additional Plasma Confinement research project that allows you to build TFG Modules at the Nanoassembler.
MMFS ambient audio was sampled from https://freesound.org/people/werneristes/sounds/548213/ by werneristes.
Eccentric Tech mods are a companion to The Eccentric’s Angels, a Rimworld-inspired comic series on Reddit.
