The following are a list of frequently asked questions we've come across. This may provide answers for some issues players commonly encounter.
If you have any questions that aren't listed below, please feel free to join our Discord Server and ask there!
¶ Can reactors explode?
Answer: No, there are no explosion mechanics in the current version of the game.
Note: Explosions are planned! In the future, reactors will explode if you get them into the right conditions for it. We'll try to make it known whenever this does get implemented so that your reactors won't just suddenly go kaboom after a mod update!
¶ What's the difference between Bigger Reactors/Extreme Reactors/Big Reactors? Which should I pick?
Big Reactors (BR): This is the original mod, created by Erogenous Beef for Minecraft 1.5.2 through 1.7.10. This mod (and the game) is over eight years old, and is not recommended to be used anymore.
Extreme Reactors (ER): This is the original continuation of Big Reactors, created by ZeroNoRyouki for Minecraft 1.9.4 and newer. In general, it is more well known and thoroughly tested.
Bigger Reactors (BiR): This is the official continuation of Big Reactors, created by RogueLogix for Minecraft 1.15.2 and newer. In general, it offers higher performance and allows for much larger reactors.
We can't say which one is better, as (obviously) we're biased towards Bigger Reactors. It is recommended that you try out both mods though, and see which one you like better.
¶ My reactor assembled, but won't produce any power!
Solution: Remove one of the two ports, depending on whether you want RF or heat.
Explanation: This is usually caused by a reactor containing both a Power Tap and a Coolant Port. These two ports are mutually exclusive, meaning you can either have a Power Tap (for a Passive Reactor) or a Coolant Port (for an Active Reactor). When both are present, the Coolant Port takes priority, so the reactor will be considered actively-cooled and will produce heat rather than RF.
Note: In newer versions of Bigger Reactors, a message should appear when right clicking the Reactor Terminal that warns about this issue.
¶ I can't get waste out of the reactor/can't eject waste!
Solution: Check if you have less than 1000 mB, and that your connected item pipes are set to pull out of the access port.
Explanation: Waste is outputted as an ingot, and one ingot is equal to 1000 mB of waste. If the reactor contains less than that, no waste ejection will occur. Additionally, if your pipe is set to push-into-container only, it will refuse anything being pushed out of the container (access port).
¶ My heat is way too high!
Solution: Use the control rods or alter your design. But try the rods first.
Explanation: In the original mod, the control rods could be ignored in most cases. In this mod however, the simulation has changed and takes the rods into account more heavily. Try inserting all rods by 50%, then season to taste (lower or raise depending on what you're looking for power- and temperature-wise).
¶ Which moderator should I use? What are the values for moderators?
Solution: Check out the list of moderator values and decide for yourself.
Explanation: We can't really say which moderator you should use, as each has its own properties and one may suit your use case better than others. Even the developers do not know what the perfect reactor design (or best moderator) is.
¶ Shaders aren't working/Optifine isn't working properly in 1.18+?
Solution: Stop using Optifine. If your graphics issue persists after you remove Optifine, please file a bug report on Github.
Explanation: Optifine has always been known for breaking mods, especially when it comes to graphics. Additionally, because Optifine is closed source, it can be difficult sometimes to predict what will break Optifine, as well as how to deal with it when it does.
In 1.18, Phosphophyllite introduced a new renderer called Quartz. This has many benefits, most notably faster/more efficient rendering of things drawn with it. This doesn't play well with Optifine (especially some shaders), and due to Optifine's closed-source nature, we have little incentive to determine how to improve Quartz or Optifine to fix the issues.
¶ Why is X happening on 1.15x?
Solution: Upgrade to a newer version of Minecraft. No, seriously.
Explanation: The 1.15 builds are unsupported. They were “pre-alpha” builds that were extremely buggy, and have tons of issues that have been resolved in newer versions. If your problems persist on Minecraft 1.16 or newer, then please file a bug report. Any issues filed for 1.15 will be marked as invalid and discarded.
Note: We have no plans to backport newer versions of Bigger Reactors to 1.15 or any older versions of Minecraft. Please don't ask.
¶ My turbine won't assemble!
Solution: Ensure that there are two rotor bearings, one on each end of the rotor shaft.
Explanation: In the original mod, only one rotor bearing was required. In Bigger Reactors, two rotor bearings are required.
¶ What is a Heat Exchanger? How do I build one?
Answer: A proper Wiki page and tutorial will be coming soon™. In the mean time, here is a link to an infographic showing an example Heat Exchanger setup.
Explanation: The Heat Exchanger is used to transfer heat between two fluids. For example, by piping in a “hot” fluid (such as Lava) into a condenser channel and a "cold" fluid (such as Water) into an evaporator channel, the heat is transferred between the two fluids (using Lava and Water, this would produce Liquid Obsidian and Steam). This is useful if you want to use coolants other than water inside a reactor, but still want to use a turbine for power generation (you can't pump Lava into a turbine, but you can pump Steam).
¶ My ComputerCraft script isn't working!
Solution: A proper Wiki page will be coming soon™. For now, check the source code on GitHub to view the new functions. Any functions annotated with @LuaFunction are able to be used from within ComputerCraft. If you're interested in a pre-made script, check out Krakaen's script!
Explanation: While a majority of ComputerCraft functions haven't changed a lot, many were renamed or reorganized, which means scripts built for the original mod won't work out of the box without some modification.
