Barotrauma: How to Blow Up the Reactor

Well, all you need to do is insert 1 fuel rod and flip on the automatic control switch. But for most submarines this is not enough power for when engines are at full speed and/or fabricators are cooking. So we add more fuel rods, but to do so safely requires a much deeper understanding of the reactor.

If a meltdown warning triggers for more than 2 seconds, power off the reactor and try again or check for damaged junction boxes. A reactor is useless with broken junction boxes.

• First, power on the reactor and turn off automatic control. Ensure both dials are set to 0. If not, double click the power button.
• Add however many fuel rods you want. 2 is enough for full power, but a set of 4 rods with varied amounts of durability will allow you to replace them 1 at a expired rods without affecting the power supply beyond momentary flickering lights.
• Then set the turbine output to the green ‘sweet spot’. This dial increases the kW output and how much heat is consumed (the currently empty bar left the of the line graph). Setting this dial too high can cause heavy damage to junction boxes, but otherwise does not harm the reactor itself.
• Set the fission rate to the leftmost orange spot, typically somewhere around 20. This dial increases how much heat is generated. Setting it too high will cause a reactor meltdown. This is why we are setting this to orange manually, as the automatic control will move the fission rate’s dial faster than the turbine output’s dial, causing it to overheat before reaching the sweet spots.
• Lastly, enable automatic control. If both dials are somewhat close enough to where they need to be as shown in green and orange, automatic control will be able to take over without melting down the reactor.