{"id":20151,"date":"2024-05-24T11:53:30","date_gmt":"2024-05-24T11:53:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xgamingserver.com\/blog\/?p=20151"},"modified":"2026-06-15T12:56:58","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T12:56:58","slug":"comprehensive-guide-to-nuclear-mining-in-factorio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xgamingserver.com\/blog\/comprehensive-guide-to-nuclear-mining-in-factorio\/","title":{"rendered":"Comprehensive Guide to Nuclear Mining in Factorio"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Nuclear power is the dense, late-game energy backbone of Factorio<\/em> \u2014 a single reactor block can replace a sprawling field of solar panels or a forest of steam engines, and it scales beautifully thanks to the neighbour bonus. But getting there means taming a uranium supply chain that behaves differently from every other ore in the game. This guide walks through the complete pipeline: mining uranium with sulfuric acid, processing it in centrifuges, enriching scarce U-235 with the Kovarex process, building fuel cells, and laying out reactors, heat exchangers, and steam turbines in the correct ratios. Every number here is drawn from the official wiki tutorial, and the core mechanics are unchanged between Factorio 1.1 and the current 2.0 \/ Space Age line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Version context: 2.0, Space Age, and what changed<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Factorio 2.0 (the free base-game update) and the paid Space Age expansion both launched on October 21, 2024, and 2.0.x is the current stable line as of 2026. The good news for nuclear engineers: the entire fission system covered below \u2014 the 40 MW reactor, the +100% neighbour bonus, fuel-cell math, and Kovarex enrichment \u2014 is unchanged from 1.1<\/strong>. Space Age adds a separate, higher-tier fusion reactor<\/strong> system on the frozen planet Aquilo, but that is a distinct technology from the uranium fission covered here. So whether you’re on a vanilla 2.0 server or an expansion playthrough, the reactor build math in this guide holds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One important caveat for older guides you may find elsewhere: 2.0’s fluid rework changed several power ratios. We’ll flag the big one (steam offshore pumps) in the comparison section so you don’t copy a 1.1-era blueprint that no longer balances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mining uranium: why you need sulfuric acid<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Uranium ore is the one resource that an ordinary electric mining drill cannot extract on its own. The drill must be fed sulfuric acid<\/strong> as a fluid input, consuming it at a rate of 10 sulfuric acid per 10 ore \u2014 exactly 1 sulfuric acid per ore mined<\/strong>. Productivity-bonus ore is free: the extra ore generated by productivity modules does not consume additional acid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means your uranium outpost needs a fluid supply line, not just a belt. The standard approach is to produce sulfuric acid centrally (sulfur + iron plates + water via chemical plants) and pipe it out to the mining patch, or to set up a local acid plant. Burner drills will not work here at all \u2014 you need electric mining drills with the acid pipe connected. Plan your patch layout around getting acid in<\/em> as much as getting ore out<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Processing: the brutal ~0.7% U-235 yield<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Raw uranium ore goes into a centrifuge<\/strong>, which runs uranium processing: 10 ore every 12 seconds<\/strong>. The output is where nuclear power earns its reputation for patience. On average, every 10,000 ore yields roughly 7 U-235 and 993 U-238<\/strong> \u2014 a U-235 rate of about 0.7%<\/strong>. U-238 is common and used in bulk; U-235 is the rare, precious isotope that powers everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That 0.7% figure is why uranium feels slow at first. You can mine ore all day and still be starved for U-235. The solution to that scarcity is the Kovarex enrichment process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kovarex enrichment: turning U-238 into more U-235<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Kovarex enrichment process is a research-gated centrifuge recipe that lets you convert your abundant U-238 stockpile into the scarce U-235. The recipe is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kovarex enrichment (60 s, in a centrifuge):\n  INPUT:   40 U-235  +  5 U-238\n  OUTPUT:  41 U-235  +  2 U-238\n\n  Net per cycle:  +1 U-235  for  -3 U-238<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
The trick is that the 40 U-235 and 2 of the U-238 act as catalysts<\/strong> \u2014 they go in and come straight back out. The true exchange per 60-second cycle is a net +1 U-235 in return for \u22123 U-238<\/strong>. The catch is the activation cost: you must already own 40 U-235<\/strong> just to start a single centrifuge running Kovarex, which is a significant up-front investment when you’re earning U-235 at 0.7%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The practical workflow is to bootstrap one Kovarex centrifuge with your first hard-won 40 U-235, then use circuit conditions to insert exactly 40 U-235 + 5 U-238 per cycle and extract the surplus, looping the catalyst back in. Once one centrifuge is self-sustaining, you can fund more, and your U-235 supply becomes effectively unlimited as long as U-238 keeps flowing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Uranium fuel cells<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Reactors don’t burn raw isotopes \u2014 they burn uranium fuel cells<\/strong>. The recipe combines a little of the rare isotope with a lot of the common one:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Uranium fuel cell recipe:\n  1 U-235  +  19 U-238  +  10 iron plate   \u2192   10 uranium fuel cells\n\n  Each cell stores:   8 GJ\n  Reactor consumes:   1 fuel cell per 200 s<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Each cell holds 8 GJ<\/strong> of energy, and a reactor consumes one cell every 200 seconds<\/strong>. Because one batch of the recipe produces 10 cells from a single U-235, a single enriched isotope keeps a reactor fed for over half an hour. This is why the painful early scarcity pays off so dramatically: once U-235 is flowing, fuel becomes almost an afterthought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A worthwhile efficiency note: spent fuel cells return used-up uranium fuel cells<\/strong>, which can be reprocessed in a centrifuge to recover some U-238 \u2014 a closed loop that softens U-238 demand over time. Insert fresh cells and pull spent ones with inserters reading the reactor’s fuel state, and you’ll never waste a cell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reactors and the neighbour bonus<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
A single nuclear reactor produces exactly 40 MW of heat<\/strong>. On its own that’s respectable, but the reactor’s defining mechanic is the neighbour bonus<\/strong>: every reactor gains +100% heating power for each active neighbouring reactor<\/strong> placed directly adjacent to it. The reactors must align fully on the shared side \u2014 you place them in a tight, gapless grid for the bonus to apply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This turns reactor layout into a math problem worth solving, because the bonus compounds dramatically. Consider the classic 2\u00d72 block of four reactors. Each reactor in that block touches two<\/strong> neighbours, granting +200% \u2014 so each reactor outputs 3\u00d7 its base, or 120 MW. Four reactors that would individually make 160 MW instead make:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lone reactor:        40 MW\n2x2 block (4 reactors):\n  each has 2 neighbours -> +200% -> 120 MW each\n  4 x 120 MW         = 480 MW   (vs. 160 MW unbonused)<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
The same logic extends to long 2\u00d7N rows \u2014 the standard mega-base layout \u2014 where interior reactors each touch three neighbours. The more reactors you pack into a contiguous block, the higher the per-reactor multiplier, which is why serious nuclear builds favor one big array over several small ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Heat exchangers and steam turbines: the conversion chain<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Reactor heat doesn’t generate electricity by itself. It heats a connected network of heat pipes<\/strong>, which feed heat exchangers<\/strong> that boil water into high-temperature steam, which then drives steam turbines<\/strong> to make power. Each link in the chain has a fixed throughput:<\/p>\n\n\n\n