Factorio BlueprintsAll nuclear reactor blueprintsNuclear Cloverleaf 4R/480 MW Blueprint (reactor side only)
Nuclear Cloverleaf 4R/480 MW Blueprint (reactor side only)
A compact cloverleaf of four reactors and 48 exchangers that starts itself; turbines are not included.
Image of the Theikkru Cloverleaf nuclear plant blueprint
How much power does it make? 4 reactors, 480 MW
480 MWOutput (computed)
- Reactors
- 4
- Output (computed)
- 480 MW
- Output in the design name (MW)
- 480
- Heat exchangers
- 48
- Steam turbines
- 0
- Reactors : exchangers : turbines
- 4 reactors : 48 heat exchangers : 0 steam turbines
- Fuel handling
- belt-fedFuel cells arrive on a belt and inserters load them.
- Size (tiles, width x height)
- 40 x 32
- Entity quality
- normal
- String exported by Factorio
- 2.0.76.0
- Designer
- Theikkru
The blueprint holds only the reactor and exchanger side, so 480 MW is the designer's stated figure once you add turbines.
String exported by Factorio 2.0.76.0. Decoded and checked by this site; not test-imported in the game.
The output shown is computed by this site from the blueprint itself, using normal-quality numbers from the official wiki. Each reactor makes 40 MW of heat plus another 40 MW for every fuelled reactor touching it, which is why a 2x2 block gives 480 MW and a long double row gives 160 MW per reactor minus 160 MW. A heat exchanger turns at most 10 MW of heat into steam and a steam turbine turns that steam into 5.82 MW, so the plant delivers whichever of the three totals is smallest: reactor heat, exchanger capacity or turbine capacity.
Heat exchanger and turbine ratio
A plant is balanced when its exchangers can take all the reactor heat and its turbines can use all the steam. With normal-quality buildings that is one heat exchanger for every 10 MW of heat and about 1.72 turbines per exchanger, because one exchanger makes roughly 103 steam per second and one turbine uses 60. Compare this plant's counts with that: more turbines than needed is harmless, but too few exchangers caps the output.
How fuel cells get in
Fuel cells come in on a belt and inserters load each reactor, so the plant runs without robots; feed the belt from your fuel-cell production and take spent cells out. A fuel cell burns for 200 seconds whether or not the power is used, so belt-fed designs that save fuel use circuit conditions on the inserters to load only when a reactor runs cool.
The designer wanted a clean, cheap starter: it fits against a main bus, starts without priming and controls fuel so none is wasted, and works with belts or robots.
Blueprint string
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Copy the string and press Import string on the shortcut bar in the game, then paste. It was exported from the Factorio 2.0 version shown above. This site decoded it and counted the reactors, exchangers and turbines, but did not import it in the game; check the designer's notes above for water and start-up needs.