Is there No Realistic Utilities?

[Rixile 0]

Hey, i have been a avid player of simcity 4 and rush hour but i have some anger built up as to why the Nuclear Power Plant cause melt down and unleash a nuclear bomb?

That is total bull and it is not even rational. 

Nuclear power plants do something called fission when the atoms split that creates heat, then the heat boils water and causes it to steam releasing steam into a turbine generator that gives energy to the whole city.  

Now, a Nuclear bomb uses a much higher grade Uranium than a power plant does, and in order to obtain a nuclear explosion you need to put a cylindrical piece of uranium in between specially placed and engineered detonation explosives as well as precise construction. 

The Nuclear reactor has "rods" that has uranium in them, but there are NO explosive devices like grenades or dynamite in them.

Whoever came up with the lousy idea that nuclear power plants explode at a atomic scale is just total bias and i can't believe i have to deal with this when i should be able to not have to worry about my nuclear power plants blowing up.

Since i have been trying to find a lot or mod that removes this feature from the plant i had to consider telling you how a nuclear power plant is safe. I can't find any though, so i request some help or a link to one that is totally safe and downloadable.

[un1 41]

Welcome to Simtropolis!!

You are very smart, I must admit. Never heard of anything like that. I have heard requests of one. I am hopling for one so I am REQUESTING one to be made...

[combot 0]

Well, i wouldn't really consider that to be an explosion on an atomic level. If it was an explosion on an atomic level it would probably wipe out the majority of the city and not just the immediate surrounding area. I believe the resulting explosion is to further exaggerate what is actually happening.

If the energy from a fire was added to that of the chain reaction, then would that not result in some form of an explosion?

Now, i am not trying to start an argument here, you seem to know more about nuclear power than i do, but to say nuclear power is a truly safe alternative could be up to some debate. It almost seems more unrealistic for a nuclear power plant to never meltdown, or explode, then to have a explosion of any kind.

[Maxis92 11]

Maxis made a lot of strange decisions when they developed this game.

For example, Why do the police stations have so few squad cars?

[Rixile 0]

In reply to combot..

Fire doesn't effect the uranium as the uranium can't be ignited and since the uranium is lower grade than that of a nuke's enriched uranium the fire has no effect except for temperature increase. But also the nuclear power plant uses water to cool down the reactor so even if a fire was ensued inside the reactor it would be extinguished almost immediately. Plus Nuclear power plants are very safe especially in japan and america since they have state of the art backup systems and safety features.

Chernobyl is a bad example of how dangerous nuclear power plants are because the russians were terrible in that era with technology of nuclear fission and they didn't do routine inspections to make sure the reactor is not overheating, etc and what happened was is the steel encasing holding the uranium rods was corroded and they failed to shut it down in time and then radiation leaked around the area.

But there has never been such a incident in the US where radioactive particles get released due to engineering and safety error. Also, our nuclear reactor casings are changed every now and so with a fresh new containment field as well as a concrete layered reactor done to prevent gamma rays from leaking into the air.

I request that the Nuclear Power plant is to be fixed, so there is NO chance of a detonation, and there is NO chance or a Radiation leak.

[WeekendCityPlanner 19]

Wow, finally somebody that realizes the potential of nuclear power. I'm so tired about how people go that nuclear power is evil and shouldn't be fully utilized. I'm sure that somebody has done a nuclear powerplant that might of fixed that error. If not, you could request for one, or you can make one yourself.

[RippleJet 36]

All power plants have an age degradation rate, which is dependant on the funding and usage of the plant. At full funding and 85% usage, we have the following life expectancies:

Wind Power Plant	100 years
Solar Power Plant	100 years
Waste to Energy Plant	80 years
Coal Power Plant	75 years
Natural Gas Power Plant	75 years
Oil Power Plant	75 years
Recycling Center	75 years
Nuclear Power Plant	60 years
Hydrogen Power Plant	50 years

When reaching that age they stop producing electricity and have a chance of exploding.

The wind and solar plants don't explode and only the nuclear plant causes a "nuclear explosion".

It's never a good idea to leave the game running at Cheetah speed for decades.

Maybe that's what the Russians did in Chernobyl...

Whichever power plants you have built, they will need replacing after a few decades (just as in real life). Why have a power plant running when it doesn't produce electricity anymore? Especially when the maintenance cost also increases with the age.

It's easy to change the property "Hard Failure Type" (or any other property relating to the age degradation) for the nuclear plant in Reader, e.g. so that it explodes like a coal plant, or doesn't explode at all.

[NetPCDoc 1]

Hello Rixile,

My two cents worth - the Hydrogen (a.k.a. Fusion) Power plant is SimCity's version of an up-to-date and well maintained nuclear (FUSION) power plant - while the power plant offered under the name of Nuclear Power Plant is an earlier (FISSION) version (less safe and not as well maintained).

-NetPCDoc

No detail is too small to be micromanaged.

[Rixile 0]

I know, however in the us it is very safe and has no potential of blowing up or even like chernobyl. The russians were terrible at maintaining thiers that doesn't mean all nuclear power plants are harmful.

And why make them blow up at the end!? So all your work can be decimated? power plants usually don't blow up. 

Oh and by the way, nuclear powerplants only have to have thier reactors replaces, not the entire building which the reactor change is completely safe.

[haux 6]

It's a video game. I bet they just added it in to be fun and to keep you on your toes. I guess it's so you don't just run it on cheetah speed and go shopping or whatever.

[masssc4 3]

Originally posted by: haux It's a video game. I bet they just added it in to be fun and to keep you on your toes. I guess it's so you don't just run it on cheetah speed and go shopping or whatever.quote>

 

I actually kinda agree 

[Anteater 0]

I shall look at three different plants to discuss this. The first being Chernobyl. Here a steam explosion spread radioactive particles over Europe and the surrounding area, as far as Iceland. Note that the meltdown did not cause a typical explosion, rather the heating effect caused a non-nuclear one. This same sort of explosion was the cause of the Mayak explosion too, when a cooling system in the nuclear waste failed, and so there was another steam explosion, once again spreading radioactive particles. The third plant I shall look at is Sellafield, (Incidentally this plant is being closed down, I know some details of this from one of my parent's profession, they has a serious problem with the insulation, which has become radioactive. They used Asbestos. The plan is to take the Asbestos, deal with the radioactivity and then treat it like normal Asbestos). The problems here are all related to Radiation leaks. England, my homeland, has the worst record after the Soviet Union, and Japan has another terrible record.

However, if radiation leaks are what you are after, remember this: Once you have radiation, you are realistically in even more trouble than before, because now you have a century long problem. Realistically everyone but R$ (Or should I say Lira or Rupees?) would leave, and people would be dying absurdly young, so its probably best the way it is.

[Bodhi83 0]

Not to be mean, but you could have it so that when the nuclear plant melts down, it just poisons the entire area like Chernobyl did.

[Anteater 0]

But that is even worse... and it would just make the region instantly unplayable, and so people would cease to play it.

[palmejoe 0]

I have a question. What is the point of this thread? Rixlie and Anteater, did puclear power plants explode in your game? Is that what you are so upset about? This game isn't entirely realistic to begin with. Some complain that it is too much in favour of the hippy element, some enjoy to torment and kill their sims by causing perpetual catastrophies (which is sad). You seem to want to argue for the perfection of Nuclear Power while at the same time discussing the details of incidents where Nuclear Power, maintained by incompetent people, has caused major catastrophies.

I think that everyone will agree that the game has quirks that are irritating, but we all learn to work around them because we enjoy it. I tend to ignore the unrealistic issues so that really bug me. Forget about it.

[Rixile 0]

I am aware of that pamejoe, however it is VERY RARE for a plant to leak radiation, nuclear power plants do not blow up in a nuclear catastrophe with a mushroom cloud, and all i request is a mod that deletes the Mushroom cloud, and removes the effects of radiation leakage because there are hundreds of nuclear plants operating in the US and none of them have caused any problems that i know of.

Besides, if you read about the safety systems and incredible engineering in our modern plants they are 99% safe and are operated by professionals, not by clumsy dopes like the chernobyl scientists. I would like Simcity to be realistic, not tilted towards irrational fears.

[cariboo 0]

who ever said that a nuclear explosion like that at a power plant couldn't happen?

just because it hasn't happened yet, and will probably never happen, there's still a chance that a nuclear power plant could explode and make a mushroom cloud and destroy its surroundings and spread radiation.

like the ocean has never swallowed california, and it probably never will happen, but there's still a chance that it could.

if i confused you, sorry.

[north country dude 202]

As RippleJet explained, it is a simple matter to "adjust" the factors regarding the nuclear power plant in SC4. I generally set mine to "no hard failure" and a lifespan of about 100-150 years before the entire plant needs to be replaced or "overhauled", if you will.

The easiest modification program to use for this is iLive's LEProp.

Also, I believe cogeo made a package of realistic nuclear power plants, here: https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?id=12299

The whole reason he made this set was, as he states, "The nuclear power plant originally included in SimCity 4 looks very unrealistic, basically because of its low output and its high production cost, nearing the cost of renewable energy."

Hope this was helpful.

[Anteater 0]

Just to sy, I am actually defending the current set up, more or less. Sure, it wouldn't ever happen because it isn't designed to explode. The sole cause of Nuclear plants exploding is the heat the produce in a melt down, not like the explosion of a bomb, however if they were realistic then it would ruin the gameplay, and so that is most undesirable.