Does Anyone Ever Use Nuke Power?

[Zpike 79]

I can't see any reason to take a chance on a nuke plant when there is a possibility that I will trash my entire city if it fails.

 

Why have something in the game that only a fool would place in their city?

 

I would guess that if they have usage statistics on the nuke plant that there are less than .05% of cities that actually use one.

 

 

[Screwballl 196]

It really is a double edged sword.

 

One the plus side, it is the cheapest after you figure in cost of coal and oil and space saved.... Even the first generation reactor runs $6.0 per KwH (the 3rd Gen is 5.33/KwH) versus after you figure in the cost of the coal to feed a coal plant, even then at best it can do is around 6.81/KwH

 

but on the other side, if you don't have high education throughout your city then it could result in a meltdown.

 

 

I have 4 or 5 cities with them that have run through at least 6-7 game years and so far not a single problem.

[nataniels3 61]

I (in sandbox) have a city with 3 nuclear power plants generating 4,000 megawatts for the entire region. So far no problems. I think all you have to do to prevent a meltdown is figure out where the most educated parts of the city are and plop it closer to them. Due to the way the agent system works, educated workers should arrive there before uneducated ones. It also isn't correct to call it foolish. It has a higher energy density (power generated per tile of space used) than anything else. It does not rely on external fuel sources and it provides a consistent level of power as opposed to say wind, which can fluctuate depending on wind speed and is basically unfeasible for filled out cities with high demand due to how much space it would take up. In an experiment I performed, I plopped a nuclear power plant and upgraded it to providing 2000 megawatts of power. I plopped a wind farm and despite it taking up the same amount of space, it only provided 90 megawatts of power (at peak hours!). My city only had a demand for 200 mw so going solely off that wind farm (taking up the same amount of space space than a nuclear power plant with 3 gen. 3 reactors) wouldn't have satisfied demand, while the nuclear power plant would have enabled my city to be a major electricity exporter.

[SockoJr53 51]

I love the Nuke actually. I will only put it in a city that has a University, to ensure that the education level is high enough. I have never had a meltdown and the plant produces a TON of power given it's cost. The University adds really good upgraded reactors to it too.

[astondb9 7]

I use it regularly in cities with high electricity demand... with or without a university. But usually by the time you can afford it I have a college. It warns you when the skill level falls so you can just close it down and import. Only ever had a 'partial' meltdown that seemed to pollute a small area.. wasn't a big deal just built wind turbines in its place.

[tnobles 38]

Just don't use them. Two oil plants will handle a city of 600K and they don't melt down, ever.

[MOWS 4 U 169]

I had one in a brand new region in a city with a university and highest tech level and it melted down in less than a year.  I trashed the region and started over.   Now I coal plants and later when the city is well established I use concentrated solar arrays pretty much exclusively.

 

NEVER use nuclear.

[PatternRec 1]

I used nuke for a long time in a highly educated city of about 230,000 sims. Eventually I got around to building the solar farm in the region and got rid of the nuke plant. Never had a meltdown. 

[Jons511 12]

I, like many previous posters, use Nuke plants occasionally. I've never had a meltdown, and never had a warning about my tech levels being low. I usually put a community college near the plant and this seems to work fine for me. I even had a region I was going to disband so I purposely turned off education and played the game for several in-game months with absolutely no schools in the city trying to attempt a meltdown like everyone talks about. My plant never fell below a "safe" education level and I gave up.

[Anything 8]

i used to use them, but suffered a couple of meltdowns in a row when the tech line from the college comes out and only turned left, and not right to the nuclear plant next door.

i haven't tried much since. for me, by the time ive paid for college, all the huge water requirements, the massive amount of space it needs, and the possibility of melt down, i just build 2 x oil plants instead.

[Chillmaster_Rob 0]

I went for so long, in several different regions. successfully using not just nuclear reactors? but, of course, the most powerful Neutron core level III reactors.  and then, I got confused one day in a game. I walked away from the computer I think. I came back and everything looked the same - at first - but then when I looked on the radio active map, I learned why my full-size hospital was taking in hundreds of patients every single day! a nuclear brownout (from a neutron reactor!) tore up the entire map and made the city space, absolutely un-useable.  it made the region a waste, and..

 

 

I'm with the consensus. Unless you're expert at this game,... you shouldn't mess with nuclear power.  Wait until you're good at the game at wait until your city is established and well educated before you even think about it!

[Xr3iracer 5]

Would love to use nuclear power but it's massive cost and drain on water puts me off!! Also I noticed even tho I was producing a massive excess in my city with nuclear power most of that excess was not available to the region so now I jus use oil or coal! I find wind/ solar take up a lot of space for not that great returns!

[Screwballl 196]

Would love to use nuclear power but it's massive cost and drain on water puts me off!! Also I noticed even tho I was producing a massive excess in my city with nuclear power most of that excess was not available to the region so now I jus use oil or coal! I find wind/ solar take up a lot of space for not that great returns!

 

Massive cost? It is the cheapest after you figure in cost of coal and oil and space saved....

• The first generation nuke reactor runs $6.0 per KwH (the 3rd Gen is 5.33/KwH) and the price is static....
• versus if you figure in the cost of the coal to feed a coal plant, even then the best it can do is around 6.75 to 7.0  per KwH (at todays cost of $4978 per 10t, coal plant cost 6.85/MwH to run with first gen dirty generator, and more per MwH for the 2nd and 3rd gen).

[infoman96 27]

I can't see any reason to take a chance on a nuke plant when there is a possibility that I will trash my entire city if it fails.

Why have something in the game that only a fool would place in their city?

I would guess that if they have usage statistics on the nuke plant that there are less than .05% of cities that actually use one.

Typically I go nuclear once my city's land has been exhausted, which essentially means 27 wind turbines. In my main region, only one city provides nuclear power and that one city with three normal nuclear reactors provides to one other city as well. That city that depends the other for power, provides water to the nuclear city but for some reason, my nuclear city can't have it's water and sewage plants shut down because the other city only sells 100kw at a time.

The sad part about it is that I actually had the nuclear city donate a hefty amount of cash to the other city to build its large water complex, yet it still can't provide more than 100kw of water at a time.

[Bdub01 201]

Has anyone seem a nuclear plant blow up?  I bet with the graphics of this game it would look really awesome.  Just wondering!!!

[DumplingPod 0]

Has anyone seem a nuclear plant blow up?  I bet with the graphics of this game it would look really awesome.  Just wondering!!!

I actually had all four reactors in my nuclear power plant meltdown. This was in a city where I was trying to achieve I believe either the level 5 or level 6 city hall (the one that requires over 200k citizens) and I wanted to make more room in the city, so I destroyed my university to make some more housing. I made it to 300k, but then my fully maxed out nuclear power plant melted down. 4 times in fact because each reactor melts down independantly. I'm quite surprised that nothing actually explodes. The nuclear power plant in SimCity 4 did explode, however. This is quite realistic, however. A nuclear power plant accident is actually a meltdown. A meltdown is very different from what the general public thinks it is. A meltdown doesn't "damage" anything (By damage, I mean destroy any nearby buildings), but it spews out radiation like crazy. Living near Three Mile Island, (within 3 miles), they ask us that in the case of a nuclear emergency, we evacuate outside a radius of 10 miles. Cities and towns including Harrisburg and Hershey are in this radius. When you have a meltdown in SimCity 5 in one of your reactors, nothing explodes, but a huge area, about 1 - 1.5 km, becomes abandoned due to radiation and you're forced to demolish any buildings in that area. The radiation radius seems quite unrealistic compared to real nuclear disasters, but I guess it's to compensate for the small city size. Unfortunately, nothing really happens in terms of explosions or graphics. 

 

 

I can't see any reason to take a chance on a nuke plant when there is a possibility that I will trash my entire city if it fails.

 

Why have something in the game that only a fool would place in their city?

 

I would guess that if they have usage statistics on the nuke plant that there are less than .05% of cities that actually use one.

 

The nuclear power plant for me is my third resort to power. I start with Wind, then either coal or oil, and then I go nuclear. It's just the easiest one stop solution and it doesn't require any resources. It's really cheap and you don't have to worry about resource trucks getting stuck in traffic as your power plant is running at 50% reduced capacity. it's also relatively clean. I always try to build it as close to the college/university as possible. Or I at least wait until high tech has sprawled up and place it in between. This almost guarantees skilled workers to enter the plant. 

[Yaffle 29]

My major gripe with them is they seem to be a meteor/earthquake/godzilla magnet. The oh too frequent disasters make them too risky, not the buildings themselves.

[Zpike 79]

 

 

The nuclear power plant for me is my third resort to power. I start with Wind, then either coal or oil, and then I go nuclear. It's just the easiest one stop solution and it doesn't require any resources. It's really cheap and you don't have to worry about resource trucks getting stuck in traffic as your power plant is running at 50% reduced capacity. it's also relatively clean. I always try to build it as close to the college/university as possible. Or I at least wait until high tech has sprawled up and place it in between. This almost guarantees skilled workers to enter the plant. 

 

 

Place a Trade Depot with easy access to both the power plant and the city exit.  Assign two slots set to "import" for the resource you need for power and give it all 4 trucks.  That will solve your resource issues with power plants.

[Monster's Cat 120]

Has anyone seem a nuclear plant blow up?  I bet with the graphics of this game it would look really awesome.  Just wondering!!!

 

 

OK here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5RuaK4dSYY

[Screwballl 196]

A meltdown in this game means it just sends out radiation, but continues to function at a reduced level. It doesn't explode like a nuke bomb destroying half the city... Although once it happens, any zoned areas are useless and uninhabitable... use that area for specialties and just import any extras you need.

[Obamagecko 0]

My experience is that it will be working fine until the University inexplicably closes down every morning or a related skilled workers glitch. Even so, I'd rather study up for the concentrated solar array and load up on those as it doesn't rapidly drain my water supply.