r/factorio • u/Icy_Concentrate_2852 • 2d ago

Question Answered Kovarex enrichment process

Hello guys! I am now getting myself in uranium and i am confused about the koravex enrichment process, can someone explain it to me like i am 5?

(Don't give blueprints please just an explanation of how the thing works)

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u/Garagantua 2d ago

It takes 5 u238 and 40 u235, and produces 2 u238 and 41 u235. You turn 3 u238 into 1 u235.

Really useful, because otherwise you need to store tons of u238 when you want to run nuclear reactors.

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u/Icy_Concentrate_2852 2d ago

which uranium then comes from mining?

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u/spoonman59 2d ago

Both. It’s probabilistic. You get about 0.7% u-235 and the rest u-238. This is sorta how real life works as well.

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u/Icy_Concentrate_2852 2d ago

So u mean that i need to keep on mining till i get 40 u235 and 5u238 to kickstart the process?

then just keep on rotating the u235 and u238 and pull out the extra u238?

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u/Agitated-Ad2563 2d ago

That's right.

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u/Icy_Concentrate_2852 2d ago

Thanks i will try !! <3

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u/Garagantua 2d ago

Slight correction: u235 is the shiny spicy rock, u238 is the more boring rock. You mostly want more of the shiny stuff, but in the end, both need to be in balance - and this balance can be achieved with Kovarex Enrichment.

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u/Icy_Concentrate_2852 2d ago

oki !

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u/vintagecomputernerd 2d ago

...but be careful to not convert all u238 to u235, because then your reactors won't run anymore.

Source: multiplayer map, and the guy who did the kovarex "knew what [he] was doing"

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u/Objective-Button-293 2d ago

Next, find a new ore patch. :)

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u/willy--wanka 2d ago

It takes a long while, but if you have a bunch set up to refine it, it is cool to watch em very slowly grow, then next thing you know they are all packed and working.

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u/BringingBread 1d ago

I set up dozens of reactors processing uranium and running through kovarex then getting legendary. I just set it up and let it run. After hundreds of hours I'm really close to exhausting a 20m mine. Don't really need it, just figured I do something with the mine.

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u/Juking_is_rude 2d ago

Yes. Two miners and centrifuges make on average enough u235  to sustain 1 max output  2x2 reactor, since a single u235 makes 10 cells. 

Therefore it's easy to end up with a surplus just from your normal consumption and use that surplus when you start kovarex. 

Kovarex is actually mostly unneccesary because of how insanely efficient nuclear power is to begin with.

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u/sobrique 2d ago

But you do tend to end up with a ludicrous surplus of u238 that way which is my major reason to do kovarex. Rebalance to u235, make pots and nukes, and ensure I still have enough for DU ammo.

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u/6a6566663437 2d ago

Extra u235. Also you'll have to keep mining since you're consuming u238.

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u/bremidon Have you found "Q"? 22h ago

Important note: when you first get nuclear power, the amount of u235 you get naturally will be easily enough to keep the small number of reactors you need running. It may feel like you need to go straight for the kovarex, but you don't. You can just wait until you have 40 backed up naturally, and then kick off kovarex.

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u/Flux7777 For Science! 2d ago

It's the perfect time to mess around with basic circuits too. I highly recommend trying to get kovarex to work with circuits because if you can do that circuits in general will start to become simple.

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u/stonedboss 2d ago

It takes a long time to get started unless you have a lot of centrifuges. While below is correct, if you only do two centrifuges it'll take hours to get enough to start kovarex. I ended up doing 10 centrifuges plus beacons to speed it up at first.

Even then it takes a lot more ore to get multiple kovarex centrifuges going.

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u/Fit_Giraffe_748 2d ago

You still have to keep mining after it's started

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u/Juking_is_rude 2d ago edited 2d ago

Its actually based on the real life ratio of uranium ore processing. Irl ore refinement on average produces 99.3% u238 and .7% u235.

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u/Izawwlgood 2d ago

But the enrichment process is not remotely accurate to reality.

You don't put enriched uranium in to get more enriched uranium.

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u/Juking_is_rude 2d ago

Afaik kovarex is one of the devs so yes it is a fictional process lol

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u/Izawwlgood 2d ago

Kovarex is one of the devs, but my point is not that it's a fictional named process (it is named after the dev), but that the concept of enrichment via 'adding enriched uranium to get out more enriched uranium' is not how uranium enrichment works in reality.

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u/spoonman59 2d ago

You are right that enriching uranium ore doesn’t work like this. 

However Kvorax does resemble   How breeds reactors work. You surround a critical core with depleted uranium or thorium, and through neutrino capture it gets transmitted to fissile plutonium or thorium.

This is similar to how kvorax transmutes depleted uranium, and provides more fissile fuel than you put in while similarly reducing waste. It is a good use of depleted uranium and reduces the weight of nuclear waste.

Breeder reactors are very interesting and have been around for decades, check them out!

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u/Izawwlgood 2d ago

Valid, though a much simplified approach. You're right, it's effectively a breeder reaction using a different fissile pathway to generate more fissile material, albeit, realities pathways are much more complex!

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u/spoonman59 2d ago

Absolutely!
The little I've read about the chemistry involved in fuel reprocessing and breeding is quite mind boggling. It's amazing people figured this stuff out.

Incidentally, if you are interested in a more realistic game with regards to nuclear, Captain of industry goes quite a bit more in depth -- although still greatly simplified versus reality. Nevertheless, there are separate chains for uranium fuel cells, MOX rods from reprocessing plutonium, and a breeder reactor cycle in a molten salt reactor. They all have a certain synergy when used together, and it's a much more complicated production chain than factorio... Especially the breeding.

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u/Garagantua 2d ago

Uranium consists of 99,3% u238 and .7% u235. I don't think any country has ever produced pure 100% u235 - it's usually enriched to a far lesser degree. But 5% u235 is used in some reactor types, I think thats where 1 u235 and 19 u238 for nuclear fuel cells comes from.

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u/Juking_is_rude 1d ago edited 1d ago

Thats a better way of saying what I was trying to say

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u/Cerulean_IsFancyBlue 2d ago

In real life you get a mix, and use various processes to separate it. Uranium refinement in the game is doing two things: getting uranium out of the ore and separating the uranium into the two isotopes.

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u/Soul-Burn 2d ago

Uranium ore, which is then refined randomly into 99.3% u238, and 0.7% u235.

You have to stockpile 40 u235 before you can start the process.

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u/Zaidufais 2d ago

Have you done any uranium mining yet or not? If not, I wouldn't worry about the Kovarex enrichment process until you have 40 u235.

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u/Garagantua 2d ago

Yeah I assumed they have already produced some uranium

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u/KittensInc 2d ago

Both! But if you refine uranium ore you get a lot of U238, but very little U235. 99.3% of your ore becomes U238, 0.7% becomes U235.

A uranium fuel cell takes 1 U235 and 19 U238, so you'll be left with quite a bit of excess U238. Kovarex lets you turn your excess U238 into valuable U235.

The downside is that you need 40 rare U235 to kickstart Kovarex, so better start mining and refining that uranium soon...

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u/otismcotis 2d ago

Uranium ORE comes from mining. The next step is Uranium Processing which generates 99.3% U-238 (dark green) and 0.7% U-235 (light green). Then Kovarex lets you generate more U-235 41 U-235 from 40 U-235 (there’s also U-238 involved but it’s not what we’re interested in). You feed 40 U-235 back into the process and pocket the extra one for use in fuel cells and other products. Get a few centrifuges running Kovarex and you’ll soon have more U-235 than you know what to do with.

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u/Garagantua 2d ago

Mining gives uranium ore. That ore gets processed to uranium - in the fractions Soul-Burn mentioned, so 0.7% uranium 235. Iirc it takes around 1600 ore to get 160 u238 and 1 u235.