Does anyone build nuclear power plants?

[iammaxhailme]

I usually build coal plants because they come first, but if I find a source of uranium, I generally switch over because swapping plants doesn't cost much production.

 

[Hellenism Salesman]

Nuclear power plants are extremely efficient, and I don't mind the routine maintenance.

I usually build the power plants as I unlock them though.

 

[reddishrecue]

Nuclear plants had meltdowns which were caused by rioting if I remember correctly. It's one reason. Why I wouldn't build them because with growth unhappiness may arise.

 

[The Highwayman]

I build Nuclear power plants in space races. It helps power all of my labs and stadiums without crippling my diplo per turn. Not impactful for the space projects themselves, as they get chopped and the IZ project guarantees 100% power for the duration to Mars. The projects should be launched before any meltdowns occur under most circumstances.

 

[Widdershins]

I've played only 2 GS games so far, and in the 2nd game the World Congress had nuclear plants banned all the time. I wasn't aware that oil plants get bonuses over coal plants, and I do usually watch for those things. The in-game descriptions of these buildings seemed to indicate totally the opposite.

The problem is the scarcity of uranium. An unrealistic scarcity, really, considering the number of nuclear plants even a small country like France has in the real world. And aluminum! Rare as platinum for some reason. But I digress...

Imagine my disappointment when I first got to the end of the GS tech tree and found nothing allowing for building nuclear fusion plants. That's nuclear power with virtually no radioactive waste products and using heavy hydrogen as the raw material. Three dozen nations are researching this technology right now.

 

[Ordnael]

My last game went so well I actually built nuclear power plants, recommissioned them as well before hitting 20 years. I didn't build them because of the bonuses over the coal or oil variant as I wasn't aware of such, but the climate panel bothered me that my civ was running first place to doom all those pixels...I did got 3 sources of uranium in the game, that helped!

 

[MrRadar]

Nuclear power plants are extremely efficient,

Could you expand a bit on this, meaning, do you have a specific strategy of teching up to them and then making them work for your goals, and under what game settings?

I decided to have a go with Julius with a SV in mind and going for nuclear power plants before anything else, if I find uranium, on standard size and speed continents and islands map, deity, no modes.

This only resulted in me being later to Computers, so Flood Barriers must go up when flooding is already underway, that means I need a swarm of military engineers whose costs combined with expensive FBs negates all the production benefits of those nuclear plants multiple times, and the science boost from them, well, I get more from Renaissance Walls with Military Science, frankly. And, of course, I could've ended the game with a DipV already at ~t240ish by using Shah to build the SoL, despite missing two competitions for 2DV points (forgot completely about the first, and in the second Tamar trolled me with the last minute project completion).

However, I used him on Eiffel and the GG to avoid the temptation and have more time to discover the benefits of those plants, but I'm seeing none so far, only drawbacks, including messing up a better teching path. Maybe I was just too slow to reach them?

 

[Hellenism Salesman]

Could you expand a bit on this, meaning, do you have a specific strategy of teching up to them and then making them work for your goals, and under what game settings?

I decided to have a go with Julius with a SV in mind and going for nuclear power plants before anything else, if I find uranium, on standard size and speed continents and islands map, deity, no modes.

This only resulted in me being later to Computers, so Flood Barriers must go up when flooding is already underway, that means I need a swarm of military engineers whose costs combined with expensive FBs negates all the production benefits of those nuclear plants multiple times, and the science boost from them, well, I get more from Renaissance Walls with Military Science, frankly. And, of course, I could've ended the game with a DipV already at ~t240ish by using Shah to build the SoL, despite missing two competitions for 2DV points (forgot completely about the first, and in the second Tamar trolled me with the last minute project completion).

However, I used him on Eiffel and the GG to avoid the temptation and have more time to discover the benefits of those plants, but I'm seeing none so far, only drawbacks, including messing up a better teching path. Maybe I was just too slow to reach them?

I don't mean efficient in a macro sense, I just mean they have a very efficient resource to power ratio. They generate a ton of power for a small amount of Uranium, which is why I like them (I build a lot of powered buildings). Sorry, I should have clarified!

 

[MrRadar]

I don't mean efficient in a macro sense, I just mean they have a very efficient resource to power ratio. They generate a ton of power for a small amount of Uranium, which is why I like them (I build a lot of powered buildings). Sorry, I should have clarified!

Ah, I see, yes that they have. However, as I like coastal cities, usually I have to make a dash towards Computers first, and nuclear power plants are in such a spot on the tech tree that I either do not reach them when the game ends early in a DipV, or I zoom past them and by the time I could build them, there's no need of them anymore, as coal plants are fully offset by renewables, so I stay on cleaned up coal until the end. And with uranium being quite scarce, I usually just forget all about the nuclear plants, they just don't fit in at all with me.

 

[Hellenism Salesman]

Ah, I see, yes that they have. However, as I like coastal cities, usually I have to make a dash towards Computers first, and nuclear power plants are in such a spot on the tech tree that I either do not reach them when the game ends early in a DipV, or I zoom past them and by the time I could build them, there's no need of them anymore, as coal plants are fully offset by renewables, so I stay on cleaned up coal until the end. And with uranium being quite scarce, I usually just forget all about the nuclear plants, they just don't fit in at all with me.

That's completely fine and understandable. I don't use uranium power plants in every game, either. If I'm really ahead in tech and culture and only have coal around (not uncommon since offshore oil rigs unlock late and that's where most oil is), I'll just build coal power plants and do carbon recapture to negate the downside.

 

[Abaxial]

In RL nuclear accidents are very rare, thank goodness. The accident rate in Civ 6 is unrealistic.

 

[MrRadar]

Well, I've completed my standard Deity Julius run with no modes. Carl Sagan was already fingering his Zippo eager to ignite the Interplanetary rocket, but hardbuilt Lady Liberty ignited her torch first and told everybody to go home on t269, declaring Julius to be the greatest diplomat of all times, but not quite of Augustus level though.

I've got 3 nuclear plants up and running, the longest-serving one took ~7 turns to convert to and had a 26 turns run time with not a single maintenance cycle and no accident. I did have a legionary saved for the eventual cleanup and achievement, but he remained jobless. Second plant was hardbuilt and served me 20 turns, neither maintenance nor incidents, and the last one only ran for 6 turns with no servicing and no hiccups. Managed to cover the grand total of 9 cities, for 27 science out of 640 on the turn after victory. Production bonus applied to even fewer cities, as some of them had their own coal plants.

So in my view nuclear plants even without maintenance do not justify the investment into them, when for example that production could be used to build a tank army which then would go on a pillaging safari, yielding much more science and gold equivalent of production during the same time, and also faith.

On top of being rather late and offering very little, they're also in direct competition with the Satellites and the Synthetic Materials-Composites-Nanotechnology line, both much more attractive for research priority, as those lines unlock both SV projects and clean power solutions, so nuclear plants are further sidelined. Why spend research time and production on them if nearly in the same time you can go completely green anyway, not just almost green, and with no risks of leaks.