Create: Going Nuclear guide for Minecraft 1.21.1

Create: Going Nuclear turns Create machinery into a simulated nuclear power plant. Process uranium into liquid fuel, construct a reactor and send its steam to turbines that supply rotation and stress capacity. Water supply, radiation protection and spent-fuel management are essential parts of the plant.

This handbook covers Going Nuclear 0.512-5-1, Minecraft 1.21.1 and NeoForge. You can use it outside BuildUp. The mod ID is goingnuclear. Create Nuclear, with the ID createnuclear, is a separate mod: its fuel rods, reactor tiers and instructions do not belong to this guide.

Choose a chapter

Chapter	What you will learn
1. Radiation and protection	Explore uranium deposits, measure exposure and protect yourself
2. Uranium and enrichment	Turn ore into yellowcake and enriched liquid fuel
3. Build a boiling water reactor	Follow a 5×5×6 layer plan with materials and ports
4. Steam and turbines	Remove heat, generate rotation and return water
5. Start, operate and stop	Use the desks, control power and shut down
6. Reactor physics	Understand rods, criticality, period, xenon and decay heat
7. RBMK reactor	Build the second reactor type and understand its different behaviour
8. Waste, reprocessing and MOX	Cool, recover, store and seal radioactive materials
9. Troubleshooting	Diagnose construction, production and plant failures
10. Recipes and reference	Look up components, crafting patterns, settings and sources

For your first reactor, read chapters 1–6 and build the waste-handling system from chapter 8 before startup. Learn the RBMK separately. For an existing fault, start with troubleshooting, then return to the relevant construction chapter.

The complete production chain

Uranium ore / raw uranium → Crushing Wheels → Crushed Uranium Ore
    → sequenced assembly with nitric acid and bone meal → Yellowcake
    → heated mixing with nitric acid → Uranyl Nitrate
    → centrifuge cascade → Enriched Uranyl Nitrate → Reactor
                        ↘ Depleted Uranyl Nitrate ───────────────┐
Reactor → Steam → Lead Tank → Steam Turbine → Create rotation     │
   ↑                                ↓ Water                    │
   └────────────────────────────────┘                          │
Reactor → Spent Fuel Solution → Spent Fuel Pool                  │
                                 ├→ Dry Cask                   │
                                 └→ Reprocessing Plant         │
                                      ├→ Uranium → Centrifuges  │
                                      ├→ Plutonium + depleted uranium → MOX
                                      └→ High-level Waste → Glass → Repository

Create knowledge you need

Prepare an independent rotational power source, shafts, gears, pumps, fluid filters, a Mechanical Mixer with Basin and Blaze Burner, Spout, Mechanical Press, Deployer and Crushing Wheels. The recipe reference lists the supplied recipes; the fuel guide explains how to connect them. Check your pack's recipe viewer for overrides.

A full tank does not prove sufficient flow. For each pipe, identify the source, destination, pump direction and what happens when the destination fills up. Available rotation or electrical power does not replace cooling.

Version and BuildUp settings

Checked on 24 October 2026. This guide uses the installed JAR's recipes, Ponder text, translations and selected machine logic. The construction and operating instructions are derived from those sources; a complete in-game test of every described system is still pending.

The 0.512-5-1 release belongs to a rapidly changing beta series. In this version the water reactor boils its own water. Older pressure-water-reactor descriptions with an external steam generator or hot primary coolant can conflict with the current system. Some bundled labels also predate the steam-loop changes.

BuildUp adjustment: The mod defaults to SIMPLE physics. The checked local BuildUp configuration uses REALISTIC, enables accidents and meltdowns and sets suScale = 1.5. Other packs may differ. The settings table compares defaults with this local snapshot; it does not report a running server's state.

Next: Radiation and protection.