User:Dovahkitty

Meltdown

You're hopefully reading this ahead of time to prepare for a potential meltdown, and not because a scary siren came on saying that a reactor meltdown is imminent. Meltdowns happen because something went wrong and the reactor is overheating, either due to being left unattended, control rod failure, or sabotage. You don't have much time once the sirens come on, so you got to act fast. Here's what you need to do to prevent the ship from become a radioactive wreck if the reactor starts overheating.

Preventing a nuclear disaster

1. SCRAM the reactor. Get the control rods lowered to 100%. It may not stop the meltdown, but it'll buy you time.
2. Flood the reactor with a moderator/reaction neutralizing gas, see above gas table. Whatever gas you use, get it into the fuel lines and make sure to turn on the fuel dump to cycle the cooling gas in faster.
3. If the control rods have failed, you may have to bite the bullet and replace them while the reactor is active. This is VERY DANGEROUS and will likely kill you, but may buy the ship enough time to avert disaster.
4. If all else fails, or you don't have the time for anything else, your last option is to cut the fuel line. Wrench the pipe that leads into the reactor, and then get everyone to stand back for the fuel spewing out.

If you're lucky, you'll stop the reactor from going critical. Once the reactor is cool, you're safe to begin repairs, and eventually restart the reactor.

Dealing with a nuclear disaster

So after your best attempt at saving the reactor things still didn't turn out so well. This can happen from time to time due to various reasons but no matter what got you into it, you will still be the one who has to clean up this mess.
The first thing you will have to prepare for are the electromagnetic pulses that are now pestering the ship, the highly reactive plasma and dangerous nucleium in the reactor's core will have produced a massive EMP across all of engineering and beyond. Obviously this is a massive problem, as half of the ship's systems rely on a stable input of power.
Fear not however, for engineering has been supplied with backup generators for just this reason, they should be able to keep engineering running for at least a bit longer without a reactor. However you have to keep an eye out around engineering, as there have been multiple reports of power-draining events occuring after the original explosion. If you can you must try to rid engineering of whatever is causing this if it does occur, or setting up backup generators will have no effect due to the APC's depowering.
After setting up the backup power you will most likely have to act quickly and consult with your Chief Engineer. Your options are to either leave the ship right now or repair what is left of the broken reactor to get it back in a usable state:

Repairing the Stormdrive itself

After many initial test with the Stormdrive we have devised a way to repair it after a meltdown meaning you blew it up enough for us to care. Our scientists and engineers have made a handy little step by step guide for you to follow in the event of a blown out reactor core:

1. Remove the leftover radioactive sludge from the central reactor chamber. (Hazmat suit recommmended)
2. Repair the outer walls of the reactor chamber with a substantial amount of Duranium and weld it in place.
3. Due to time (and legal) constraints you will have to order a new Stormdrive reactor core from Central Command.
4. Once the reactor core has arrived simply replace the destroyed one with the functional core for the Stormdrive to be operational once more.

If you have followed the instructions here you should now be able to make use of the Stormdrive once more*!