Liquid Uranium

Liquid Uranium is a liquid form of uranium that is notable for industrial heat management. In high-temperature setups, it is one of the best coolants available for a Metal Refinery because it remains liquid across an exceptionally wide temperature range and has a relatively high specific heat capacity. That makes it especially useful for moving large amounts of heat without rapidly crossing phase-change thresholds.

It is also unusually convenient to produce and collect. Uranium Ore has a relatively low melting point, so Liquid Uranium can be obtained with comparatively simple setups. Common methods include placing Manual Airlocks or Mechanized Airlocks made of Uranium Ore close to a heat source, heating Uranium Ore in a Kiln inside a vacuum until it melts, or using a Uranium Centrifuge to output Liquid Uranium directly into pipes for immediate use in industrial cooling systems.

Its liquid range is one of the widest of any liquid in the game, spanning from 132.85°C to 4131.85°C. This allows it to stay liquid through extremely aggressive heating cycles and makes it useful in systems that need to transfer heat over a very broad temperature window. Because of that, the choice of Liquid Pipe material becomes critical: after repeated heating, Liquid Uranium can reach temperatures above the melting points of Obsidian, tungsten, and even Insulite, so ordinary piping is not suitable for long-term use at extreme temperatures.

A few practical implications follow from these properties:

• Liquid Uranium is most valuable in very hot industrial loops, especially where other coolants would flash to gas or freeze too early.
• Its specific heat capacity is high for a liquid metal and is comparable to Crude Oil, which helps it maintain more stable temperature control in extremely hot environments.
• When designing transport lines, the pipe material must be chosen for the maximum expected temperature, not just the normal operating range.
• Since it can be produced from Uranium Ore with relatively simple methods, it is practical to integrate into late-game cooling and heat-transfer infrastructure without requiring exotic processing chains.

Overall, Liquid Uranium is a specialized but powerful coolant for extreme-temperature applications, especially when the goal is to keep a Metal Refinery or similar industrial system stable under heavy thermal load.