Editing VB-Basic Beam Warship Tutorial (section)

===Power===
Our next task is to provide some power for those lasers. We have two 15cm lasers, each with a power of 6-3 and two twin 10cm turrets, each with a power of 6-6. The first number is the total power required to fire and the second is the power required per 5 seconds. That second figure is the one for which we need to provide power as power plants (also known as reactors) are rated in the amount of power they produce per 5 seconds. So the total power we need to provide is 18 (3 each for two 15cm lasers, 6 each for two turrets). Open up the Research tab of the Economics window and give yourself the Pebble Bed Reactor Technology. We already have Pressurised Water Reactors but we should have plenty of Starting RP remaining so lets go for a better model. Once Pebble Bed Reactors are available, that opens up the next engine technology and the third reactor technology. Leave those for now but remember that each new engine tech will have a pre-requisite reactor tech.

Use the Design button to open up the Create Research project window and select Power Plants. The Power vs Efficiency dropdown is for a line of tech that can increase reactor output at the cost of an increased chance of secondary explosion if the reactor is hit. We haven't researched anything in that tech line, or any internal armour, so leave those alone for now. Choose a Size of 1. Any system below 1 HS has a HTK of 0 so if it takes damage the system is destroyed and the damage is also applied against another system. Our power plant design should appear as below. Note the Power Output of 3. Use Create and Instant then return to the class design window.

 Pebble Bed Reactor
 Power Output: 3     Internal Armour: 0     Explosion Chance: 5
 Reactor Size: 1 HS    Reactor HTK: 1
 Cost: 9    Crew: 5
 Materials Required: 2.25x Duranium  0x Neutronium  6.75x Boronide
 Development Cost for Project: 90RP

The Pebble Bed Reactor should be on the list of available components. As we need 18 power and the reactor produces 3, add six of them to the design. If you look at the Power Systems section at the centre left, you can see that Reactor Power is 18 and Power required is also 18. For some designs it might be worth including extra reactors for redundancy in case of damage. If you lose a reactor it will reduce the total power available and increase the time required to recharge weapons.