[ExI] Asteroidal mining was Nukes was less expensive energy

[Eugen Leitl]

On Fri, Sep 23, 2011 at 07:23:04PM -0700, Dennis May wrote:
> Dust - even metal dust - is generally a good insulator so transferring heat to it
> would be time consuming as would getting it to radiate the heat away.
>  
> Our old plasma table at work had a dust collection system.  The dust produced
> from cutting stainless steel on a plasma table might resemble some forms
> of nickel-iron dust.  The dust has a huge volume per weight and would be very 

That was most likely mostly oxide, unless your plasma cutter was
powered by inert gas (argon) and dumped into an inert gas blanket as well.

> hard on any  mechanism transferring it.  We once dumped a partial barrel of it 
> by accident and the dust spread over the ground like a fog floating downhill for 
> a good 15 yards or more.

You're still top-posting occasionally. Lots better now, though.
  
-- 
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org
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