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Deep Well Industrial Zone

dwiz 2
Image from Steve Bowers
The accretion disc of this DWIZ is surrounded by dynamically supported industrial structures

Heavy duty industrial and manufacturing zones, most often found in the Inner Sphere and most heavily developed areas of the Middle Regions.

Usually built in orbit around a Jovian or superJovian class world, Deep Well Industrial Zones (known as DWIZs) are usually built around a small, artificially manufactured black hole of approximately Ceres mass.

Hydrogen is mined from the atmosphere of the gas giant and directed towards the black hole, forming an accretion disk. Nucleosynthetic fusion reactions take place within the accretion disk and generate heavy elements which are mined for manufacture into various products, including spacecraft hulls, components for macrotech devices and macrostructures such as habitats, catapults and weylforges.

DWIZs are used in the place of asteroid and lunar mining operations in regions where elements heavier than helium are scarce. In some locations long term industrialization and development has resulted in the consumption or conversion to habitats of most other space resources; the DWIZ can create new elements in such locations. The creation of elements up to iron is exothermic, and produces large amounts of energy which can be collected for use.

Although heavily automated, deep well zones often support large populations in close proximity due to the large quantities of energy released as a side effect of operations and the major economic transactions that occur as a result of their production. Energy and manufacturing megacorps often have large branch offices in the zone. Some well known zones are: Hephaestus Well, Vulcan's Forge, Industrial Complex 5, and Hellsgate.

 
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Development Notes
Text by Todd Drashner
Initially published on 06 December 2001.

 
 
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