william mook wrote:

(1) Uranium ore is concentrated by processes involving liquid water
(and, in some cases, molecular oxygen and organic matter), which is not present
on the moon.


Two points. This is merely a statement about what won't work under
current condtions. Clearly you don't use things that won't work.
Plainly, you change conditions if current conditions aren't favorable.

This was refering to *geological* processes, Mook.

(2) The processing of uranium ores involves water. Again, difficult
to do on the moon.

Same two points. You either change the technology to one that's more
favorable on the moon, or you change the conditions under which you
operate.

This is handwaving.

(3) All industrial processes on the moon suffer from the difficulty of shedding
waste heat. You can design radiators of various kinds, but they will
be more expensive than on Earth.


Depends on the details. Clearly one can imagine all manner of
inefficient means of shedding heat. Plainly this says nothing about
efficient ways of shedding heat. Consider a nuclear plant sitting
inside a thermally transparent dome filled with a low density oxygen
gas. Such a pressure stabilized dome would be rather easy to build.
The nuclear plant could be cooled far more easily than those big ass
towers used here on Earth - since there's no environmental concerns -
especially if remotely tended.

Those big ass towers exploit evaporative cooling. Very effective.
The heat is carried off into the environment by abundant water, and
is radiated to space by the environment at large.

A 1 GW(e) PWR will dissipate at least 2 GW of waste heat.
Radiating that at (say) 400 K (a bit higher than the temperature
at which those cooling towers are operating) will require an area
of about 14 square kilometers. This dire result means that
space reactors will operate at even higher exhaust temperature to reduce
the radiator area, even if this reduces their thermal efficiency
and otherwise increases their operating cost.


HOW TO MAKE REALLY BIG DOMES CHEAPLY:
By taking a shaped asteroidal mass (think of a shaped tank penetrating
round - but modified for our purposes) of Silica - and a shaped mound
of silica deposited at a location on the moon. Drive the asteroid
into the mound under controlled conditions - the heat and dynamics of
the collision are engineered to BLOW A BUBBLE OF GLASS - and fill it
with low density oxygen. Voila' you have any sized bubbles you like -
from baseball sized to the size of cities.

This is one of the most ridiculous loads of crap I've ever had the misfortune
to read. What you'd get is a cloud of silica-bearing ejecta spread over
an area of the lunar surface.


(4) Labor on the moon is orders of magnitude more expensive than on Earth,
and will remain so for the foreseeable future.


How long? How expensive? Clearly, you are merely giving the results
of your intestines - not the results of any clear thinking or
analysis. In other words, pure crap!

Clearly, you are so deep in denial you're on the verge of psychosis.
In *reality*, Mook, it's *really hard* to do *anything* to the moon,
and there's no sign this will change much, handwaving notwithstanding.

Paul