Free Solbidyum Wars Saga Book 1: Battle of the New Orleans by Dale C. Musser Page B

piece the size of a single grain of salt and place it in proximity of the second element, which is rather common and put them inside a low grade magnetic field produces enough energy to meet the needs of a large industrial planet with a population of one billion on for a nearly infinite period of time.
    In the beginning, after the Solbidyum and its potential discovered three planets set up power plants producing power for their entire planets using some of the original samples discovered.   It gave huge advantages for these planets in terms of industry and resources.  Everything was converted to electrical systems and the need for fossil, nuclear or fusion were no longer needed nor was there a need for systems to process waste or store radioactive wastes.  It was clean, non-polluting and above all didn’t require a lot of maintenance or personnel to maintain, nor did it take up a lot of space.
    At first the planetary governments rejoiced, at the time the Federation as in its infancy, newly formed and dedicated to the principal of seeing to it that everyone, no matter what planet they lived on, had the same opportunities and access to the same resources for life and energy.   The discovery of Solbidyum meant that some of the planets that heretofore had been struggling to survive because they lacked energy resources now could flourish .  Then the scientists gave us the bad news. Solbidyum was only found in this one very remote place in the Universe, so far as anyone knew.  The amount of Solbidyum was finite and while only the smallest particle of it was required, the amount of existing Solbidyum was estimated only to be enough for each planet in the Federation to possess one, maybe two grains of it, and it would take years to mine and process it all. Every planet wanted to be first on the list to receive it and many heated debate and discussion took place as to who should get it and when and how it should be distributed.  It was finally decided that all Solbidyum would be collected and refined and processed at one time so that no planet had an advantage over another because of when they received it.  Each planet would be responsible for paying for their Solbidyum at a rate to be set by the Federation, but planets that didn’t have the money to pay for it could get it on credit from the Federation so every planet would get a fair shot at the advantage of endless and unlimited energy. Lastly, mining Solbidyum was extremely dangerous as the asteroids patch in which the Solbidyum was found was extremely active with Asteroids orbiting around a dense particle believed to also have been left over from the black hole.  These Asteroids were crashing into each other from time to time leaving dense meteoritic debris also bumping and crashing into things and the entire area in a dense dust cloud.  The scientists believed that in a few million years all the debris and Asteroids would be pulled into the dense core particle and would eventually become a new star that is if there had been enough core and debris to do so, but there wasn’t.  At first they tried harvesting the meteoritic debris robotically to extract the Solbidyum, but the process was very slow and produced little Solbidyum and the equipment was constantly being damaged by the meteoric debris.  To get the Solbidyum it took manned equipment moving about the debris field with harvesters, but that too was very expensive, not just in equipment but in men as well.  A person volunteering to work in the harvesting area could earn a life time in wages for a three month stint of work, but few who ever signed up ever lived the three months to collect their wages;  the handful that did never signed up for a second stint.  Eventually it was so bad that no one at all would take the chance that is until several of the worst criminals the universe had ever seen volunteered their services working the debris field if their death sentences would be set aside if they survived