magnesium oxide a slag is produced such that the component no longer has structural integrity and thus cannot carry load application of a slight load such as a pressure fluctuation or pressure pulse for example may cause a component made of magnesium oxide slag to crumble in an embodiment such loads are applied to the well bore and controlled in such a manner so as to cause structural failure of the frac plug 200 in one embodiment the torch 257 may comprise the u201c radial cutting torch u201d developed and sold by mcr oil tools corporation the radial cutting torch includes a fuel load 251 constructed of thermite and classified as a flammable nonexplosive solid using a nonexplosive material like thermite provides several advantages numerous federal regulations regarding the safety handling and transportation of explosive add complexity when conveying explosive to an operational job site in contrast thermite is nonexplosive and thus does not fall under these federal constraints torches 257 constructed of thermite including the radial cutting torch may be transported easily even by commercial aircraft in order to ignite the fuel load 251 a firing mechanism 253 is employed that may be activated in a variety of ways in one embodiment a timer such as an electronic timer a mechanical timer or a spring wound timer a volume timer or a measured flow timer for example may be used to activate a heating.