Beryllium producers

Recycling. Beryllium is typically recycled, thus it is not a waste disposal problem in fact, it is rarely a waste product at all. Because of the high cost of producing beryllium, beryllium producers repurchase clean scrap from customers for recycling and reuse. 

Beryllium-copper alloys account for much of all the beryllium produced. An alloy is made by melting and mixing two or more metals. The mixture has properties different from those of the individual metals. 

Although beryllium produces cancer in more than one animal species (lung cancer in rats and monkeys osteogenic sarcoma in rabbits), it does not appear to be teratogenic. 

The name comes from the Latin Polonia, meaning Poland, the home country of Marie Curie, one of its discoverers. It was discovered by Marie Curie (1867-1934) and Pierre Curie (1859-1906) in 1898 when they were studying uranium and other radioactive materials found in pitchblende. Polonium is very rare, and, although some exists naturally, most polonium is manufactured in nuclear reactors. Polonium is very dangerous even in minute quantities because of its level of radioactivity. It is a very good source of alpha radiation and, if combined with beryllium, produces neutrons. It is thus used as a thermoelectric source for specialized applications such as satellites. 

The aluminon (24) procedure for the determination of beryllium produced the best precision and the curcumin (4) procedure for boron, the poorest. In general, all of the methods (3, 15, 20) were found to be acceptable. 

The radionuclide ameridum-241 emits alpha particles, which produce neutrons by an (a,n) nuclear reaction with light elements. A mixture of americium-241 with beryllium produces 1.0 x 10 neutrons per second per gram of Am. A large number of Am-Be sources are in daily use world-wide in oil-well logging operations to measure the amount of oil produced in a given period of time. These sources have also been used to measure the water content of soils, and to monitor process streams in industrial plants. Am itself has extensive uses in dissipating... 

However, very intense sources of Sb can be made in a flux of slow neutrons such as is available at CP-5. Its 1.7-MeV gamma ray, when incident on beryllium, produces neutrons with an energy of several keV. These relatively low-energy neutrons are moderated to thermal velocities in the carbon pedestal before entrance into the multiplying medium. 

The rapid fission of a mass of or another heavy nucleus is the principle of the atomic bomb, the energy liberated being the destructive power. For useful energy the reaction has to be moderated this is done in a reactor where moderators such as water, heavy water, graphite, beryllium, etc., reduce the number of neutrons and slow those present to the most useful energies. The heat produced in a reactor is removed by normal heat-exchange methods. The neutrons in a reactor may be used for the formation of new isotopes, e.g. the transuranic elements, further fissile materials ( °Pu from or of the... 

Beryllium is added to copper to produce an alloy with greatly increased wear resistance it is used for current-carrying springs and non-sparking safety tools. It is also used as a neutron moderator and reflector in nuclear reactors. Much magnesium is used to prepare light nieial allo>s. other uses include the extraction of titanium (p. 370) and in the removal of oxygen and sulphur from steels calcium finds a similar use. 

These are halides formed by highly electropositive elements (for example those of Groups I and II, except for beryllium and lithium). They have ionic lattices, are non-volatile solids, and conduct when molten they are usually soluble in polar solvents in which they produce conducting solutions, indicating the presence of ions. 

Beryllium is used as an alloying agent in producing beryllium copper, which is extensively used for springs, electrical contacts, spot-welding electrodes, and non-sparking tools. It is applied as a structural material for high-speed aircraft, missiles, spacecraft, and communication satellites. Other uses include windshield frame, brake discs, support beams, and other structural components of the space shuttle. 

These ion lasers are very inefficient, partly because energy is required first to ionize the atom and then to produce the population inversion. This inefficiency leads to a serious problem of heat dissipation, which is partly solved by using a plasma tube, in which a low-voltage high-current discharge is created in the Ar or Kr gas, made from beryllium oxide, BeO, which is an efficient heat conductor. Water cooling of the tube is also necessary. 

Magnesium fluoride is a by-product of the manufacture of metallic beryllium and uranium. The beryllium or uranium fluorides are intimately mixed with magnesium metal in magnesium fluoride-lined cmcibles. On heating, a Thermite-type reaction takes place to yield the desired metal and Mgp2 (13). Part of the magnesium fluoride produced in this reaction is then used as a lining for the cmcibles used in the process. 

Beryllium has a high x-ray permeabiUty approximately seventeen times greater than that of aluminum. Natural beryUium contains 100% of the Be isotope. The principal isotopes and respective half-life are Be, 0.4 s Be, 53 d Be, 10 5 Be, stable Be, 2.5 x 10 yr. Beryllium can serve as a neutron source through either the (Oi,n) or (n,2n) reactions. Beryllium has alow (9 x 10 ° m°) absorption cross-section and a high (6 x 10 ° m°) scatter cross-section for thermal neutrons making it useful as a moderator and reflector in nuclear reactors (qv). Such appHcation has been limited, however, because of gas-producing reactions and the reactivity of beryUium toward high temperature water. 

Beryllium and aluminum are virtually insoluble in one another in the soHd state. The potential therefore exists for an aluminum—beryllium metal matrix composite with lower density and higher elastic modulus, ie, improved specific modulus, than conventional aluminum alloys produced by ingot or powder metal processing. At least one wrought composite system with nominally 62 wt % Be and 38 wt % A1 has seen limited use in aerospace appheations (see Composites). 

Beryllium Sulfate. BeiyUium sulfate tetiahydiate [7787-56-6], BeSO TH O, is produced commeicially in a highly purified state by fiactional crystallization from a berylhum sulfate solution obtained by the reaction of berylhum hydroxide and sulfuric acid. The salt is used primarily for the production of berylhum oxide powder for ceramics. Berylhum sulfate chhydrate [14215-00-0], is obtained by heating the tetrahydrate at 92°C. Anhydrous berylhum sulfate [13510-49-1] results on heating the chbydrate in air to 400°C. Decomposition to BeO starts at about 650°C, the rate is accelerated by heating up to 1450°C. At 750°C the vapor pressure of SO over BeSO is 48.7 kPa (365 mm Hg). 

Refractories for Electric Reduction Furnaces. Carbon hearth linings are used in submerged-arc, electric-reduction furnaces producing phosphoms, calcium carbide, all grades of ferrosilicon, high carbon ferrochromium, ferrovanadium, and ferromolybdenum. Carbon is also used in the production of beryllium oxide and beryllium copper where temperatures up to 2273 K ate requited. 

Beryllium. Beryllium [7440-41-7], Be, metal is produced by electrolysis of KCl—NaCl—BeCl2 melts. Temperatures up to 900°C are required. CeU voltages are 6 to 9 V (115). Electrolysis of mixtures of beryUium oxide [1304-56-9], BeO, ia lithium fluoride [7789-24-4], LiF, and beryUium fluoride [7787-49-7], BeF2, has produced beryUium metal at about 700°C and 2.6 V (116). DetaUs of fused salt metal winning processes are given ia Table 7. 

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