Quote:
Originally Posted by madcorgi
I understand why it is expensive--those materials are nasty. I have a friend who worked decades ago in the nuclear industry, machining nuclear bomb parts out of beryllium. He developed berylliosis, which has pretty much destroyed his lungs after 30 years--he uses oxygen to breathe. Apparently they didn't know about the deleterious effects back then.
I bet cadmium is equally hazardous to machine.
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Yes, that's the rumor.
We have to use a number of oddball materials (beryllium, cadmium and gadolinium in this one component) and also crazy processes like HIPing (Hot Isostatic Pressing). We're bonding the cadmium to the gadolinium using HIPing, but other parts of the item require cadmium machining, so we can't HIP there...
Don't get me started on the e-beam welding...