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Re: Golka's Wendover "secret" gap



Original poster: Davetracer@xxxxxxx

In a message dated 9/27/2005 1:42:23 PM Mountain Daylight Time, tesla@xxxxxxxxxx writes:
> I cannot imagine designing a system that continuous exposed SF6
> to arcing. Maybe that is why it was a secret!


There used to be a term for flourine chemists. It was "dead".

This stuff combines so ferociously that it was used to make compounds with noble gases!!

I think not talking about it shows extremely good sense. I can't imagine getting paid enough to deal with it.

Of course, UF-6 is uranium hexaflouride, and learning how to deal with it involved stuff like figuring out seals that would not corrode instantly (see also: Teflon). My granddad worked on some of this chemistry during WW-II.

Don't ever, ever underestimate flourine. It's killed a lot of bright people.

I'm putting out this warning in case someone does *not* know just how nasty this stuff is.

 -- David Small