[datura]

I've had little experience with ORNL - looked at buying some machine tools of theirs one time (nice stuff!). Liquid Na is even worse than the solid form, which makes me wonder what it was in solution with? (NH3?) If so, that's one heck of a mess, and little wonder they didn't try to fight it.

[Tennessee_Bob]

Company I used to work for milled and baked technical ceramics for the chip making industry. We used ORNL's presses to form some of our green bodies for milling. They had a press over there that put out - heck, I don't remember - some ungodly amount of pressure. We'd get the material back, formed on the collets, and it was like a rock. Then, after firing it, it was a rock. Then we'd mill it, polish it, and turn it into a very expensive rock.

Funniest thing I ever saw when I was delivering mail out at the Lab - at the robotics division - I met the Army liason officer - I bit my tongue when I met him, and the first thing he said was "You must watch Star Trek." His name was Colonel Borg.

[Fred Hayek]

Was is liquid Na or was it really NaK (sodium-potassium), which has a much lower melting point (liquid at room temperature?). NaK has been used as liquid metal coolant in reactors, and it's a bit more violent when it hits water. See a periodic chart - leftmost column. Elements are called "Alkali metals". The more reactive ones are further down the table. Conversely the next to rightmost column on the periodic charts (the halogens) get more reactive as you get to the top - fluorine being the worst.