First Russian beryllium obtained at Siberian Chemical Combine

Siberian Chemical Combine (SCC) in cooperation with the Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU) obtained Russia’s first beryllium.

On December 23, 2014 SCC presented a sample of their beryllium to Yuri Olenin, president of Rosatom’s fuel company TVEL. They also discussed continued production of beryllium at the Combine.

Aleksander Diachenko, TPU’s vice rector for research and innovation explained that it was Russia’s first laboratory-extracted sample of beryllium. TPU’s scientists jointly with SCC have been developing a domestic technology for production of beryllium metal under order by the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade. Today, only three countries in the world produce beryllium metal: Kazakhstan, China and the USA.

Beryllium is used in the nuclear and aerospace industries, in machine-building and X-ray engineering, in the production of fireproof and active laser materials, and rocket propellants. The metal is mainly used as alloy additive. It significantly increases strength and hardness. Mixing 0.5% beryllium into steel forms and alloy which can be used to produce springs that will bounce even red hot. Such springs will withstand billions of cycles under tremendous load. Also, beryllium copper does not produce sparks when beaten against stone or metal.

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• January
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