Beryllium - Environmental Health Criteria 106

Beryllium is a steel-grey, brittle metal, existing naturally only as the 9Be isotope. Its compounds are divalent. Beryllium has several unique properties. It is the lightest of all solid and chemically-stable substances, with an unusually high melting point, specific heat, heat of fusion, and strength-to-weight ratio. It has excellent electrical and thermal conductivities. Because of its low atomic number, beryllium is very permeable to X-rays. Its nuclear properties include the breaking, scattering, and reflecting of neutrons, as well as the emission of neutrons on alpha-bombardment.