The gyro's on the Submarine I was on had electrically suspended Beryllium balls. I have heard of health problems with the people who machined them but not with the people who installed them (clean rooms) or with the operators (sealed container).
In the case that the ball 'dusted' itself by loosing suspension and crashing into the cup at extremely high speed, there being miniscule distance between ball and cup, would require that the whole assembly be removed and sent back to a shore facility. The facility would then have to take severe safety precautions to make sure that the dust was not allowed to escape into the atmosphere.
If I remember my schooling correctly it was to be treated similar to asbestos. As long as there was no dust you were relatively safe.
In alloy form it would be more stable (depending on the alloy). However, we always considered anything with beryllium that was powdered or otherwise particalized was to be treated the same as pure for safeties sake.
Robert
