Don't answer if you're not allowed to, but does the mercury act to regulate the neutrons' speed in such a way that it maximizes the fission cross section?
Sir, I can't go into that. However, I met with Boat's QC guys and they TOLD me that if my firm wanted to do business with Electric Boat that every pound, ton, truckload of steel delivered inside the gates of the yard would have to be accompanied by our freight document stating that there was no Hg content. Further, before Boat would process our plates and structurals, they require mill certs stating the same. Finally, each piece of steel had to have traces back to the mill, heat, ingot and rolling cycle.
I went down this road because I felt that if we were "Nuke Certified," further Navy contracts and DoD certifications would be a cake-walk.
The guys from Boat came out and inspected our manufacturing facility. All of the Hg-vapor high intensity lighting were replaced per Boat's specs. We spent a few hundred K retrofitting LIGHTING!
Long term? We were flooded with contracts from GE Large Steam Turbine in Schenectady, NY. That's where we ultimately made a ton of money... the commercial / private sector. I used Boat as a learning curve in growing our U$D6 million pre-processing steel business into a U$D 25 million dollar business.