Molten lithium is so reactive it breaks the bond between silicon and oxygen in glass and forms lithium oxide. This reaction is exothermic, and is self-sustaining until the glass crumbles.
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Just learned that Castle Bravo involved burning lithium in another way:
We also can’t bring up ^6\tt{Li} without mentioning the United States’ Castle Bravo thermo-nuke test in the early 1950s that was a much larger bang than expected – a 15MT explosion versus the predicted 6MT – due to the Americans thinking the abundant ^7\tt{Li} isotope in the fuel fusion would be inert. Reader, it was not, it had a sufficient effect on the reaction, and fallout from the experiment was widespread and disastrous.
Now, Iran discovers a large lithium deposit:
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