How do I safely clean my stainless steel brewpot and stainless steel valve contaminated with liquid Mercury.
Last night I clipped a 12" lab thermometer into my cooling boil pot at about 83 °F waiting for those last few degrees to drop off and, as it clipped over the edge of the boil pot, it slapped against the side breaking off the tip. I auto-siphoned to a glass carboy and didn’t see any mercury so i proceeded, with cleaning the pot but emptying into a brew bucket through the valve. At the bottom of the brew pot was left many small beads of mercury. I wiped it up with a damp paper towel, but there are still a few small beads left. I read on the EPA website that sulfur powder or zinc dust can bind to it and solidify it. I just wonder if all of that is going to work on the valve and if these steps will be good enough to call it good to use again. Is there a liquid option that may get into the valve better? The pot was expensive, so I hate to chuck it, but i don’t want to be scared to drink my own beer either. Any thoughts?
FYI-There was a previous thread asking if there was mercury in their floating thermometer that diverged far from the intent of this thread. So links to that thread are not necessary. Also I have ziplocked all contaminated paper towels and clothing for proper disposal.