Costa Mesa-based Ceradyne Inc. is paying $69 million for a maker of isotopes used to contain nuclear waste as part of a diversification bid.
Ceradyne is buying Oklahoma’s EaglePicher Boron LLC, which has yearly sales of about $25 million.
EaglePicher makes chemicals used to monitor nuclear waste and radiation at power plants. It also makes an isotope used in the production of semiconductors.
Ceradyne’s main business is making ceramic armor for soldiers and military vehicles. The company also makes ceramic dental products.
Yearly sales are about $660 million.
Last year, Ceradyne bought a Quebec plant and product line for $14.1 million to make material to contain nuclear waste.
It bought an 86,000-square-foot facility in Chicoutimi, Quebec, and acquired a boron carbide and aluminum cladding product line and equipment from AAR Manufacturing Inc., a unit of AAR Corp. of Illinois.
