# tritium?



## moon lander (Apr 11, 2007)

what the heck is this cool glowing stuff i just heard about? can anyone explain anything about it? i tried searching, theres not much info on flashlight applications. so its a glowing radioactive vial of gas that will make a flashlight glow forever?

is it safe? is it legal? how much do they cost? where do you get tritium vials? isn't that the stuff doctor octagon used to make a black hole? anyone use this stuff?


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## David_Campen (Apr 11, 2007)

Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen. Its nucleus consists of 1 proton and 2 neutrons. I decays with a half-life of about 12 years by emitting beta particles. The beta radiation can be used to make a phosphor glow. Small tubes coated with phosphor and containing a bit of tritium are available for use as watch markers and rifle sights. In England, key-ring size tritium glow tubes are legally sold.


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## Max (Apr 11, 2007)

Try Google on tritium.

Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen that emits low energy beta radiation with a half life of about 12 years.

Tritium vials are small glass vials filled with some tritium gas whose inner surface is coated with a layer of phosphorescent material that glows when struck by electrons emitted by the radioactive tritium.

The vials don't glow forever. They halve in brightness about every 12 years.

Is it safe? The radiation emitted is very weak and has almost no penetration power. However, inhaling tritium is not safe.

Is it legal? The maximum quantities allowed in various applications are regulated.

How much do they cost? Search the web.

Black holes? While the primary application for tritium is in the glowing indicators on watch faces, the secondary use for tritium is in the creation of black holes for use in jewelry, energy drinks and in building repositories for government archives.


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## Phredd (Apr 11, 2007)

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/137473


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## Daniel_sk (Apr 11, 2007)

A great "invention", a shame it doesn't light a bit longer (maybe for a period of a human's life? ).

There was something like this before that was used arround the time of WW2 and in the late 60's in the USA. The Radium+ZnS compound which also produced light for about 10 years and it was used on almost every watch. But Radium was radioactive as hell (a lot of strong beta and gamma radiation). Tritium is much better, there is nearly no detectable radiation outside a watch or similar item (I have a geiger counter arround).


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## riffraff (Apr 11, 2007)

Luminox is well known for their use of tritium, and there's quite a few other watch manufacturers that use it, too (search eBay for "tritium"). Tritium was also used to illuminate the pointer in SUIT riflescopes from the UK (used often on FN-FALs).


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## Phredd (Apr 11, 2007)

Daniel_sk said:


> There was something like this before that was used arround the time of WW2 and in the late 60's in the USA.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium_Girls


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