# tritium keychains?



## austind_05 (Dec 9, 2005)

I've heard a few things around here about keychains and other small things made out of tritium, but nothing definitive. I was wondering..

1) how bright do these things actually get?

2) aren't they, umm, radioactive?!? I mean really, tritium is what they make thermonuclear warheads with. I guess if it only emitted beta radiation, though, it wouldnt be much of a problem...

3)where can I get one?


----------



## greenLED (Dec 9, 2005)

1. Enough to find them with dark adapted eyes (from what I remember, I don't own one)
2. Yes, but it's so minimal that it's a non-issue. You'd have to ingest a lot of them... 
3. [email protected] was the last one I saw selling them. There's also a couple of other people on the BST section, and eBay too.


----------



## [email protected] (Dec 9, 2005)

I have to correct you Green...  
I was just selling bare vials.  Austind is looking for glowrings as well 
A search for them will yield a couple of vendors.


----------



## austind_05 (Dec 9, 2005)

Ok, I did me some research, and it looks like the glowrings are the only brand that makes these. Am I right/wrong? If there are others, are they any better(brighter)?


----------



## JimH (Dec 9, 2005)

Merkava is selling tritium vials as well as tritium glow rings. I just ordered some.
http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=68028&page=1&pp=10


----------



## socom45 (Dec 18, 2005)

I don't know of any of them that are any brighter than the rest. A friend of mine raven-tech is selling them on ebay too, and is very popular right now, especially this close to christmas... He is from the UK and gets them directly from Nite who are also in the UK. He ships first class world wide and you get them in their retail packaging (nice for presents). The other guy on ebay from singapore sends second class and they come loose, without retail packaging.


----------



## Morelite (Dec 18, 2005)

austind_05 said:


> Ok, I did me some research, and it looks like the glowrings are the only brand that makes these. Am I right/wrong? If there are others, are they any better(brighter)?


 
Nite (Glowring) is the only company making them currently.
The Green ones are the brightest, followed by Blue than Pink.


----------



## HighLight (Dec 18, 2005)

I have the blue Nite Glowring on a mini Tv remote on my nightable in my bedroom. I find it great for locating the remote when the lights are off. Actually that is their intended use (locating objects in total darkness). Basically they just give off a constant dull glow. The amount of radiation they emit isn't an issue. I read that these things give off like 1/10000th of the normal background radiation a person recieves in a year. Like I said they are very handy when used for their intended purpose.


----------



## eart (Jan 4, 2006)

sorry to bring an old thread back from the dead, but what are the chances that the vial that contains the tritium gets shattered?.. possibly in your pocket so very close to the family jewels.


----------



## CroMAGnet (Jan 4, 2006)

JimH said:


> Merkava is selling tritium vials as well as tritium glow rings. I just ordered some.
> http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=68028&page=1&pp=10


I have EIGHT of these and they are the best by far, for their size. Just try a dab of crazy glue on the bottom to secure the vial in place. The green ones :rock: the most!


----------



## Stainless (Jan 5, 2006)

Are These still available here on CPF?


----------



## Darell (Jan 5, 2006)

eart said:


> sorry to bring an old thread back from the dead, but what are the chances that the vial that contains the tritium gets shattered?.. possibly in your pocket so very close to the family jewels.


The vials can break, and as long as it hasn't broken in your lung, you'll be just dandy. The stuff cannot penetrate your skin. Really - you should worry more about walking out in the sun more than being near a vial of H3.

Unless you're Superman. I think he's alergic to it.


----------



## eart (Jan 5, 2006)

Stainless said:


> Are These still available here on CPF?



Yeah, here https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/68028

Thanks Darell.


----------



## The_LED_Museum (Jan 5, 2006)

eart said:


> sorry to bring an old thread back from the dead, but what are the chances that the vial that contains the tritium gets shattered?.. possibly in your pocket so very close to the family jewels.


Tritium is what's known as a "soft beta emitter", and the electron (beta particle) it emits is the lowest energy of any radioactive material. Even if the product becomes broken, the gas cannot penetrate the skin, and what small amount you might inhale is not absorbed in bone marrow, and is instead pissed out relatively quickly. So these devices are safe.


----------



## David_Campen (Jan 5, 2006)

> Tritium is what's known as a "soft beta emitter", and the electron (beta particle) it emits is the lowest energy of any radioactive material. Even if the product becomes broken, the gas cannot penetrate the skin, ... So these devices are safe.


To elaborate a bit - tritium is an isotope of hydrogen and it is present in the vials as the elemental gas so if the vial is broken the gas, which is much lighter than air, dissipates very quickly.


----------



## Stainless (Jan 7, 2006)

Thanks eart.


----------



## Pajamas (Jan 7, 2006)

I just got three of them in today -- bought them from Raventech on ebay and they came really quick. Cheaper too. (I wasn't sure the ones from Singapore were knock offs or not and figured the original company's could be safer/better...)


What's the deal with putting superglue on the bottom? Is that something I should do to these ? Mine seem completely encased so I don't know what the glue would do....


----------



## dudeldam (Jan 13, 2006)

Hello and sorry that my first Posting in this forum is a warning. I actually subscribed to this to submit this:

Tritium is not as harmless as one would think. Yes, it is a beta emitter, and betas only reach for a couple of mm. On the second view, the betas are producing secondary "Bremsstrahlung" (in english "breaking radiation", but bremsstrahlung is the internationalized word in nuclear physics), which is a broadband gamma radiation. This secondary radiation is NOT limited to a couple of mm.

It was also rightly said that Tritium is an instable isotope of H. So the remark about "dissolving fast" ("diffusing" is more appropriate in case of a gas term for a gas) was true BUT: fre Tr is reacting quite fast with everything "hydrogen-friendly"; so as soon as it finds a partner to make a chemical reaction, it will stay at its place for long, maybe VERY long; once in your lungs, it COULD be used by your body to make some water for the next ****, as mentioned. But it could also make a CH group in a molecule somewhere in your liver or your brain.

Tr lamps have been made with enormous intensities as airport illuminations, torches a.s.o. in the soviet union / ukraine , and could be bought in europe until 1999 when a new import rule stopped this nonsense.

An unbroken Tr lamp will do no hurt anybody, but a broken vial of Tr should be handled with care. You would not feel anything but additional radiation in small amounts over a longer time period has an effect like accelerated ageing. So it accumulates to your xray pictures, overseas flights, smoke detector radiation, illuminated watch radiation, natural radiation, "trapped in concrete"-radon radiation, Cs radiation from bomb tests, Ca radiation from reactor burnouts, a.s.o. everybody should take care to avoid as much possible sources as possible, although every single one is "unnoticeably weak".

*So if an accident happens, don´t panic - you won´t die, but*, open the window, close the room´s door to the other parts of your house, and especially put children out of the contaminated zone. Try not to crawl on the floor in search of broken parts with your nose in the contaminated region, but wait at least for a couple of hours. If using a vacuum for cleaning it up, you should place the body of the hoover on your window board so the exhaust air stream goes mainly to the outside. Remove the bag afterwards.Wash your hands after cleaning up / touching the parts, but without rubbing, just let the water run loosely along your skin.

Dudeldam (a nuclear physicist).


----------



## Raccoon (Jan 19, 2006)

FYI, Glowrings used to be called Trasers, named for the Tritium contained glass viles fabricated using Laser cutting and sealing. The viles are intentionally thin so the energetic tritium decay collides with the phospher coating with high effeciency. The glass itself shields 99% of the beta radiation, so risk of becoming sterile because you carry your keys in your pocket is nil. They will continue to glow for 10 years after production, with an average shelf life of 0.5~2 years before you get yours. Like the radioactive half-life of tritium, they grow sharply dimmer in that 10 year period, spending about equally as much energy in the first 2 years as the last 8 years.

AFIAK, Trasers (now Glowrings) were banned from import and sale to the US. This is according to corrispondance with a sales rep who explained they cannot ship or set up destributorship in the States. I'm glad to know that Customs hasn't cracked down on this as they have with imported laser "pointers".


----------



## 42 (May 31, 2006)

I just read this thread and saw Raven-tech mentioned a couple times. I've placed a couple orders for glowrings with them on Ebay and couldn't be more satisfied. Good price and surprisingly fast shipping to the US. Highly recommended!

I like the green glowrings the best. 

Mark


----------

