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Tritium... Too cool not to have some!

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hey guys does anyone know where a guy might secure a small amount of tritium. I hear it's a cool addition to the button of your auto or the thumb notch on your manual. Makes it super vissible at night. Can a consumer buy Tritium in small amount or is it hard to come by. Also is it harder to apply than say paint. Do you have to bake it on or freeze it on or anything? Any and all help here is appreciated.

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Everything is negotiable!
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/albumList?u=879893&Auth=false
 
And you want to keep this in your pocket right next to the family jewels?
smile.gif
 
Hello,

I love tritium also, i have it on a LUMINOX
seal dive watch i have. If you want to have it installed on somthing it has to be done by a certified installer like Trijicon,ect..

The material itself is a Gas that is incapsulated in small tiny glass vials. not a good thing to have break open, so i am sure thats why its not available as a do it yourself type material.

my .02 allen

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Allen Blade
Spokane,WA USA

" You can make great knives and sell a few, Or make Great AFFORDABLE knives and sell many"
WEB SITE : http://hometown.aol.com/bladecutlery/index.html
 
Ryu,
There was a fairly entertaining thread on the subject over on the Automatic Forum a while back:
http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum14/HTML/001619.html

But Allen's pretty much nailed the high points here. Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen, which, of course, is a gas at standard temperature and pressure; thus the need for the glass vials to prevent the gas from dissipating. So when you're looking at your Trijicon sights, Luminox watch or MT Tritium LUDT, you're actually looking at a small glass vial with the gas trapped inside. The cool thing about tritium is that it's a good deal brighter than luminous paint and it never needs to be "charged" through exposure to light. Also, with a radioactive half-life of 12.5 years, it can be counted on to glow continuously for a long long time.

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Semper Fi

-Bill
 
Actually, Tritium isn't all that toxic. Yes, it is a radioactive isotope, but it will take ALOT of tritium vials to expose you to lethal levels of radiation. Trust me, this stuff wouldn't be in such wide use if it was dangerous. If you go back some years the luminous paints used on the hands of most watches were actually quite a bit more radioactive. Tritium is safe...Too bad it doesn't last that long...12.5 years just ain't enough
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Regards
Joshua "Kage" Calvert

"Move like Water, strike like Thunder..."
 
It lasts longer than 12.5 years. In 12.5 years, half of the Tritium will now be other substances, is what the half-life means. In another 12.5 years, half of the remaining half will be gone, etc. Lasts a good while. I don't know where you can get it, short of cutting apart a gun site, but you can get luminous paint from many sources, such as craft stores. It needs to be exposed to light for a certain amount of time to 'charge,' though, and it isn't as bright. Still, I'm glad you psted this, since I don't have any autos, but I have a couple Axis locks which might like that treatment.

--JB

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e_utopia@hotmail.com
 
Originally posted by Ryu:
IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT IT IS OR WHAT IT DOES! Just tell the Rock where he can find some. If you can Smellalalallaallalalalalalalallalalalalaaaah! What Tritium... is cookin!
wink.gif


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RYU:

I think you are missing the point. You can't get it and you can't buy it. People who deal with it need an Atomic Energy Commission license. I really doubt that anyone would want to mess with your button since it would require drilling a hole or machining a very small groove for the capsule.

If you really want to pursue this, you might contact IWI or Trijicon.

One more thing to consider. When viewed through night vision optics tritium glows like daylight. I've seen photos of a pistol with tritium night sights that light up the whole side of the guys body in a green glow and the gun was still in the holster!

Good luck.


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Do not lead me for I will not follow.
Do not follow me for I will not lead.
Do not walk by my side either.
Just leave me the hell alone.

[This message has been edited by UffDa (edited 07-08-2000).]
 
One more thing to consider: Of course the amount of radiation emitted by Tritium nightsights etc. is not enough to induce radiation sickness, but you never know how much radiation it takes to induce cancer.

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"Peace is not without conflict; it is the ability to cope with conflict" - Leo Giron
 
A few facts about tritium.

Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydogen that is not found in nature.

It is manmade. In the US only the place where it is produced is at the Savannah River Site in SC, a DOE facility. Its used in hydgogen bombs. They have stopped producing it around 1990. The reactors that were used in its production have been permently shut down. They now recycle or refresh the existing supply. Supposedly there is enough made that we won't need more for about 20 years.

Tritium is dangerous if ingested. Its rays can be stopped by clothing or even skin, though as a liquid it could enter through a cut or lesion. The comon way to monitor for exposure is by urin samples. Regular dosimeters won't work because the rays can't penetrate the plastic.




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Roger Blake
 
Ryu (and UffDa, or whoever else is interested):

Tritium is indeed commercially available, and in a variety of forms for civilian and "tactical"/military uses. See:

www.betalight.com/index.htm

“A betalight is a sealed capsule, internally coated with phosphor and filled with a low energy radioactive gas called tritium, which activates the phosphor to produce light.”

FYI -- Glen
 
Tritium, in the tiny quantities used in this application are not considered dangerous. I did a search for tritium and the radiation dosage is much less then the body receives just from background radiation.

It will be interesting to see if Betalight will actually sell you any of the capsules.



[This message has been edited by UffDa (edited 07-08-2000).]
 
Tritium auto buttons seem to pop up once in a while over at Bladeauctions. Those who have autos might want to check it out.
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Dan
 
Jeez; a lot of good information here, but there are, unfortunately, some mistakes.

First, tritium DOES occur naturally. Here is some basic info about tritium and its' origin from MSN-Encarta :

Tritium, radioactive hydrogen isotope of atomic mass 3 and symbol 1H3 or T. The nucleus of a tritium atom consists of a proton and two neutrons and has a mass of 3.016049. It undergoes decay by beta emission to give a helium nucleus of mass 3; it has a half-life of 12.26 years. Tritium is produced in a number of ways, including the bombardment of deuterium compounds with high-energy deuterons and by the absorption of neutrons by the lithium isotope of mass 6.

Some tritium is produced in the upper levels of the atmosphere by the bombardment of nitrogen with energetic neutrons produced by cosmic rays; rainwater is usually found to contain minute amounts of tritium.
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Since the low energy beta radiation of tritium cannot penetrate skin, the only harmful effects occur when it is inhaled or ingested. Inhaled tritium is rapidly exhaled; 0.004% is all that remains of an inhaled dose after one minute. Ingestion is a problem only with massive exposure; the only ill effects were seen in atomic bomb victims in Japan. Some teenagers in NJ opened some vials of tritium from an exit sign; their exposure was slight, and no ill effects occured. Here is the reference: http://usgovinfo.about.com/newsissues/usgovinfo/library/news/aa060500a.htm?iam=dpile&terms=Tritium+Sight

The tritium in night sights is in the form of tritium oxide, or water made with tritium. This is because elemental tritium diffuses well and would probably go through the glass tube in a short time. Remember that hydrogen will diffuse through solid palladium metal. The tritium in a night sight follows the water pathway through the body; thus it is excreted rapidly.

An intact night sight offers no health hazard. Remember that the tritium oxide inside the glass vial excites phosphors in the solution; it is the light from this process which passes through the glass. Virtually no beta radiation would penetrate the glass, and that which did would certainly not penetrate your skin.

Unfortunately, the stuff that you would need for an auto is tritium paint. As far as I know, this is restricted to manufacturers who have licenses to handle radioactive materials.

Hope this helps. Walt


[This message has been edited by Walt Welch (edited 07-09-2000).]
 
A point that is implied, but not clarified is that tritium does not glow. What tritium primarily emits are low energy "beta particles". Beta particles are most commonly known as electrons. We are faced by loose electrons from static electricity all the time. A beta particle traveling at a particular speed is exactly the same as an electron traveling at the same speed. Beta particles are typically traveling faster. Once they are slowed down by impact they are just electrons. I would rate ozone polution in smog as a much bigger health hazard in most big cities.

The glowing gadgets that use tritium work by the same mechanism as a TV screen. Electrons impact a phosphor material that glow from the electrons energy. In a TV you heat a filiment to release electrons and accelerate the electrons to the screen with an electric field. In tritium the nuclei break down and release electrons that travel at high velocities away from the nuclei.
 
Walt, its been a long time since I had any involvement with tritium but I think your wrong about tritium occuring naturally. Its strictly man made. I think you are refirring to dueterium which does occur naturally.

The only reason it can be found now in nature is that it was released there by nuclear weapons when we were testing these above ground and or nuclear reactors from releases.

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Roger Blake
 
Walt is right about the natural formation of H-3 in the upper atmosphere. I believe you can find this documented in Golnick’s “Radiation Protection Technology,” although I don’t have my copy in front of me now.

(Added in edit: I'm back with my books now. A reference for the natural production of tritium can be found on pg. 442 of Alpen's second edition of "Radiation Biophysics." I was wrong about Golnick, he doesn't appear to cover that information.)

The regulatory function of the old AEC is now controlled by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). This includes the licensing of radioactive materials, and the licensing of manufacturers to produce items like smoke detectors or betalights containing radioactive material. In some instances the NRC has delegated its federal regulatory authority to individual (agreement) states.



[This message has been edited by Howard Wallace (edited 07-11-2000).]
 
Originally posted by Howard Wallace:
Walt is right about the natural formation of H-3 in the upper atmosphere. I believe you can find this documented in Golnick’s “Radiation Protection Technology,” although I don’t have my copy in front of me now.
Click to expand...

I stand corrected, thanks.



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Roger Blake
 
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