Tritium... Too cool not to have some!

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Safety Tip:

Water has a biological half-life in the body of about 8 days. In other words, if you drink a glass of water in about 8 days half of the water has been excreted. This process can be influenced by several factors, including use of diuretics or increasing the flow of water through the body.

Tritium is chemically the same as normal hydrogen (H-1). The portion absorbed in the body is usually in the form of tritium oxide, or water. It is possible to increase the flow of fluids through the body by drinking copious quantities of beer. This decreases the residence time of the tritium in the body by flushing it out in the urine.

So… if you think there could be a possibility of your tritium sights leaking …

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[This message has been edited by Howard Wallace (edited 07-10-2000).]
 
Most manufacturers state the life of their tritium products to be around 10 years. I am assuming from this that the beta particle output from the tritium by that time has decayed to a point where the tritium capsule doesn't give off as much light as it's supposed to. In other words, tritium may have a HALFLIFE of 12.26 years, but the usable lifespan of a tritium device is only about 10 years...
I could be wron, but I seem to remember that very small quantities of Tritium can be found in sea water...


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Regards
Joshua "Kage" Calvert

"Move like Water, strike like Thunder..."
 
Well Guys Ryu doesn't get his tritium trigger. Betalight told me that the Atomic Energy Commision or something like that wouldn't allow it and that the sell or tritium is too regulated. My thought was... what would stop a guy from buying one of their products and just taking it apart? I mean it wouldn't be hard. Something to think about.

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Everything is negotiable!
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/albumList?u=879893&Auth=false
 
Ryu,

In your cogitations, please consider the following points.

Many devices containing radioactive material are sold under the provisions of a “General License” from the NRC. Such a license often places responsibilities upon the buyer, often including a prohibition against disassembly.

Many radioluminous devices contain gaseous H-3 at atmospheric pressure, which excites a phosphor paint. Harvesting the H-3 and manufacturing a device which would glow would not be a trivial task.

Harvesting tritium bound in paint may present greater risk than working with the gas, as hydrogen bound in an organic molecule may stay in your body considerably longer than elemental tritium or tritiated water.
 
Tritium is not something to be fooled with. If you ingest it as in breathing gaseous tritium or getting tritiated water on a cut, the tritium can bond with carbon in the body. It may not kill you or cause cancer but it can screw up your future offspring as in genetic defects..

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Roger Blake
 
Ryu,
Why does Betalight have an entire section of their website devoted to "raw light" sources if they won't sell the products to anyone?
http://www.betalight.com/index_rawlight.htm

Is this area only for other licensed manufacturers? Seems like you could custom order a lamp to almost any size and shape you can imagine?

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Semper Fi

-Bill
 
Ryu, having a glowing trigger would be kinda cool, tritium or otherwise. However, assuming that you would use a paint rather than the discussed capsules of heavy water (tritium oxide), wouldn't the tritium wear off in time (assumedly on your trigger finger, which I hope isn't the same hand you use to shake your johnson
tongue.gif
)?

Also, aside from isotopes that have half lives measured in milli, nano, or picoseconds, radioactive isotopes do occur naturally. Tritium in natural water sources woiuld be present in extremely samll amounts, similar to the way a fraction of carbon is C-14 (has two extra neutrons) which is how the carbon dating technique is based.

Manufacturers of devices that use tritium as an energy source for luminescent materials may only offer a 10 to 12 year guarantee because the measured luminescence after the 12.3 years would about half of what it would be at the time of manufacture.

Lastly, tritium is still produced by government facilities, though probably not for commercial use. Lawrence Berkeley Lab produces tritium (for research). Just heard that on the news a few minutes ago. I assume that Lawrence Livermore National Lab and Los Alamos National Lab both produce tritium for nuclear weapons research. You could try to get some there...if you want to run the gauntlet of M-16 and MP-5 armed guards. Getting into the facility would be very difficult.

Besides, doesn't the handle index to your grip so that the trigger is easily felt and acuated?
 
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