Tritium Facts

[wyntrout]

Hi, as I am wont to do, using the Great Oracle, I mean Google, I looked up tritium gas -- the radioactive component in our Night Sights:eek:. It has a half-life of 12 years, which is why they are warranteed for that length of time. Here is a link to a pdf of info: http://www.ead.anl.gov/pub/doc/tritium.pdf
Wynn:)

I know someone is going to ask, so a half-life is "The time required for half the atoms of a radioactive substance to disintegrate or the length of time it takes for a radioactive substance to lose one-half of its radioactivity. Radioactive isotopes have half-lives ranging from split seconds to thousands of years.
www.southerncompany.com/southernnuclear/glossary.aspx

Give a person a fish, he eats for one day... teach a person to Google, and he can find anything he wants to know.:)

[jeep45238]

Don't worry about that stuff - worry about how much radiation is emitted from them and what kind of radiation is emitted. You get FAR more damaging radiation in a single dental xray than you'll get in 12 years from a night sight.

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s127/jeep45238/Watches/DSCN1684.jpg
http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s127/jeep45238/Watches/DSCN1675.jpg
http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s127/jeep45238/Watches/DSCN1686.jpg

Then again, that's the watch I wear every day (no, it's not radioactive any more - and when it was, it was nowhere near the amount needed to cause health concerns). Now, if you're the sap painting the hands with the radioactive paint and using their tongue to get a point on the brush - well, sucks to be you.

[wyntrout]

Yeah, that always comes to mind -- the women at the turn of the last century, who painted the radium on the dials of those watches... who licked their brushes to keep them moist. I also was a child when the shoe stores had those "neat" machines you could put your feet into and see how your shoes fit! There weren't any warnings about lengthy exposure that I can recall! And we could stand there and see our toes wiggle!:eek:
As a B-52 Radar-Navigator, or bombardier in SAC, I learned a bit more than the average person about radioactivity and how things go bang when you get too much of a good thing together... and maybe super-compress it with focused explosives... and a little tritium gas in the pit to boost things to a higher yield. It can real exciting.:eek: I was really amazed at the detail of the inner workings of a nuke in Tom Clancy's The Sum of All Fears -- the book, not the movie. Hollywood sure screwed that book up when they changed the bad guys from Arab terrorists to homegrown *****, or whatever -- PC BS.
That was one weapon system I was glad to never have used... or even the iron bombs. I got into BUFFs just after they returned from SEA and retired just before the first Gulf War.
Wynn

Aw! Come on! "N*zis" is bleeped?:confused::rolleyes:

PS: That looks like the issue watch that I didn't wear. We were concerned with accuracy to the second and I just about pioneered the use of digital watches and smashed more than a few with the darn seat strap fittings. Good Seikos ran $125 to $150 and lasted maybe two years if you were lucky.
I'm content with the Seiko subsidiary Casio's $20 digital watches that last many years -- my first about 13 years before the battery died.:)
As I said, I like to talk!:blah:

[jeep45238]

It's a 1986 general field issue with a hack feature, not accurate enough for coordinated flight operations I'd imagine :)

Be glad that we got the nuke though - the only thing that kept the Axis from using it is that they didn't have an ignition source (they had everything else). My granddad was part of Mound Research and the Manhattan project - lots of things that he told me the start of, but would never go further than that due to his past duties.

I think he just likes to see me go "come on, if the KBG didn't get you, you think the NSA is going to screw with an 86 year old chemical engineer?"

:behindsofa:

[kahr360]

I think it sucks that they used such a wimpy element that only has a 12 year half life for night sights.
I don’t want to have to replace my sights 3 times in my lifetime.

Radium paint from 75 years ago is still going strong.

[wyntrout]

I guess that tritium was the cheapest and safest radioactive, self illuminating element. There are a lot of nastier things -- radium isn't good for you and maybe it costs more? There is way too much nasty, dangerous stuff being used in our everyday products... MOST "throwaway" batteries and those new CFL lights that are full of mercury... and don't illuminate as well as our old incandescent bulbs. And, they damn sure don't last as long! The packages those things come in are handy for storing them as they expire. That they last longer is total BS! I never had to replace the old bulbs as often, and they weren't as dangerous to the environment or our health!
Jeez, here I go again!:blah::typing:
Wynn:o

[jeep45238]

1 drop of mercury is in a flourecent tube - industrial, or cfl. My parents remember playing with mercury with their bare hands in school, pops used to keep some in his locker to play with.

I think there's a lot of other things to worry about, but that's just me :)

[wyntrout]

1 drop of mercury is in a flourecent tube - industrial, or cfl. My parents remember playing with mercury with their bare hands in school, pops used to keep some in his locker to play with.

I think there's a lot of other things to worry about, but that's just me :)

Yeah, I did too. I used to rub that stuff all over pennies to turn them silver. But then, I didn't know better. Now we know better and still put heavy metals and other crap in our products. China seems to have a handle on recycling dangerous sh*t -- they put it in our toys and other stuff they export to US!! In a perfect world maybe people would heed the WARNINGS on the damn CFLs and save them for proper disposal and recycling....BUT, in reality, most people toss them into the trash with other dangerous crap.:eek:
We're leaving quite a legacy for the future with the landfills full of crap we could have used for FUEL, 'cause it burns, or could be recycled.
I'm not an "environmentalist"... if there's only a handful of some damned insects, fish, or small rodents, let them die off or kill them and let's get on with our own lives, not spend millions protecting the dying species and usurping property rights.:mad:
I yield the soapbox.:D
Wynn:behindsofa:

[Smoke Eater]

I was told(disclaimer) that tight regulations on tritium was the reason HK's dont have them???? All my stock HK's have a glow in the dark sights, that require exposure to a light source to activate!

Cheers,
Dave

[wyntrout]

I was told(disclaimer) that tight regulations on tritium was the reason HK's dont have them???? All my stock HK's have a glow in the dark sights, that require exposure to a light source to activate!

Cheers,
Dave

Dang! Is that in Germany, though, more or different regulations and controls on radioactive materials? Don't give Homeland Security any suggestions!! That's not handy if you keep your gun in a dark place and have to use it at night... as, say, in the bookcase headboard in case of home invasion or burglary. Shoot, my S&W NS are dead as door nails, anyhow.
Wynn:o

[jeep45238]

We're leaving quite a legacy for the future with the landfills full of crap we could have used for FUEL, 'cause it burns, or could be recycled.
I'm not an "environmentalist"... if there's only a handful of some damned insects, fish, or small rodents, let them die off or kill them and let's get on with our own lives, not spend millions protecting the dying species and usurping property rights.:mad:
I yield the soapbox.:D
Wynn:behindsofa:


All very true. I was blessed last year to take a thermodynamics course from a professor who was still employed by GE and spent the past 20 years developing ways to efficiently burn trash from landfills to power steam turbines. Let's just say it worked well enough that his 2nd project is still powering the building :)