Light Sources

From CPFWiki

EL

Calcium Carbide Lamps

Tritium

History, background:

Tritium lights are the most common type of traser. Trasers are a type of lighting developed by NATO. They are popular in military applications because they are long lived, reliable, and completely self-sufficient. A traser can have a ten to twenty year useful life expectancy. During this time it needs no recharging, no service, no batteries or maintenance.

Since the end of the Cold War trasers have started entering into civilian applications. They are somewhat scarce in the US due to its federal regulatory enviroment. In the rest of the world trasers are used to mark switches, hands on watches, weapon sights, keychains, stair treads, raver jewelry, etc.

Construction:

Most trasers are made as follows: You take a small tube of borosilicate glass - borosilicate is preferred because it is mechanically strong - line the tube with a phosphor, fill the tube with a radioactive material such as tritium and seal the ends.

Energy from the tritium strikes the phosphor and stimulates it to emit light. The radiation cannot make it out through the glass but the light can. Thus the tube glows but does not emit radiation. By changing the phosphors you can make the traser glow in various colors. The quality of the light can perhaps be desribed as "pastel neon." Green is usually the color that will glow most brightly. Trasers are not normally bright enough to make a flashlight themselves. They are excellent for marking the flashlight so you can find it when it is off.

Half Life, Disposal:

Tritium has a half life of twelve and one half years. Thus any Tritium powered device will lose one half of its brightness every twelve and one half years. An old Tritium device that no longer glows strongly enough to be useful still contains radioactive Tritium which should not be released into the environment. Old devices may be returned to a manufacturer of Tritium devices for recycling of the gas or stored indefinitely.

If Tritium is released into the environment by breakage of the tube it will tend to combine with atmospheric Oxygen and create tritiated water. Tritiated water is chemically identical to normal water and if it gets into your system your body will make use of it like any other water. Unfortunately it is still radioactive and will now irradiate your body from the inside.

Breathing the contents of a single Traser will not make you keel over dead from radiation sickness, but it would be bad for you and should be avoided. Even the most rabid of flashlight fanciers must have certain bounds.