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Re: ABCNEWS.com: Hundreds of Radioactive Devices Missing
-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: D J Hornsey <bssdjh@bath.ac.uk>
An: Franz Schoenhofer <franz.schoenhofer@chello.at>
Cc: radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu <radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu>
Datum: Mittwoch, 24. April 2002 12:41
Betreff: Re: ABCNEWS.com: Hundreds of Radioactive Devices Missing
>
> Franz,
> You are correct that the so called Betalightsare filled with about
>0.5TBq (13 Ci) of tritium gas, and for that reason in the UK they were
>placed on an Exemption Order to the Radioactive Substances Act. This meant
>that we did not require authorisation to either acquire or dispose of
>them. Some recent work (unpublished) by the enforcing authority of the
>above act has shown that a high percentage of the tritium has exchanged
>and is now bound to the phosphor or its components.
------------------------------------
Thank you for that information, which I never came across before - no
wonder, since it has not been published. I do not know, what kind of
phosphor is actually used, but I thought it would be some traditional ZnS
formulation with some binder - the beta-lights of my illegally from
Switzerland imported watch have a milky appearence. (Watches with such high
tritium amounts are not allowed in Austria.) Do you expect, that the tritium
exchanges with the organic molecules of the binder? On the other hand I
would expect that the phosphor adheres strongly to the glass surface, so
using a vacuum cleaner would remove almost all of the tritium bound to the
phosphor.
Thank you for your answer!
Franz
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