Re: Thoriated Lenses

[Marvin Resnikoff <radwaste@rwma.com>]

Ron Morgan:
The grinding compunds contain thorium.
MResnikoff
At 09:18 AM 3/4/98 -0600, you wrote:
>Hi Folks,
>I've noticed that most of the better camera lenses I've seen lately are
>loaded with thorium.  Can anyone tell me why?  It occurs to me that the
>thorium would increase the density and (surely?) the refractive index, but
>I don't know enough about optics to know why that would be an advantage.
>The only thing else that I could think of is that the thorium might boost
>the temperatures in the casting process...again, why might that be an
>advantage?
>Thanks,
>       **************************************
>       Ron Morgan <rgmorgan@lanl.gov>
>       Operational Health Physics (ESH-1)
>       Los Alamos National Laboratory
>       MS E-503, Los Alamos New Mexico, 87545 (USA)
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>	 mailto:rgmorgan@lanl.gov
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