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berettaprofessor · November 11, 2017, 10:35 AM

The half-life of tritium is 12.3 years. At 12.3 years after manufacture, give or take how long manufacture takes from when the tritium is created and how long the gun sits on the shelf before its sold, the amount of tritium remaining is half what it used to be. Just as predictable as an atomic clock (in fact, it is!). That would suggest that the sights would be half as bright as original at 12.3 years as well, but it's not the tritium remaining actually glowing, it's the phosphor that the tritium activates so it might in fact be that there is some minimal amount of energy that the phosphor needs to luminesce at all.

Wiki states that the entire commercial use of tritium annually is 400 grams for all uses, which seems trivial, so you can bet there's only a very very small amount in a sight. That and it's $30000 a gram.

November 11, 2017, 10:35 AM	#9
berettaprofessor Senior Member Join Date: November 23, 2008 Posts: 1,091	The half-life of tritium is 12.3 years. At 12.3 years after manufacture, give or take how long manufacture takes from when the tritium is created and how long the gun sits on the shelf before its sold, the amount of tritium remaining is half what it used to be. Just as predictable as an atomic clock (in fact, it is!). That would suggest that the sights would be half as bright as original at 12.3 years as well, but it's not the tritium remaining actually glowing, it's the phosphor that the tritium activates so it might in fact be that there is some minimal amount of energy that the phosphor needs to luminesce at all. Wiki states that the entire commercial use of tritium annually is 400 grams for all uses, which seems trivial, so you can bet there's only a very very small amount in a sight. That and it's $30000 a gram. Last edited by berettaprofessor; November 11, 2017 at 10:41 AM.