Obtaining tritium to make night sights

[dakota.potts]

I had an idea to make some night sights and wanted to incorporate tritium vials. I've found sellers outside of the United States that have them in different colors for reasonable prices.

However, trying to understand the laws around using tritium hurts my head.

Apparently it's under the jurisdiction of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and generally illegal to possess quantities of it unless you're using it to manufacture an item that is not frivolous such as an adornment. Gun sights are (to the best of my reading) considered one of the established accepted reasons to have quantities of tritium without a license to have or sell because of the small amount required and the functional purpose inherent.

How do I make sure I'm on the right side of the law? And would anybody know where to find a source for these that isn't a seller on Etsy or eBay?

In the meantime, I guess I'll try work with fiber optics.

[TXAZ]

Try Unitednuclear.com, but you probably can't afford the handling equipment to do it right or become a superfund site.

[dakota.potts]

You're probably right about both of those things.

When I came up with the idea, I found a couple of sellers who sold them already contained in vials and ready for use in projects. Most just put them in key fobs and such.

I'm not looking to become a super business. I just wanted to learn some skills, take up some time, and maybe make a couple of dollars before going to college and the night sights sounded like something really cool to learn how to make.

But I will look at the site and see what they have to offer.

[rwilson452]

Playing around with tritium is very dangerous. I mean very very dangerous. a very small amount in your system will kill you in a long very unpleasant death. In short Don't go there.

[dakota.potts]

The research I have done indicates that tritium enclosed in a vial gives off almost no background information (less than that absorbed by naturally breaking down potassium in a banana) and that even if you were to accidentally break one, it would not be a dangerous amount. I will continue research, however, as I've posted this in the Law and Civil Rights forum, I am curious if anybody knows about the laws surrounding this. Has anybody tried to make one or even a small amount of tritium night sights? Do the big companies that make night sights have a license?

[rwilson452]

Tritium enclosed is safe. Break a vial and you got issues. Especially if some of the tritium is a gas.

[TheGunGuy]

Originally Posted by rwilson452

Playing around with tritium is very dangerous. I mean very very dangerous. a very small amount in your system will kill you in a long very unpleasant death. In short Don't go there.

According to the EPA... No. I wouldn't go sprinkling tritium on my Cheerios... But it is one of the least dangerous radionuclides.

[ligonierbill]

Tritium is a beta emitter. External exposure is not a problem. Internal exposure is bad juju. Handling it without very specialized equipment is a no go. Even if you don't get a snootful, you will very quickly lose all your H-3.

[wogpotter]

Playing around with tritium is very dangerous. I mean very very dangerous. a very small amount in your system will kill you in a long very unpleasant death. In short Don't go there.

I have some really bad news for you.
Tritium & deuterium are naturally occurring isotopes of Hydrogen. One of the more concentrated sources in nature is DiHydrogenMonoxide (AKA tap water) so you have some in you right now & have had since conception.

[Evan Thomas]

Here's the relevant section of the NRC regulations:

10 CFR § 30.19 Self-luminous products containing tritium, krypton-85, or promethium-147.
(a) Except for persons who manufacture, process, produce, or initially transfer for sale or distribution self-luminous products containing tritium, krypton-85, or promethium-147, and except as provided in paragraph (c) of this section, any person is exempt from the requirements for a license set forth in section 81 of the Act and from the regulations in parts 20 and 30 through 36 and 39 of this chapter to the extent that such person receives, possesses, uses, transfers, owns, or acquires tritium, krypton-85, or promethium-147 in self-luminous products manufactured, processed, produced, or initially transferred in accordance with a specific license issued pursuant to § 32.22 of this chapter, which license authorizes the initial transfer of the product for use under this section.
(b) Any person who desires to manufacture, process, or produce self-luminous products containing tritium, krypton-85, or promethium-147, or to transfer such products for use pursuant to paragraph (a) of this section, should apply for a license pursuant to § 32.22 of this chapter, which license states that the product may be transferred by the licensee to persons exempt from the regulations pursuant to paragraph (a) of this section or equivalent regulations of an Agreement State.
(c) The exemption in paragraph (a) of this section does not apply to tritium, krypton-85, or promethium-147 used in products primarily for frivolous purposes or in toys or adornments.
[34 FR 9026, June 6, 1969, as amended at 40 FR 8785, Mar. 3, 1975; 43 FR 6921, Feb. 17, 1978; 52 FR 8241, Mar. 17, 1987; 58 FR 7736, Feb. 9, 1993]

Para. (a) states that one doesn't need license to use products containing tritium, but one does need a license to "manufacture, process, or produce" them.

More broadly, it's legal to possess vials of tritium that are sealed in a protective container (there are lots of such products, out there, novelty keychains and the like), but in the U.S., it's not legal to possess the bare glass vials unless you have a license from the NRC.

So you'd need a license to make gun sights.

(I'm a bit bemused by the concept of "frivolity" here, but apparently a self-luminous keychain is legal, while a self-luminous necklace is not, although one could argue, I think, that a self-luminous necklace has a safety function. I wonder who, at the NRC, gets to make decisions about what counts as frivolous... )

[wogpotter]

Especially if some of the tritium is a gas.

Its an isotope of hydrogen so its all a gas

[btmj]

Its an isotope of hydrogen so its all a gas

It could be a gas, like H2 (hydrogen gas), where one of the hydrogen atoms is tritium.

But it could also be a liquid like H20, where where one of the hydrogen atoms is tritium. They call this "heavy water".

Tritium could be reacted with other compounds, but this would be unusual. Any common compound containing hydrogen could potentially contain tritium... ammonia, methane, etc... Like I said, these more complex chemicals would be unusual. Most likely, the tritium is going to be in the form of hydrogen gas (H2) or water (H2O either vapor or liquid).

[barnbwt]

Wait, a Betalight with about 20 night-sights' worth of glowey-thingie in it is fine, but if you wanted to install it as a ridiculous front sight you could be fined? Because that's all you're doing by installing the sealed vials into a sight blade.

Is it just the vial production from loose gas that's restricted? That I could understand, since the stuff does require some pretty specialized protocols to work with. IIRC, the other half of the problem is that the Betalight corporation (SRB Technologies) has all the production patents tied up, so all the vials have to be imported, and that the importation is the most highly-restricted part due to IAEA anti-proliferation rules and Tritium being a hydrogen bomb precursor material (as if Iran's gonna build an H-bomb from a crate-load of Betalights )

TCB

[wogpotter]

Hydrogen isotopes are isotopes of Hydrogen, all hydrogen & nothing but hydrogen.
Water (DiHydrogenMonoxide) is not tritium, even if it contains minute amounts of it.
Its like Sodium being table salt (sodium chloride), once combined chemicals have different properties. Uncombined sodium burns in water & chlorine is a poisonous gas. Once combines it does neither & is edible.