[quikos]

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What they are is a tiny tube or vial filled with tritium gas and coated on the inside with a phosphor, not unlike the kind used for fluorescent light bulbs. When the radioactive tritium decays into a more stable element, it releases a beta particle (an electron). This electron smacks into the phosphor, and causes it to emit a tiny flash of light. Put enough of this stuff in one tube, and the glow will look continuous.

Tritium is an isotope of hydrogen, in that instead of one proton and one electron (a normal hydrogen atom), tritium is hydrogen with two extra neutrons. When this nucleus decays, it emits an electron, and the atom changes into helium 3. This isotope of helium is naturally occuring and stable, but there is very little of this isotope actually found in nature. The kind of helium in balloons is helium 4 - the other stable isotope. That's what most helium is.

Tritium is what's known as a "soft beta emitter", and the electron (beta particle) it emits is the lowest energy of any other radioactive material. Even if the vial becomes broken, the gas cannot penetrate the skin, and what small amount you might inhale is not absorbed in bone marrow, and is instead pissed out relatively quickly. So these devices are safe.




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apres on peut toujours douter je vous l'accorde