10 or 12 year half-life on tritium

On Thu, 4 Sep 2003 23:07:09 -0700, Watson A.Name - "Watt Sun"
wrote:

In article ,
mentioned...
On Thu, 4 Sep 2003 03:50:04 -0700, Watson A.Name - "Watt Sun"
wrote:

Underneath the glass was a thick tray with grooves
cut (or cast) into it in the shape of the letters EXIT. Each groove
had a pale yellowish rod laying in it, a bit thicker than a pencil
lead. My guess is that this is some kind of phosphorescent material
that glows when light from flames from a fire are hitting it. There
is _no_ power to the sign.


Could it have been a tritium source? I've seen them to be yellowish
glass vessels. It would be hard to see it glow without cupping your
hand over it i think.

That sounds like it might be what's in the rods. I didn't try to see
if it glowed when I darkenwed the area. I know that the H bombs that
were made during the cold war years are losing srength because the
tritium in them is decaying, so tritium doesn't last all that many
years. That blgd is about ten years old.