[ernie]

As an aside the US government no longer actively manufactures tritium. Instead they rely on harvesting from older weapons and existing stock.

As a result the US government also no longer makes helium-3 (the byproduct of the decay) which is becoming a rather large problem. Helium-3 is used as a neutron abosorber and fins use in every thing from oil and gas exploration to medical imaging. Everyone is needing to switch to different materials.


on the above: tritium is releasing electrons (and helium-3) which then react with a phosphor which then undergoes phosphoresence. The "brightness" has to do with the fact that as tritium decays less and less electrons are released as there is less and less tritium which in turn decreases the amount phosphoresence observed. (unless you continually replace the tritium to keep the concentration the same at all times which is not the case in these devices). Any electron source would cause the glowing provided the phosphor is present. Tritium is the electron source so yes it is required for the system to work but it isn't the glow.