Re: [NTLK] Frozen Newton Project

From: b e n w e l l s|headwerkx (headwerkx_at_iprimus.com.au)
Date: Sat Nov 23 2002 - 09:05:40 EST


> One has to wonder about this product. What is the energy source?
> Something that glows for 10 years can't be charged once and produce that
> much light for that long. I have to believe this uses a radioactive
> source and that's why it can't be exported.

It uses Tritium, a radioisotope of Hydrogen (no, I'd never heard of it
either, and I had the periodic table stuck in my head for 3 years at
college). It releases a very small amount of =DF-rays (you don't wanna eat it
but unlike gamma radiation it won't kill you just by being exposed to it)
and thus as a radioactive material is very tightly controlled in terms of
shipping and the like. My guess is the costs to get export licences to ship
this kind of thing overseas is too much for them to want to bother.

Ben.

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