Elsewhere, the Navy repaired ships containing glow-in-the-dark gauges covered with radioluminescent paint.
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Radioluminescent Radioluminescence is light resulting from bombardment by ionizing radiation.
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Local contamination from radium-based radioluminescent paints having been improperly disposed of is not unknown.
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Radioluminescent paint is a self-luminous paint that consists of a small amount of a radioactive isotope (radionuclide) mixed with a radioluminescent phosphor chemical. The radioisotope continually decays, emitting radiation particles which strike molecules of the phosphor, exciting them to emit visible light. The isotopes selected are typically strong emitters of beta radiation, preferred since this radiation will not penetrate an enclosure. Radioluminescent paints will glow without exposure to light until the radioactive isotope has decayed (or the phosphor degrades), which may be many years.
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Frame, Paul. Radioluminescent Paint, Oak Ridge Associated Universities. Accessed September 17, 2007. Orange has produced such notables as baseball's Monte Irvin and heavyweight boxer Tony Galento.
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The dial painters were instructed to lick their brushes to give them a fine point, thereby ingesting radium.Frame, Paul. Radioluminescent Paint , Oak Ridge Associated Universities. Retrieved September 17, 2007.
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Radioluminescent tritium vials are simply tritium gas-filled, thin glass vials with inner surfaces coated with a phosphor. The "gaseous tritium light source" vial shown here is brand new. The latest generation of the radioluminescent materials is based on tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen with half-life of 12.32 years that emits very low-energy beta radiation. The devices are similar to a fluorescent tube in construction, as they consist of a hermetically sealed (usually borosilicate-glass) tube, coated inside with a phosphor, and filled with tritium.
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Radium has its origins as a decay product of certain isotopes of uranium and thorium.Kirby et al. p. 3 Radium may also be released into the environment as a result of human activity, for example, in improperly discarded products painted with radioluminescent paint.
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In nature, radium is found in uranium and (to a lesser extent) thorium ores in trace amounts as small as a seventh of a gram per ton of uraninite. Radium is not necessary for living organisms, and adverse health effects are likely when it is incorporated into biochemical processes because of its radioactivity and chemical reactivity. Currently, other than its use in nuclear medicine, radium has no commercial applications; formerly, it was used as a radioactive source for radioluminescent devices and also in radioactive quackery for its supposed curative powers. Today, these former applications are no longer in vogue because radium's toxicity has become known, and less dangerous isotopes are used instead in radioluminescent devices.
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Loch Lomond Radium Works was a company founded by John Stewart MacArthur in 1911 as the Radium Works in Halton, Cheshire, England. The company moved to Balloch, West Dunbartonshire, Scotland in 1915. The company produced radium for use in medicine and for radioluminescent paint until it was closed down in 1927.
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As simple betaphotovoltaic nuclear battery can be constructed from readily- available tritium vials (tritium-filled glass tubes coated with a radioluminescent phosphor) and solar cells. One design featuring 14 22.5x3mm tritium vials produced 1.23 microwatts at a maximum powerpoint of 1.6 volts. Another design combined the battery with a capacitor to power a pocket calculator for up to one minute at a time.
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It can be produced by irradiating lithium metal or lithium-bearing ceramic pebbles in a nuclear reactor. Tritium is used as a radioactive tracer, in radioluminescent light sources for watches and instruments, and, along with deuterium, as a fuel for nuclear fusion reactions with applications in energy generation and weapons. The name of this isotope is derived from Greek τρίτος (trítos), meaning "third".
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This type of paint has been used to mark escape paths in aircraft and for decorative use such as "stars" applied to walls and ceilings. It is an alternative to radioluminescent paint. Kenner's Lightning Bug Glo-Juice was a popular non-toxic paint product in 1968, marketed at children, alongside other glow-in-the-dark toys and novelties. Phosphorescent paint is typically used as body paint, on children's walls and outdoors.
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Radioluminescent 1.2 curie 4" × .2" tritium vials are tritium gas filled thin glass vials whose inner surfaces are coated with a phosphor. Tritium contamination has been a problem at the Byron plant. There are two underground aquifers within the first 230 feet (70.1 m) below the power station: the upper aquifer is known as the Galena- Platteville Aquifer and the lower aquifer is known as the St. Peter Sandstone Aquifer.
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Radioluminescent tritium vials are tritium gas-filled, thin glass vials with inner surfaces coated with a phosphor. Tritium radioluminescence is the use of gaseous tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen, to create visible light. Tritium emits electrons through beta decay and, when they interact with a phosphor material, light is emitted through the process of phosphorescence. The overall process of using a radioactive material to excite a phosphor and ultimately generate light is called radioluminescence.
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An optoelectric nuclear battery (also radiophotovoltaic device, radioluminescent nuclear battery or radioisotope photovoltaic generator) is a type of nuclear battery in which nuclear energy is converted into light, which is then used to generate electrical energy. This is accomplished by letting the ionizing radiation emitted by the radioactive isotopes hit a luminescent material (scintillator or phosphor), which in turn emits photons that generate electricity upon striking a photovoltaic cell. The technology was developed by researchers of the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow.
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In a radiophotovoltaic (RPV) device the energy conversion is indirect: the emitted particles are first converted into light using a radioluminescent material (a scintillator or phosphor), and the light is then converted into electricity using a photovoltaic cell. Depending on the type of particle targeted, the conversion type can be more precisely specified as alphaphotovoltaic (APV or α-PV), betaphotovoltaic (BPV or β-PV) or gammaphotovoltaic (GPV or γ-PV). Radiophotovoltaic conversion can be combined with radiovoltaic conversion to increase the conversion efficiency.
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The Radium Dial Company was one of a few now defunct United States companies, along with the United States Radium Corporation, involved in the painting of clocks, watches and other instrument dials using radioluminescent paint containing radium. The resulting dials are now collectively known as radium dials. The luminous paint used on the dials contained a mixture of phosphor and radium, a product that the Radium Dial Company named Luna. However, unlike the US Radium Corporation, Radium Dial Company was specifically set up to only paint dials, no other radium processing took place at the premises.
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1921 advertisement for Undark From 1917 to 1926, U.S. Radium Corporation, originally called the Radium Luminous Material Corporation, was engaged in the extraction and purification of radium from carnotite ore to produce luminous paints, which were marketed under the brand name "Undark". The ore was mined from the Paradox Valley in Colorado and other "Undark mines" in Utah. As a defense contractor, U.S. Radium was a major supplier of radioluminescent watches to the military. Their plant in Orange, New Jersey, employed over one hundred workers, mainly women, to paint radium-lit watch faces and instruments, misleading them that it was safe.
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Swiss Military Watch Commander model with tritium- illuminated face The beta particles emitted by the radioactive decay of small amounts of tritium cause chemicals called phosphors to glow. This radioluminescence is used in self-powered lighting devices called betalights, which are used for night illumination of firearm sights, watches, exit signs, map lights, navigational compasses (such as current-use M-1950 U.S. military compasses), knives and a variety of other devices. Tritium has replaced radioluminescent paint containing radium in this application. The latter can cause bone cancer and has been banned in most countries for decades.
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4 The U.S. M-1950 equipped with self-luminous lighting contains 120 mCi (millicuries) of tritium. The purpose of the tritium and phosphors is to provide illumination for the compass, via radioluminescent tritium illumination, which does not require the compass to be "recharged" by sunlight or artificial light. However, tritium has a half-life of only about 12 years,CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics. p. B247 so a compass that contains 120 mCi of tritium when new will contain only 60 when it is 12 years old, 30 when it is 24 years old, and so on.
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The company was founded in 1914 in New York City, by Dr. Sabin Arnold von Sochocky and Dr. George S. Willis, as the Radium Luminous Material Corporation. The company produced uranium from carnotite ore and eventually moved into the business of producing radioluminescent paint, and then to the application of that paint. Over the next several years, it opened facilities in Newark, Jersey City, and Orange. In August 1921, von Sochocky was forced from the presidency, and the company was renamed the United States Radium Corporation. In Orange, where radium was extracted from 1917 to 1926, the U.S. Radium facility processed half a ton of ore per day.
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Concerns about radium were brought up before the United States Senate by California Senator John D. Works as early as 1915. In a floor speech he quoted letters from doctors asking about the efficacy of the products that were marketed. He stressed that radiation had the effect of making many cancers worse, many doctors thought the belief that radium could be used to cure cancers at that stage of the development of therapy was a "delusion" — one doctor quoted cited a failure-to-success rate of 100 to 1 — and the effects of radium water were undemonstrated. Around the start of the 1920s, new public health concerns were sparked by the deaths of factory workers at a radioluminescent watch factory.
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