Since this probably requires knowledge from someone who knows more about radiation I decided to post this here, feel free to move this to a more suitable category.

 

Anyway, I've been thinking about doing something with radioluminescence. The question is whether one can do something like this with just zinc sulfide and (reasonably "hot") powdered uranium ore or do you need something uncomfortably active like radium in those infamous radium paint clocks? Of course, a reasonably safe choice would be tritium encased in a phosphor-coated capsule but I can't see myself getting tritium any time soon (except by buying tritium keychains which would kinda defeat the point of what I'm going to do). I'll settle for pretty much anything you can see in a dark room, and which doesn't require some sort of magnifying lens.

Uranium ore or even pure UO2 which is much "hotter" won`t activate zinc sulphide to the extent you`r looking for, I`v tried it

it will expose film Much faster than the just the isotope alone however.

Uranium ore or even pure UO2 which is much "hotter" won`t activate zinc sulphide to the extent you`r looking for, I`v tried it

it will expose film Much faster than the just the isotope alone however.

 

Hmm, this might be a bit problematic then. I suppose americium from smoke detectors could work, if I had thousands of smoke detectors to dismantle.

the only problem there is that aside from it being a dangerous thing to do, it`s also breaking the law IIRC.

the only problem there is that aside from it being a dangerous thing to do, it`s also breaking the law IIRC.

 

Damn the Man for not letting me sterilize myself in the process of making glowy things! Oh well.

Oddly I think you can legally own the equiv weight of Am241 (with a Transuranics permit) that you can get from 1000 smoke detectors, but if you take a smoke detector apart...

 

Weird huh!