Someone is stealing radioactive materials, is a pattern forming? Do they even realize what they stol

For the last several weeks I have been reading the reports from the NRC.gov official website. It is under "event notification". Essentially any major incidents involving radioactive materials are suppose to be reported to the NRC by various licencees in order for them to keep their licence.

This gives we the people a closer look at what is really going on in America with relation to how radioactive materials are handled or mishandled, and we can review the reports on the NRC website within a week of any particular incident happening. Sometimes it may take a few days for the report to get filed and for it to be posted.

Here are some of my findings, and in this thread I want to focus on the fact that we have multiple thefts of products that contain radioactive materials within them, and therefore any company who reports these stolen devices has this information brought to the NRC so they can aid in determining the best course of action.

I would like to get into all of the medical accidents with radioactive materials ( and there is a lot of them! happens weekly several times). I will do that later in another thread.

Here I will report to you what has happened and why I am concerned about it.I would hate to imagine that terrorists were collecting these materials to use for something nefarious, but my common sense dictates to me that it is most likely simple idiot thieves who have no clue what they actually stole and how dangerous it may or may not be.

Houston TX - June 1st - Event Number: 46896
TWO TRITIUM EXIT SIGNS STOLEN FROM MOVIE THEATER
Official NRC.Gov Link

"On May 26, 2011, the Agency [Texas Department of Health] was notified during routine inspections of the facility's site safety systems, it was discovered that two tritium exit signs were missing from their fixed mounting positions. These signs were affixed to the walls near exits in a secure manner such that they could only be removed by means of removing safety capped mounting screws and then the use of tools to remove them. In this case, it is apparent that these signs were removed by way of vandalism and were essentially pulled off the walls leaving evidence that they were removed without the knowledge of the site personnel.

Who knew EXIT signs you see all over the place sometimes have radioactive Tritium within them? It's quite interesting really. And you know this is IMPORTANT for HEALTH because the Tex Dept of Health does Inspections! And the NRC is taking this very seriously as well, so are the law enforcement officials in the community.

"In addition, this same vandalistic act occurred at the same location as reported to the Agency [Texas Department of Health] on February 2, 2011. At that time, four tritium exit signs were removed.A report was made to local law enforcement. The exit signs are Isolite Model 2040-95S-B-15-WS, and each contain 9.5 Curies of tritium." Texas Incident: # I-8858

So it happened just a few months ago at the same location in February this year! That's when these new EXIT signs were installed to replace the last theft. Now the thief returned and took the replacements! That's not all folks, there is more and it gets quite interesting.

For a side note : When a EXIT sign with Tritium in it breaks, it becomes a hazardous material clean up situation.
Event Number: 46889 describes this happening just last week at a Bed Bath & Beyond in New York. Link

A tritium exit sign was found damaged on March 31, 2010, at Bed Bath & Beyond in Saratoga Springs. On April 6, 2010, Shaw Environmental Group was granted reciprocity to survey, decontaminate and package the broken sign.

Point is that EXIT signs are not exactly totally safe. The NRC is treating it as worthy of attention and needs to be dealt with.

Other recent incidents of similar natures.

Event Number: 46869
Notification Date: 05/20/2011
STOLEN TRITIUM EXIT SIGN
City: COLLEGEVILLE State: PA
Link

Event Number: 46862
Notification Date: 05/19/2011
City: COLLEGE STATION State: TX
LOST TRITIUM EXIT SIGN
link

And going a little further back, we end up where we began, Houston TX.
Event Number: 46815
Notification Date: 05/03/2011
City: HOUSTON State: TX
STOLEN TROXLER MODEL 3430
link

"On May 3, 2011, the Agency [Texas Department of Health] was notified by the licensee that a Troxler Model 3430 moisture/density gauge had been stolen from the back of one of their trucks. The gauge was stolen at the intersection of Nalor and North Main in Houston, Texas. The gauge contains a 40 milliCurie Americium (Am) - 241 source, and an eight milliCurie Cesium (Cs) -137 source. The licensee reported that their technician had completed his work and returned to the licensee's facility. When the technician went to the back of the truck to get the gauge, he found the gauge missing, one chain and lock missing, and the other lock had a busted bail. The technician contacted the other licensee's technicians who were at the work site to see if any of them had the gauge. No one did. The technician contacted his manager and reported the missing gauge. The licensee contacted local law enforcement and notified them of the theft.

This was just me cherry picking a few incidents over a quick scan of the last month's event reports.

Worthy of it's own thread :
-- The Brown's Ferry NPP and it's host of events and problems over the last month or two.
--The amazing amount of nuclear gauges that fail due to "shutters being stuck or broken" which happens a few times a week obviously. *Whoever makes those shutters fails they need to hire a better manufacturer or something*.
-- The obscene amount of medical mishaps due to machinery malfunctions. Tons of people either get too little of a dose or too much of a dose of radiation, and this is a fairly regular incident and happens weekly if not every other few day or so.
-- A myriad list of pump failures, including a pump that was blocked by marine life, clams.

Most of these incidents are resolved rather quickly without major issues erupting. That is a good thing.

However we have all types of suspicious incidents like the ones reported in this thread. Stolen Tritium Exit Signs or Troxler gauges. Often times like in the majority of the incidents I posted, these stolen materials have not been recovered yet. There could be some idiot kid contaminating himself by tearing these things open, or they may get thrown in garbage and add to polluting our landfills even worse. Or worst case scenario, someone may have ulterior motives and is collecting radioactive materials for some sort of nefarious plot. Hopefully not, and I doubt that but it's not impossible, so it's best to stay vigilant I believe.

This is all from just a quick browse of the NRC event reports for a 30-day period. I cannot imagine the crazy things I will find if I look back through years of these reports! And who knows how many of the worst disasters never get reported and are instead covered up by the govt??

Apparently my thread title is too big by one letter.

Any mods willing to take a second and fix that I would really appreciate it.

Just chop off the entire last question. That would be fine. Thanks!

I'm an electrician and I have literally installed hundreds of exit signs. What kind of exit sign uses tritium and what is it's function of operation in an exit sign?

reply to post by muzzleflash


Hey Muzzleflash, I wondered about that myself. This has been going on for a while at colleges,theaters,malls,
etc. Those signs cost between 125 and 260 dollars each. So that may have something to do with it. Also,
Tritium is $30,000 a gram. Attached is an article concerning tritium theft from 1989 that I thought might interest you.

Link www.nytimes.com...

Google is your friends... Here is a link to everything you need to know about tritium exit signs:
Tritum Exit Signs Explained

Basically trituim is used to make things glow in the dark.

How do they work?
Self Luminous Tritium Exit signs do not require electricity or batteries for illumination. Because they don't require electric wiring, they are being installed in greater numbers in public and private buildings. A self-luminous sign remains lighted continuously, though you won't detect any illumination during daylight hours or in brightly lit rooms. In addition, self-luminous signs will maintain their illumination day in, day out, for up to twenty years. This no-cost, maintenance-free operation is why many building owners specify self-luminous signs: It saves them money while providing safe and reliable exit location identification. All self-luminous signs work on the same principle. They are powered by tritium gas, a low-level isotope of hydrogen.

Originally posted by highfreq
I'm an electrician and I have literally installed hundreds of exit signs. What kind of exit sign uses tritium and what is it's function of operation in an exit sign?

I think I found the answers to this question perhaps. At least the first step to finding deeper answers.
Link to TheEXITstore.com

Self Luminous Tritium Exit signs do not require electricity or batteries for illumination. Because they don't require electric wiring, they are being installed in greater numbers in public and private buildings. A self-luminous sign remains lighted continuously, though you won't detect any illumination during daylight hours or in brightly lit rooms. In addition, self-luminous signs will maintain their illumination day in, day out, for up to twenty years. This no-cost, maintenance-free operation is why many building owners specify self-luminous signs: It saves them money while providing safe and reliable exit location identification. All self-luminous signs work on the same principle. They are powered by tritium gas, a low-level isotope of hydrogen.

They require no batteries or wiring to keep on, very nifty but what dangers are we unraveling in our quest for simplicity and ease of comfort?

As you can see though, they are not actually "maintenance-free" as claimed because if they break you have to call in a specialized hazardous materials crew to clean up the spill site.

Self-luminous exit signs use the electron from the tritium to provide illumination without the need for a source of electrical power. The process is very similar to that in your television set picture tube where an electron is used to illuminate the front screen of the tube. The electron from tritium however has only about ¼ of the energy of the electron in a color TV picture tube. That is why self-luminous exit signs are not visible in daylight while TV pictures are.

Very interesting information isn't it? Here is more.

To produce the illumination, the tritium gas is contained within a hermetically sealed glass tube. The inside surfaces of the tube are coated with a phosphor (A) just like the inside surface of a television picture tube. Electrons emitted by the tritium (B) bombard the phosphor causing it to produce illumination.

There we go. I believe that is our answer.

Originally posted by highfreq
I'm an electrician and I have literally installed hundreds of exit signs. What kind of exit sign uses tritium and what is it's function of operation in an exit sign?

Tritium signs/watchfaces do not require electricity.

They glow with no power.

The NRC estimates that over 2 million of these signs are in use in the USA.

Originally posted by Wildmanimal
reply to post by muzzleflash

 

Hey Muzzleflash, I wondered about that myself. This has been going on for a while at colleges,theaters,malls,
etc. Those signs cost between 125 and 260 dollars each. So that may have something to do with it. Also,
Tritium is $30,000 a gram. Attached is an article concerning tritium theft from 1989 that I thought might interest you.

Link www.nytimes.com...

Wow thank you for that link and information. I was not aware that you could bank big time off of these types of materials but apparently you can if you know the right people.
30,000 $ for a gram is really steep !

Thank you for the link I will review it's contents now.

reply to post by jaydeePNW


Nice work, you beat me to the Google because I was too busy copying loads of junk from it.

I am betting that we were looking at it randomly at the same time, through the same google search keywords of course. Haha.

Awesome coincidence, you win by a small margin. Good work!

Originally posted by Version100

Originally posted by highfreq
I'm an electrician and I have literally installed hundreds of exit signs. What kind of exit sign uses tritium and what is it's function of operation in an exit sign?

Tritium signs/watchfaces do not require electricity.

They glow with no power.

The NRC estimates that over 2 million of these signs are in use in the USA.

Over 2 million is a lot of potential clean ups in the next few decades. Can you imagine the amount of $$$ wasted on this ? Does anyone actually factor in the costs of accidents into the cost of purchasing these items? I doubt it.

I wonder how many of these signs have been manufactured worldwide? I would assume roughly 4-5 million if there is 2 million in the USA alone. Thank you for the information though, I didn't know about the quantity figures but it really doesn't surprise me I see these EXIT signs virtually all over the place.

reply to post by muzzleflash


Wow, this is nearly insane. These things are worse than the new mercury laden lightbulbs.
In a thread about the bulbs, we tried to calculate what might happen in an earthquake,
how many bulbs could be shattered and broken spilling mercury into the air.

I guess now we need to factor this in too, have these inverntors completely lost thier wits?

Thanks for the information and reply. i found some examples.

Tritium exit sign


Troxler Model 3430 moisture/density gauge

reply to post by burntheships


No kidding right?

It seems the further we dig into this whole "nuclear" ordeal, we keep finding more and more eye opening information. There are so many individual rabbit holes to look into here, and I cannot imagine what we will find within them.

It really is literally tons of information and it takes a very long time to sift through it and make sense of the various terms and concepts through intensely researching into them. I admit it tires me out within about an hour each day, although last month I was able to spend far more time on it daily.

I suppose I am a bit burnt out, but maybe I just need to eat something to re-energize. If only I ran on tritium I could go 20years non-stop. (Haha, bad nuclear joke?)

I was also wondering about how many of these EXIT signs would break in the event of a large Earthquake event. The issue certainly concerns me, although they reassure us that these objects are fastened into the walls typically very well. But if some kid in Texas can rip them off the wall, than surely a large EQ will bring them off the wall too. And the wall will probably come down with it!

Makes me think twice before I go digging through rubble to save someone in a EQ aftermath. How do I know I am not digging right into a highly toxic section of the rubble? We would literally have to carry a host of gauges and sensor devices in order to monitor the levels of various toxins as we dug into the debris. Sure as hell complicates the safety of rescue missions!

reply to post by highfreq


Thank you for posting those photos, as I am sure it will really help people get a grasp on what types of devices we are dealing with here.

Plus anyone who is informed about this subject can help everyone around them in real life to avoid becoming contaminated if they see a broken EXIT sign laying around somewhere, and will know to contact the authorities and inform them of the situation they need to deal with. This is a major bonus of spreading information like this, as it will lead us to a safer world (although I admit this world isn't very safe at all!). But anything we can do to improve safety is surely a plus.

I don't really know much about the Troxler gauge, so I will have to dig into that one a bit to find out more. I didn't know it even looked like that, so you posting a simple photograph enlightened me a bit. Thanks!

I read somewhere that the US has been disposing of its nuclear waste, or some of it, secretely mixing it into highways/roadways, and bridges, and in signs. Its known to be in things that combust, jet parts, race car parts, solar panels, dyes and artists supplies. Its also been mixed "accidentally oops" with the scrap metals of the world.

Lovely, eh?

Originally posted by Unity_99
I read somewhere that the US has been disposing of its nuclear waste, or some of it, secretely mixing it into highways/roadways, and bridges, and in signs. Its known to be in things that combust, jet parts, race car parts, solar panels, dyes and artists supplies. Its also been mixed "accidentally oops" with the scrap metals of the world.

Lovely, eh?

Interesting supposition.

It would not surprise me one bit if they are actually doing this as a secret way to "dispose of nuclear waste materials".

I would be very surprised if something like this was not true, simply because we have no facility in operation that can adequately deal with this waste for the necessary 10,000-100,000 year period.

If we have nothing we can do with it, what should we do? Oh sell it and put it everywhere! Sounds like a plan $$$.

Interesting, tritium is an element in the heavy metal/radioactive isotope category. I would imagine some of you have trace amounts in your house right now. It is whats used in c-more, tru-glo and meprolite sights for weapons. Half life of 12 years, allows you to see your aim right out of the drawer in the middle of the night. More disturbing is what else it's used for, it is the primary trigger mechanism in a nuclear fission bomb. If you were going to try something massive (false flag) signs and night sights would be the most readily available means of acquiring it "off the radar".

reply to post by muzzleflash


It was a whistle blower, but as soon as I read it, I knew it was true, was surprised to not already realize this because, its the way they are.

One thing we can realize where all the cancer is coming from. I wouldnt be surrprised if it was mislabled as a food additive too.

They are using radiactive type fertilizer for food and tobacco, and smoking a pack of smokes each year is like getting 200-600 chest xrays a year.

Oh, and it dumbs us down too.

Between 1945 and 1963, the year I was born when 250 PU atmospheric tests were done, the SAT scores of school children went down 12%.

Delete post. Some one beat me to it

Maybe a few new "boyscouts"?

Hahn, nicknamed the "Radioactive Boy Scout", is an Eagle Scout who received a merit badge in Atomic Energy and spent years tinkering with basement chemistry which sometimes resulted in small explosions and other mishaps. He was inspired in part by reading The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments, and tried to collect samples of every element in the periodic table, including the radioactive ones. Hahn diligently amassed this radioactive material by collecting small amounts from household products, such as americium from smoke detectors, thorium from camping lantern mantles, radium from clocks and tritium (as neutron moderator) from gunsights. His "reactor" was a large, bored-out block of lead, and he used lithium from $1,000 worth of purchased[1] batteries to purify the thorium ash using a Bunsen burner.[2]

Hahn posed as an adult scientist or professor to gain the trust of many professionals in letters, despite the presence of misspellings and obvious errors in his letters to them. Hahn ultimately hoped to create a breeder reactor, using low-level isotopes to transform samples of thorium and uranium into fissionable isotopes.[3]

Although his homemade reactor never achieved critical mass, it ended up emitting dangerous levels of radioactivity, likely well over 1,000 times normal background radiation. Alarmed, Hahn began to dismantle his experiments, but a chance encounter with police led to the discovery of his activities, which triggered a Federal Radiological Emergency Response involving the FBI and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. On June 26, 1995 the United States Environmental Protection Agency, having designated Hahn's mother's property as a Superfund hazardous materials cleanup site, dismantled the shed and its contents and buried them as low-level radioactive waste in Utah. Hahn refused medical evaluation for radiation exposure.

Easy way to build dirty bombs i would guess.