U.S. government is greedy

Well I have been trying to get Tritium Vials from United Nuclear for awhile now and when I emailed them about it this is what I got.

Hi David,

Unfortunately, Due to NRC regulations, the Trasers are illegal to import and own at the moment.
Tritium is now classified as a weapon material and its use is being restricted.
If we do get any more in, we'll post them on the site, but this will probably be our last few (if any) that we get in.
The only remaining Tritium left in the United States is dedicated to nuclear weapons use - the only other supplies of Tritium are located in Switzerland.... and their stock is dwindling.

-United Nuclear Scientific Supplies
www.unitednuclear.com...
P.O. Box 851
Sandia Park, NM. 87047
505-286-2831

I live in Central Florida and I lost power during each of the damned hurricanes that slammed us this season. It was rather irritating. I was hoping to purchase a few of these to have around in the dark when I needed them. After this thing has already been processed into the the product we see it is impossible to use the tritium inside for any kind of weapon. Once the seal has been exposed the miniscule radioactive tritium gas dissipates into the air. Regardless this product would have great potential in the Southeast during hurricane season and I do not understand why the civilian population should be restricted of this tool.

This is legal in the U.K. btw

Apparantley Tritium is required somewhere in the Nuclear process to make the weapons go off?
To keep the arms race going, the U.S. badly needs tritium, which is abundant in Canada, where there is little use for it.

Well theres a first.....something which is legal in the UK but not the US!!. I'm sure that if you really want a couple of these then a UK member of ATS would be more than happy to send some over to you.

But yeah....it is crazy!

It is illegal to import these and I am sure anyone attempting to will promptly be charged with attempting to acquire weapons of Mass destruction as well as terrorism charges and probably spend some good time in Gauntanamo Bay. I guess I will just have to settle with candles and lanterns for now.

There are a hell of a lot of products that don't entail radioactivity.. nevermind candles and lanterns, there are low-power LED flashlights that charge when you shake them (no radioactive gas discharge involved). How can you beat that?

I'm not really concerned about our lack of tritium.

The reason the gov is using it all on weapons is that the tritium producing plants owned by the gov are shut down or something and they can't buy it from the private sector without violating treaties.

The Tritium vials have the advantage of not having to be charged for up to a good 20% of a typical human life span.