Tritium Assembly (TSTA) was a facility at the Los Alamos National Laboratory dedicated to the development and demonstration of technologies required for fusion-relevant deuterium-tritium processing. Tritium is sometimes used as a radiolabel. It has the advantage that almost all organic chemicals contain hydrogen, making it easy to find a place to put tritium on the molecule under investigation. It has the disadvantage of producing a comparatively weak signal. Tritium can be used in a betavoltaic device to create an atomic battery to generate electricity. Aside from chlorofluorocarbons, tritium can act as a transient tracer and has the ability to "outline" the
Tritium radioluminescence to phosphoresce. During manufacture, a length of borosilicate glass tube that has had the inside surface coated with a phosphor-containing material is filled with radioactive tritium. The tube is then sealed at the desired length using a carbon dioxide laser. Borosilicate is preferred for its strength and resistance to breakage. In the tube, the tritium gives off a steady stream of electrons due to beta decay. These particles excite the phosphor, causing it to emit a low, steady glow. Tritium is not the only material that can be used for self-powered lighting. Radium was used to make self-luminous paint from