Re: U.S source for new stye glowrings?
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tylerdurden said:
Who did you get the email from? Are they claiming that selling them is illegal or mere possession? Could you post it here?
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The email came from somebody who wanted to import them into the US, and found all kinds of restrictions and other legal horse puckey. The email is as follows (anonymous, of course):
I love your web site, but I do have one comment. It has to do with the
page about "Traser Glow Rings". One thing to be aware of is the raw
sources are not easy to obtain here. There are sources, but many are
imported ILLEGALLY into the United States. If you get caught selling
them, it is big trouble and jail. NOT that I am saying you did anything
wrong, so do not misunderstand. However, illegally importing radioactive
materials into the United States will get you a long time in jail.
I know this because several years ago, we wanted to incorporate Tritium
Sources into several products., The Nuclear Regulatory Commission really
makes it hard to obtain a radioactive materials importation licence. You
have some 40 pages of documents you need to read and sign and return. At
the time, they also needed spec drawings of your product, estimated
number of units you will import and total amount of curies of radioactive
materials.
Here in Utah, we had to have that licence before our local board would
approve our product for sale and grant us a local license to handle this
material.
There were high cost fees to be paid before the NRC would look at and
consider the proposed designs and if they did not approve, you lost the
fees and had to try again. Our legal people told us to assume at least
$100,000.00 to get any products approved.
The $40.00 you paid was reasonable because of the special shipping costs
to get them into the United States. That is if the seller on eBay was
playing by the rules and is allowed to export them. I would guess that
the makers can't sell the sources and they must be sealed. You can buy
products incorporating the sources - exit signs and gun sites are one
application and you can purchase them without any issues. You can't
purchase the raw lamps.
We were told that if we imported them illegally - and we could not
because the manufacturer will not sell without proof of a licence- fines
would run tens of thousands of dollars per illegally imported curie.
Thought you might like to know.