[time-nuts] Question for the cesium nuts.

[Jack Hudler]

It seems to me that like all good things they must come to and end.

If all CBTs have a life expectancy that varies depending on the
manufacturer.

What are we going to do when all the CBTs owned by amateurs start to end of
life?

I for one am certainly not going to buy one, not at those prices! (Unless
I'm retired then that's another story)
You only have calculate the time value of money for that CBT purchase over
the remaining time to retirement; If that doesn't stop you dead in your
tracks then this group really is aptly named! :)

>From my perspective, that of wanting to own a Cesium Standard; I don't
really want to layout the monies for something that's going to end of life
on me shortly (few years) afterwards.

I know that handling (Caesium) Cesium-133 is tricky at best. It's a heavy
alkali metal and contact with moisture is right out! 
Other than that it's not terribly difficult to create a safe environment to
work with it.

So there must be something else that's considerably more difficult than
opening the tube, recharging the ampoule, resealing it, pulling an ultra
high vacuum and baking it out.

I've not seen any pictures of a naked CBT, still I'm not too worried about
cracking the tube open if its Pyrex, unless resealing it caused the cesium
beam collimation to be lost.

Are there if any getters to worry about? If so, how would one ablate the
contaminates of the surface?

Anyone care to start a discussion on the merits of restoring a CBT to life?

Jack