New ‘Nuclear Battery’ Runs 10 Years, 10 Times More Powerful
A battery with a lifespan measured in decades is in development at the University of Rochester, as scientists demonstrate a new fabrication method that in its roughest form is already 10 times more efficient than current nuclear batteries—and has the potential to be nearly 200 times more efficient.
Source: physorg.com“Our society is placing ever-higher demands for power from all kinds of devices,” says Philippe Fauchet, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Rochester and co-author of the research. “For 50 years, people have been investigating converting simple nuclear decay into usable energy, but the yields were always too low. We’ve found a way to make the interaction much more efficient, and we hope these findings will lead to a new kind of battery that can pump out energy for years.”
The technology is geared toward applications where power is needed in inaccessible places or under extreme conditions. Since the battery should be able to run reliably for more than 10 years without recharge or replacement, it would be perfect for medical devices like pacemakers, implanted defibrillators, or other implanted devices that would otherwise require surgery to replace or repair. Likewise, deep-space probes or deep-sea sensors, which are beyond the reach of repair, also would benefit from such technology.
Betavoltaics, the method that the new battery uses, has been around for half a century, but its usefulness was limited due to its low energy yields. The new battery technology makes its successful gains by dramatically increasing the surface area where the current is produced. Instead of attempting to invent new, more reactive materials, Fauchet’s team focused on turning the regular material’s flat surface into a three-dimensional one.
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Does anyone else not see the sense in this??
Similar principles apply; just because it has a radioactive decay doesn't mean it's strong enough to mess with a pacemaker. Furthermore, microwave and low-level radioactive decay is a different breed of EM entirely.
Possible to see one of these for a laptop or in a vehicle? I mean they more than likely don't use weapons grade 'anything' for these.
i don't think so...
or did you ever hear from thousands of people dying because cancer after a ravepardee?!
Radioactive Decay comes in different forms some of which may be less harmful to the human body. Something as simple as a glowstick has very little therefore it is not enough to cause harm. Look at X-RAYS, think of what they do, yet people don't get cancer from one X-RAY though a few hundred in a short time can be very dangerous.