Topic: Nuclear batteries

[Nemesis]

Link to full story

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. The details of the technology, already licensed to BetaBatt Inc., appears in today’s issue of Advanced Materials.

[NJAntman]

Neat idea. But with H3 such a low beta emitter and short half-life I wonder what would be possible with a strong emitter like Sr-90? Batteries that could last hundreeds of years, but poisonous as hell, perfect for space probes.

[Nemesis]

Imagine this type of battery buried in the foundation of your cottage with a 50 year charge.   Or a car with a 10 year charge.  Perhaps an electric motorcycle with a 100,000 mile range before charging.

Then the military usages if it is not too heavy.   Tanks that don't need fuel.   Military robots without power worries.

Scooters for the handicapped without the current range limitations.

[Dash Jones]

And all of it goes to the landfills after people are done with them!  Yippee!

[Nemesis]

And all of it goes to the landfills after people are done with them!  Yippee!

Existing rechargables use heavy metals such as lead, nickel, cadmium and mercury.  Even non rechargables contain toxic materials.

These nuclear batteries use Tritium (1/2 life ~12 years if I recall correctly) which decays to deuterium (non toxic) and a free neutron (non toxic) along with silicon (sand).  Once the battery goes dead it looks to be much safer landfill wise than current batteries.  Also with their long lifespan far fewer of them would go to landfill than with current batteries.

How toxic are the batteries that you use?

[Just plain old Punisher]

My batteries are edible, along with my underwear.

[762_XC]

Neat discovery but the application is limited to machines which require only a small amount of power. An electric motorcycle with a 100,000 mile range is not possible.

The amount of radiation emitted by a radioactive isotope is inversely proportional to its half-life. So it either gives off a lot of radiation and lasts a short time, gives off a little for a long time, or something in between. Even if you increase the efficiency of the machine which collects it it's still a finite number.

P.S. Free neutrons are NOT non-toxic. Free neutrons tend to make nasty radioactive isotopes out of ordinary metals.

[Stormbringer]

true but there are some factors to consider; the speed of the nuetron. it has to go fast to knockout particles in the nucleus to render material radioactive and secondly;

free nuetrons have a halflife of ten minutes. unless bound in a nucleus they decay to other particles rapidly.

[Javora]

*Looks at Stormbringer avatar*

Ummm Stormbringer, what are you doing to that poor bird??!?  I can't see the whole picture but that don't look right man...   

[Sirgod]

*Looks at Stormbringer avatar*

Ummm Stormbringer, what are you doing to that poor bird??!?  I can't see the whole picture but that don't look right man...   

LOL, when He was down last week, All He could talk about was getting some property to raise those birds. It started out Driving the trolls on Hannity nuts.

stephen

[Stormbringer]

it is my troll annoying system. it is supposed to be like an ostrich came up to a window and is looking in from just out of sight. but it also kind of looks like he's doing the nasty, so I sometimes call it a troll humping ostrich.

[Nemesis]

Neat discovery but the application is limited to machines which require only a small amount of power. An electric motorcycle with a 100,000 mile range is not possible.

The amount of radiation emitted by a radioactive isotope is inversely proportional to its half-life. So it either gives off a lot of radiation and lasts a short time, gives off a little for a long time, or something in between. Even if you increase the efficiency of the machine which collects it it's still a finite number.

A 10 fold increase in power output makes many things possible that were impossible before.  If you increase that to to 200 fold then things that were fantasies become practical or even easy, such as a 100,000 mile range perhaps. 

The new battery design apparently allows recovery of a higher percentage of the energy of that radioactive decay than is possible to prior technologies.  If you are judging what is possible to the new technology by what was possible to the old you may well find yourself pleasantly surprised one day.

P.S. Free neutrons are NOT non-toxic. Free neutrons tend to make nasty radioactive isotopes out of ordinary metals.

As Stormbringer says this applies to fast neutrons.  Since one of the proposed uses is a pacemaker battery that lasts a decade or more I would assume that they are not releasing fast neutrons.  One of the methods of gaining efficiency would be to slow the neutrons down and covert that speed into usable energy.

I'm not sure but isn't Tritium "relatively" abundant on both the Moon and Mars?  Perhaps abundant enough to be worth the shipping costs?

[Javora]

LOL, when He was down last week, All He could talk about was getting some property to raise those birds. It started out Driving the trolls on Hannity nuts.

stephen

Oh so it has a good purpose, cool.  I was just worried that it might be a Swedish thing.   

[Sirgod]

LOL, when He was down last week, All He could talk about was getting some property to raise those birds. It started out Driving the trolls on Hannity nuts.

stephen

Oh so it has a good purpose, cool.  I was just worried that it might be a Swedish thing.   

Oh man, I remember that Thread. Talk about some sick Behavior over there.

Stephen

[NJAntman]

I would think Tritium is abundant here. Its all over military hardware (MRS, map compasses, rifle and artillery sights/levels) and even in a lot of Exit Signs (pull one down and have a look on the back, most likely marked Radioactive for either H3 or Am-241).

[Dracho]

Ugh..Nuclear Batteries... I guess I'd better stop dropping my cell phone...