Inside China's Nuclear Battery Breakthrough

Betavolt made the headlines with a coin-sized nuclear battery capable of delivering power for an impressive duration of 50 years. Let's look at Betavolt's claim, assess its practicality in real-world scenarios, and explore the ways it could redefine energy consumption and device operation over the long term.

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Chapters
00:00 The Nuclear battery that produces power for 50 years
1:10 Nuclear Physics 101
2:24 The History of Nuclear Batteries
3:28 Betavoltaics - The Next Generation
5:48 Betavolts Claims
8:14 Does It Live Up To The Hype?
10:31 The Verdict

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[aspzx]

Very cool to watch this video right after Veritasium's video on the blue LED so i can understand things like the band gap and valence bands and conduction bands.

[jwestney]

Love having reports from people who actually understand stuff. THANK YOU!

[cheezeckez]

“Lets start with the easy stuff: Nuclear physics.”

[human_shaped]

For tracking, even the low powered modules are sufficient. They can charge a [super-]capacitor and once charged, send a location tracking burst. Many applications don't need to be continuously at full power and they may fit quite well.

[lintaphorn]

You missed one important issue with such batteries. Ni 63 has to be produced from Ni 62 in a reactor- Cost will be after irradiation/separation $5000 to $10, 000 per gram. $per watt will be huge! serious limitation on applications

[OmarExplains]

Amazing video.. Very smooth delivery for all levels of understanding.
Great job mate <3

[derekwood]

33uA at 3V is MORE than enough for a number of applications.... definitely interested, please do keep us up to date on this technology. (I'm an R&D engineer)

[caspertucker]

Great vid man - love the balanced info, kept it simple for us but explained it perfectly thoroughly

[moderntube]

Dr Miles you are wrong about the definition of battery, battery does not store energy, the old zinc carbon batteries produce energy by a reaction, they do not store external energy, are they "chemical generators"? The italian word for battery is "pila" (translate stack) and the inventor of it was Alessando Volta, the name pila refer to the "sanwitch" of different elements like the chinese nuclear battery, so in Italy we call it "pila atomica" that is the right name.

[MStrong]

Low energy seems like a good fit for certain things like an air tag or bios battery or something basic like a smoke detector. I could be wrong since I don't really have knowledge about this but it seems doable with some capacitors and other battery technology to collect the trickle charge

[pedro.alcatra]

You guys have no idea how excited i am to carry a radio isotope around in my pocket just to overpass the hurry to recharge my phone 3 times a day

[cyberlizardcouk]

3v at what amperage. these things have such low power output that the usecases will be significantly limited.

[DavidDavid-ejir]

when I listened to your descriptions I got two problems with their projects:
- can they get the authorizations to sell to the large public?
- how much will it cost?
both can very limit the general use of these batteries

[seanhewitt]

Alot of Northern towns and reserves in Canada have high expense fuels to generate their electrical needs. Diesel generators which are aging out, aswell causing greenhouse gas emissions need replacing, Nuclear diamond batteries, maybe part of the answer. Perhaps you would consider a segment on compact reactors, "rtg"s and other designs, that would be swell. Keep up the good work sir..

[RideBikes_Walkplaces]

Absolutely fascinating, what a video! Thanks.

[mrmunchkin]

That is actually an amazing point where trackers on cargo containers would be absolutely amazing.

[johndough]

excellent video content just liked and subscribed

[furrybear]

Your narration and and easy understandable vocabulary is well above average, and your intelligence and critical thinking, great video Sir first time ive ever seen you so u got my sub for now anyway 👍

[ml]

Great review! Great analysis!! Excellent content!!!
Thank you 👍👍👍. 🧡

[DerrickGray-covx]

Thanks for the numerical explanation about battery volume. Easiest way for me to determine if a battery technology has a future given the constant demand for maximum power from the tiniest possible source.