New Nuclear Waste Battery Can Run For 5000 Years

Researchers from the U.K. have created a new prototype battery made out of nuclear waste by turning the irradiated graphite shielding of nuclear reactor cores into crystals. The new batteries, according to the researchers, will produce energy for up to 5,000 years. Let’s take a look.

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#science #sciencenews #nuclear #tech

[davidmackie]

1) To be pedantic, it's a generator, not a battery. (But everyone calls them batteries.)
2) It won't last 5000 years, because the semiconductor part will die MUCH sooner due to material damage from the radioactivity. If you're not clever with their design, they will die in weeks or even days. This is one reason why it has taken so long to make useable devices.
3) You can't make them arbitrarily thick (to increase their power output), because the radioactive material self-absorbs. So you need a way to stack them, in series or in parallel or both. The simplest way is with wiring, but that raises complexity/cost and introduces unwanted resistance that eats up your power. A way to "stack" them in parallel without extra wiring is to roll them up like a jelly roll (which is often done with capacitors). But this requires flexible semiconductors, which are organic, and way less stable than semiconducting diamond. So see problem #2 above.
4) Their power/weight and energy/weight ratios aren't very good, so you don't want them powering your car.
5) You can get WAY more power & energy from alpha emitters -- but alphas are WAY more damaging than betas. See problem #2 above.
6) One anticipated use that wasn't mentioned is powering radio ID tags for logistics. If you are tracking 100, 000 items, you don't want to replace the batteries EVER (preferably).
7) One more point: Chemical batteries can be built to last 10 or even 50 years, if you are only pulling 100 microwatts from them. But ONLY if the climate is controlled. A key feature of betavoltaic batteries is that their performance is good over the most extreme heat and cold you'd expect from any Earth weather.

Hope people find this mini-review helpful.

[marewhiskey]

FINALLY a battery that I can pass down to my grandchildren

[solandri]

Crucial to this concept is that C14 decays into N14, which is stable. (Similarly the H3 in tritium decays into He3 which is also stable.) The decay product being stable means you don't have to worry about further radioactive materials forming from the decay chain, each with its own different decay process. With C14 and H3, only the single type of decay occurs. Making it predictable and shieldable.

[daveh]

I certainly _hope_ flying cars are autonomous. The way people drive in two dimensions, I'd be scared to even go outdoors if they were turned loose to drive in three.

I remember having a conversation with a scientist from the national nuclear lab in the uk after he gave a talk at our university. I asked if we would harness the heat from radioactive waste through thermoelectric materials. I was quite proud of this idea as an undergraduate. I actually ended up doing my PhD in thermoelectric materials and the idea stuck in the back of my mind. Somewhat hilariously ironic to see that the idea is being implemented...bypassing the part I've spent 5 years working on.

[jtharp]

First they say social media rots my brain, and now I can't chew on batteries anymore? What's this world coming to ...

[SNixD]

Maybe we can finally be rid of annoying smoke detectors that keep beeping because people are too lazy to change the battery?

[Harriet]

Edward Teller opposed deep sea nuclear waste repositories because they would make retrieval expensive if/when we figured out how to use the stuff.

[davidneale]

Regarding why now instead of 50 years ago, It's only more recently that we have useful electronics/microcontrollers that can run on such tiny power levels and so a use for them.

[joyl]

2:50 that's a milliwatt. μW is the correct symbol for microwatt.

[RHSXM]

The reason why there is research now is probably just that 50 years ago nobody had a use for a battery that delivers only microwatts, while today we have electronics where it suffices

[lzl]

I'm sure C14 batteries will have their use but for medical implants the ideal isotope would be one that has a half-life between 20 and 100 years or so. Because C14 has a half-life 100 times of that, the energy released is also 100 times less than it could be.

[omarkos]

just as i was researching nuclear batteries for a university project. Thanks sabine!

[aaronjennings]

It's like a drop of sunshine wrapped in a diamond.

[Derubicon]

Nuclear pacemakers used to exist and there are a few living people with them still

[kdeuler]

I guess a carbon 14 diamond isn't forever, but 5, 000 years isn't too shabby.

[eds]

So a nuclear scientist accidentally attended a conference on anthropology, late. He decided to stay since they were on the subject of the radiometric dating of carbon-14 used to determine the age of organic remains at archaeological sites. The nuclear scientist left the conference shortly after with the idea of turning carbon-14 into a battery.

[Kel-dv]

It's sad to think that most ppl on their "devices" nearly all day do so because of social media or games.
I can hardly stomach either of those things, but watching videos like Sabine's and so many other educational channels is an amazing gift.
I can't understand why the majority of internet users don't even know that such a thing exists.
Learning, especially science, and listening to music is just heads and tails better than who said what to whome about whatever....
THANK YOU, SABINE!

[donholmstrom]

Nobody's commenting on the video artifact that was added to Sabine's neck/chest area. Check it out, it will make you laugh. In the video starting at 2:04 and ending at 2:18 she is wearing a very large diamond necklace artifact that was added and points back to the subject of a diamond battery.

[voovvvv]

I need Mr.Fusion reactor in my car right now!