Technology

innovative new power source that combines nickel-63 isotope decay and China’s first diamond semiconductor module. This integration allows the battery to be dramatically miniaturized while maintaining low production costs.

So the diamond semiconductor is the innovation?

At its core is the company’s unique ability to dope diamond, the holy grail of semiconductors, into large wafers only 10 micrometers thin. This enables the radioactive nickel to efficiently convert its decay into electricity.

Ahh... nifty.

Downside is... if these start getting used in "consumer" products.... that seems like there are gonna be problems with radioactive stuff concentrating in landfills and seat cushions and stuff.

Furthermore, atomic batteries are environmentally friendly. After the decay period, the radioactive source nickel-63 isotope transforms into stable copper isotopes, posing no threats, hazards, or pollution to the environment. Consequently, nuclear batteries do not require expensive recycling processes like existing chemical batteries

Well... that answers the previous issue.

Ah yes, science journalism is pretty bad no matter who's making the science. At least it's not all signaphobic and crap.

But it starts off talking about the Terminator. Weird. And then it mentions that these batteries can be used in AI applications at every opportunity that they could. But these would be terrible for AI applications! AI takes a ton of energy.

But we've been using radioactive batteries in niche applications for years, and this is a great innovation in that space. Low-powered satellites and things like that might see a lot of use of these!

Imagine not needing to charge stuff.

gonna need that for our power armor.

Why? They could have gotten more than thrice the Wattage for the same rate if they visited the hundreds of thousands of Holocaust victims who are spinning in their graves right now because of Zionists.

These kinds of batteries have been around for ages, they produce microwatts. They are really useful in niche applications, but anything the media ever says about them is wrong and misleading.

Seems cool, but I would bet that it will never see a true consumer application. The amount of radioactive material you would need for the proposed 1 watt version is too much to mass produce and sell - this aint the Fallout universe.

First thought: Is this just another RTG model? I've worked in that field. They've been around a long time. They power satellites, etc. They're expensive, heavy and inefficient.

Second though: Oh, they're going with direct electron capture. That's neat. I don't know much about those. Carbon/diamond as a capture material is good and cheap.

FTA:

The nuclear battery generates power every second and minute, producing 8.64 joules of energy per day and 3,153 joules of energy per year.

That's not how radioactive decay works. I mean, yeah, the half life is 100 years, so this is pretty stable, but it's gonna go down. (Incidentally, daughter products are Cu63 (stable) and an electron.)

Also, you do NOT want radio isotopes floating out in the wild. Watch any of Plainly Difficult's videos on nuclear incidents and it's not good.

But at what cost...?

I am weary of it solely because it seems too good to be true but on the other hand can we hurry up with smart phones that never need to be charged?

Also though I have to wonder, could these be used in things that aren't using power all the time? Like, lots of devices use power intermittently. What happens to the excess energy when the battery isn't in use? Just dissipates? Or would you simply not use these batteries for such an application?

I'm sure this is definitely as cool as it sounds and not alphabet soup spilled over by a slackjawed "journalist"

I can't get excited about .0001 watts.

A potato battery produces about 10 times more.

Yawwwwwwwn