These long-lasting batteries could be a clean and safe way to power spacecraft, satellites, and even medical devices.
NUCLEAR DIAMONDS
Scientists from the University of Bristol Cabot Institute are hitting two birds with one stone, thanks to their lab-made diamond that can generate electricity and is made from upcycled radioactive waste.
In nuclear power plants, radioactive uranium is split in a process called nuclear fission. When the atoms are split, heat is generated, and that heat then vaporizes water into steam that turns electricity-generating turbines.
A severe downside of this process is the creation of dangerous radioactive waste, which ultimately deposits in the graphite core that it is housed in. Today, this nuclear contamination is safely stored away until it stops being radioactive...and with a half-life of 5,730 years, that takes quite a while.
The scientists found a way to heat the radioactive graphite to release most of the radioactivity in a gaseous form. The gas is subjected to high temperature and low pressures that turn it into a man-made diamond.
When these diamonds are placed near a radioactive field, they generate a small electrical current. The developers enclosed the diamond battery in another non-radioactive diamond to absorb the harmful emissions, which in turn allowed for the generation of even more electricity, making the battery nearly 100 percent efficient.
POWERING THE FUTURE
The nuclear diamond battery has an incredible lifetime, and will only be half used up by the year 7746. This makes it an ideal power solution for "situations where it is not feasible to charge or replace conventional batteries," said Tom Scott, a materials science professor at Cabot Institute.
Flight times of planes, satellites, or spacecraft could increase with such a lasting battery. Medical devices like pacemakers and the artificial pancreas could become more reliable, empowering users to live their lives more fully.
The development also presents an incredibly efficient way to treat radioactive waste. Within the past 40 years, the US has amassed 76,430 metric tons (84,250 tons) of this waste.
Supplying the Earth with electricity is a daunting task even without a focus on sustainability. Now, it looks like experts are on the right track with this nuclear-powered diamond battery. It's almost like the holy grail of electricity generation, or as Scott puts it, "no emissions generated and no maintenance required, just direct electricity generation."
Reader Comments
Until they die from cancer caused by their nuclear powered pace maker
This (article) is bullshit.
Think about this:
We are all already, batteries. We, our bodies, store and use solar energy. We have always been batteries, in this sense.
And we are pretty good at it.
Or, we were.
Then along comes technology, in particular, high technology and the technocrats, who organize things, create governments and suddenly we all (are forced to) succumb to their greed.
Technocrats preach the doctrine of 'everything for nothing', but all they have done is acquired and dominated through theft and manipulation and murder. These things are not nothings. There will be a price to pay.
And people who do not oppose the technocrats are lazy and filled with cowardice. The people who do (or they did, for they are no more) oppose the technocrats are killed.
I repeat: There will be a price to pay.
Greed, laziness and cowardice all fall under one roof, and this is IGNORANCE.
The best (the non-greedy, the non-lazy and the non-cowards) have been killed, and all that remains are the greediest, laziest and most panic stricken 'people' to ever have existed. And that is where we are today and this (article) is total bullshit.
AND IT WILL GET WORSE.
Have a nice day.
ned,
out
Maybe this is the solution to how the ISS survives in the near vacuum of the hot thermosphere ... it must be coated in diamonds by now
I know more than your average bear about basic physics, and this just don't compute. (How do they wrap the radioactive diamond with another diamond? How do they make big and thoroughly radioactive Graphite Rods (with radioactivity for over 10K years - half life of 5700 - magically disappear into a diamond?)
Violates the laws of conservation of mass, energy, etc. (Remember that a gram of ANY matter - it doesn't have to be radioactive -has the exact same total amount of power 'hidden' in it.)
This has to be for those idiots who bought into UK/US's illogical 'explanation' of Skripal case.
R,c,
If they put a large vacuum dome over Fukushima, would all those problem fuel rods turn to diamond ... of course not
There are lots of good ideas, everybody wants them in production NOW, but it takes time and difficult development.
I sometimes wonder if the time scale is being artificially drawn out, or if even Richard Dolan's Breakaway Civilization would take around the same time to develop the next bit of wonder-tech for popular use?