Run Your Laptop On Nuclear Energy

Reader zymano points to this news.com artcle on innovations in portable power sources. Would you feel comfortable with a radioactive power source inside your laptop or cellphone?

Comments

Potential Risk?

[Remik]

"The Department of Transportation last month removed one hurdle to the commercial acceptance of fuel cells powered by methanol by ruling that they could be taken on airplanes. The issue was that these fuel cells contain methanol, which is a flammable liquid."

I don't see them being so quick to remove a similar hurdle for nuclear fuel.

But, hey, if they make nuclear powered cell phones, the radiation would treat the supposed cancer risk. Right?

-R

Re:More importantly....

[RealAlaskan]

Would you feel comfortable with the radioactive power source inside you? From the article:

Lal said that medical device makers and cell phone makers have shown interest in commercial applications of the atomic battery, adding that consumers may see the new batteries in cell phones in about three to four years.

So, when you get old, your pacemaker will probably have a radioactive battery, and that will probably seem very comforting indeed.

Batteries which capture the electrons given off during some sorts of radioactive decay are old hat. If the article is to be believed, this is something very different. Also from the article:

... a team from Cornell University last month unveiled a device that converts the energy stored in radioactive material directly into mechanical motion, which in turn moves the parts of a miniscule machine to generate electricity. This type of battery could supply power for decades, said Amit Lal, a professor at Cornell's electrical and computer engineering department and the lead researcher.

``Converts the energy ... directly into mechanical motion''? I guess this would be sort of like the little solar engines, that have paddles which are shiny on one side and black on the other and spin in sunlight? Sounds as if they might have oversimplified when they paraphrased, maybe.

Re:More importantly....

[ivan256]

So, when you get old, your pacemaker will probably have a radioactive battery

Pacemakers already have radioactive batteries.

Re:alpha, beta, gamma

[DirtyJ]

Yep - somethin's screwy in the article. Not surprising, though - the press frequently garbles science/technology stories to the point of being flat-out wrong on small, but significant points.

As was pointed out above, beta particles (electrons) can be easily stopped with thin sheets of metal which introduce large electrical interaction cross-sections. Alpha particles are too large to penetrate the skin to a significant depth and are only dangerous if ingested.

When I was a physics TA in college, we worked with radioactive pellets for some labs, and I was told that I actually had to tell the students that they 'should not eat the radiation sources'. I'm sure several of them would have tried if I hadn't warned them...

Re:Beta particles...

[JohnsonWax]

Or you could wrap it in this

Re:Radiation in my laptop?

[spike hay]

Neither am I, microwave radiation (802.11b to be specific), however miniscule (100mw), has to be bad for you when your exposed to it for 9+ hours a day.

MICROWAVE RADIATION IS NON IONIZING!!!! The reason that gamma rays and x rays are harmful is because they have enough energy to mess up your dna and such, which can potentially cause cancer and other problems. Microwave radiation has none of these problems. Microwaves have far less energy than optical light. They can't ionize anything.

The only way RF can cause damage is by overheating. But 15 mw of power from a WAP or a card isn't going to make a damn bit of difference.