Nuclear Batteries

An anonymous reader writes "IEEE Spectrum has an article on using radioactive material to create tiny batteries."

Comments

Unknown Error In The Submission

[the_mad_poster]

Oh goody. Now all the uninformed environmental saviours of humanity can all hear the word "nu-cu-lar" and start jumping up and down and spasming.

I can't wait until this comes out. I'd be afraid to push the technology for fear that some moron would try to regulate it into oblivion or ban it outright just because it uses a nuclear energy source.

Never mind the incredible jump in effeciency to reduce used landfill space. Never mind the chemicals that are in current solutions, what with the fact that they're highly dangerous and all. This is NUCLEAR people! Fear it!

Maybe I'm just being pessimistic... but I fear that legitimate, useful technologies like this will be blown away by wannabe "do gooders" before they get a chance to really prove just how much better a solution they are both environmentally and economically.

Re:Unknown Error In The Submission

[bobhagopian]

Amen. 99% of anti-nuclear activists don't have a clue what they're talking about. I fondly remember the massive protests when hospitals debuted nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (NMRI). Never mind that the nuclear part of NMRI had nothing to do with nuclear reactions, the mere inclusion of the word was enough to spark large-scale protests. (At least until some guy had the clever idea of dropping the N from NMRI.)

Anyway, take from that history lesson what you will. Is nuclear energy perfect? No. Is it better than any other energy source out there (with the possible exception of wind)? Yes.

Re:Unknown Error In The Submission

[Waffle Iron]

Any alpha emitter is stopped by the skin. That's not the problem.

The problem is if and when the contents of the battery get mixed into anything that you ingest, including air, water and food. This could happen by discarding the battery where eventually it corrodes and releases its contents, incinerating the battery, or intentional tampering and dispersal or poisoning by evildoers(tm).

Ingesting alpha emitters can create a serious cancer risk. Once they're inside you, the particles only need to travel a few microns before they hit some critical part of a cell.

Re:Unknown Error In The Submission

[AKAImBatman]

Is it better than any other energy source out there (with the possible exception of wind)? Yes.

The part that I think people have a hard time understanding is this: large amounts of energy is dangerous.

There's no ifs, ands, or buts about it. If you're generating megawatts of power, you're using something that could kill a lot of people. The only difference between nuclear materials and convential chemicals is that nuclear allows us to get more power for less materials. We could achieve explosions of similar magnitudes with TNT, but who wants to be hauling around hundreds of tons of TNT when a bomb only a few tons in size will do the same thing?

Re:Unknown Error In The Submission

[DoubleD]

The problem is if and when the contents of the battery get mixed into anything that you ingest, including air, water and food. This could happen by discarding the battery where eventually it corrodes and releases its contents, incinerating the battery, or intentional tampering and dispersal or poisoning by evildoers(tm).

As opposed to alkaline batteries which are perfectly safe to break, drink, or eat.

So there is a risk, what else is new, there are many other dangerous, nasty, evil chemicals and products that we safely use each day without killing ourselves. Careful design and suitable precautions can do wonders.

Re:Unknown Error In The Submission

[DNS-and-BIND]

And you're a fundamentalist environmentalist with a superiority complex.

Relatively *benign* mercury? Hg, the toxic liquid metal?

"My Child Swallowed WHAT?" (a rant 8-)

[IBitOBear]

Yumm... in other news, liability law enters a whole new realm of stupid.

Most of the proles have been blisfully un-aware of the use of "nuclear bateries" (etc) in our space program. In those cases it was mostly a exercise in thermeonics, which is perhaps slightly different than this "documented" breakthrough, or maybe not, but there you go.

How out-of-the-public-mind is this? Google for thermeonics. Two entires. No wonder there isn't any funding.

Meanwhile, particle-in electron-out technologies are not all that radical. Things like the solar panels are based on this sort of thing.

So we have an announcement that what we can do big we may be able to do to nanotech scales. How new, how fresh...

But there will be hue, and there will be cry, and much gnashing of teeth will come across the land as those who cannot understand take umberage from the words of those who check facts. "That is radio active! We must not have it. Now give me some of that cadmium enriched tap water the government says is good for softening over-strong bones..."

So great technology, but we can't even get decent breeder reactors in this country. We arn't smart or "brave" enough, or perhaps we have had so many less-than-trustworthy "officilas" that we know we dare not let the usefully dangerous things near our lives. Leave the cutting edge nuclear research to the cowardly French...

So summon NIMBY and marvel as our lawyers stamp this technology, and any other technology that sounds even vaguly provocative, out in the persuit of the great god "what about our children?"

Apparently they don't deserve to survive because their PARENTS can't take the simple responsibility to to keep their kids from eating the computer... 8-)

So yea, great advance in science, all the benefits will be lost to the litigous masses. What is the point of a 1 millimeter chip if it has to wear a ten-inch warning label?

You just wait and see... 8-)

[For those who missed the subject line, this was a RANT... get a clue before you take me to task... 8-)]

Re:New addition to the Patriot Act?

[irokitt]

Yeah, Americium Oxide. And lantern mantles contain Thorium. So It's possible to make dirty bombs anyway. I'd worry more about someone buying large quantities of fertilizer.