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Nuclear Battery That Runs 10 Years
Jenny writes "A battery with a lifespan measured in decades is in development at the University of Rochester, as scientists demonstrate a new fabrication method that in its roughest form is already 10 times more efficient than current nuclear batteries -- and has the potential to be nearly 200 times more efficient. Similar to the way solar panels work by catching photons from the sun and turning them into current, the science of betavoltaics uses silicon to capture electrons emitted from a radioactive gas, such as tritium, to form a current. As the electrons strike a special pair of layers called a 'p-n junction,' a current results. I can imagine lots of applications for this new battery including my own laptop."
I can imagine lots of applications for this new battery including my own laptop.
Sure, who doesn't want to keep volatile nuclear material near their crotch for several hours at a time?
Business \Busi"ness\, n.;
A scam in which all people involved perceive as beneficial...
"I can imagine lots of applications for this new battery including my own laptop."
I think I'll keep all of that radioactive stuff as far away from the family jewels as I can...thank you very much.
There is no way that I am going to allow my children to be exposed to nuclear batteries! Don't you people know that radiation is bad for you!?!?!
If anyone near my property was walking around willy-nilly with nuclear batteries, I'd call the police.
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK
What is Tritium? It is just heavy hydrogen. You can stick it anywhere where H can be. One place is water and that is the least problematic. You can also get it as part of oils, or even some compounds that end up *in* your DNA. That is the reason why Tritium is so dangerous. Even extremely small amounts can end up in the wrong places and kill you.
In the lab I worked at, we had an instrument contaminated with Tritium. According to regulations, any rate higher than about 1000 decays/minute had to be cleaned up (the tritium was in vacuum pump oil). The person doing the checks told me if some of these were in human consumable organic compounds (aka, not vacuum pump oil or diffused in steel), the entire lab would be shut down.
It is pure ignorance that tells you Tritium is perfectly OK. What the heck happens to the crap when the "battery runs out"? What happens to the stupid "ever on night lights" when the light is low enough that you can't see it anymore? That's right, it end up being thrown out. Then it migrates and eventually will end up in oganic compounts (it IS hydrogen after all) and well, might end up killing hell of a lot of people.
And please don't give me crap about how quickly tritiated water leaves your body (one lifetime in human body is about 14 days since you pee it out! - I say one lifetime, not bullshit like "it all leaves your body within a month"). Let's just agree that tritiated water is a low hazard. My point is about a miliard of other compounds that are stored in your body permanently and where the 18keV (mean is 9keV because it is a beta decay ) electron is very dangerous. Much nore dangerous than a muon or an alpha at the same spot.
Tritium is exactly dangerous for exactly the same reasons as Sr90 is dangerous or radioactive Iodine or high dosage of C13. Hell, it is even more dangerous because of its low energy beta!
I'm all for nuclear power, but not stuff put into disposable consumer stuff that is can and will be easily absorbed by the human body.
Current modding when it comes to Nuclear on shashdot seems "Nuclear good" without any context. It is like blind leading the blind.