Material Converts Radiation Into Electricity

holy_calamity writes "Nuclear powered space probes like Pioneer have 'nuclear batteries' that (very inefficiently) convert heat from decaying isotopes into electricity. US researchers think a new material that converts radiation directly into power instead could make nuclear batteries 20 times more efficient. (Unfortunately they will likely not be user-replaceable.) The material consists of gold, carbon nanotubes, and lithium hydride."

Comments

Re:Carbon nanotubes

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

Become affordable?

Re:I'm sorry

[cosinezero]

This is insightful?? What about the issue pointed out in the article?!? Satellites? Hey, let's recall Voyager just to replace it's batteries, then send it out for another 30 years.

Re:I'm sorry

[Osurak]

If you think of the sun as a power source, it's not exactly user-replaceable either, but I'll be damned if its battery life isn't unbelievable.

Re:I'm sorry

[mo^]

Devices based on the material could be small enough to power anything from interplanetary probes to aircraft and land vehicles, he adds.

I think once we get to the level of space probes, "User Serviceable" is not particularly essential. Christ, I wont even change my car battery (due to laziness as much as anything).

Were you envisaging using these in your remote or something?

Re:no obvious tags please

[Anonymous Coward]

I think everybody missed the point. The "funny" tags don't categorize anything in a useful manner, since all the stories with said tags have in common is they trigger the groupthink joke gene that nerds seem to have in bulk.

Also, a free comedy lesson: laughing at it once doesn't make it funny the next thousand times. That's a lesson I doubt will ever get through around here, though.

Re:no obvious tags please

[Applekid]

"Scientific developments that could cause serious problems if done wrong or misused." So, in other words, every scientific development ever? That makes it less of a tag and more of a blanket IMO.

Shielding?

[Bombula]

Would this material make good radiation shileding? Seems like manned spaceflight could make use of a material that did double-duty as radiation shields and solar panels.

Re:Carbon nanotubes

[zenaida_valdez]

Between carbon nanotubes and Viagra, everything's covered!

Re:Carbon nanotubes

[cbreaker]

He didn't say CARBON, he said Carbon NANOTUBES. Last I checked, life on earth isn't based on Carbon Nanotubes.

Get a life.

Re:Probably much less efficent than steam

[asuffield]

Large steam turbines have thermodynamic efficiency in the 90% range.

That's the loss in the turbine itself - the number most favourable to the turbine manufacturer's marketing department. The main loss in a steam turbine system is in the required cooling/condensing apparatus that must accompany the turbine to close the cycle.

Actual thermal efficiency for nuclear plants tends to be in the 5-30% range. The 40-year-old designs that comprise most plants in the US and western Europe are appalling; current designs manage about 30% at their optimal power level, but nobody's building new plants these days so there aren't many of them around.