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Scientists Turn Nuclear Waste Into Diamond Batteries (newatlas.com)
Scientists at the University of Bristol have found a way to convert thousands of tons of nuclear waste into man-made diamond batteries that can generate a small electric current for thousands of years. New Atlas reports: How to dispose of nuclear waste is one of the great technical challenges of the 21st century. The trouble is, it usually turns out not to be so much a question of disposal as long-term storage. Disposal, therefore is more often a matter of keeping waste safe, but being able to get at it later when needed. One unexpected example of this is the Bristol team's work on a major source of nuclear waste from Britain's aging Magnox reactors, which are now being decommissioned after over half a century of service. These first generation reactors used graphite blocks as moderators to slow down neutrons to keep the nuclear fission process running, but decades of exposure have left the UK with 104,720 tons of graphite blocks that are now classed as nuclear waste because the radiation in the reactors changes some of the inert carbon in the blocks into radioactive carbon-14. Carbon-14 is a low-yield beta particle emitter that can't penetrate even a few centimeters of air, but it's still too dangerous to allow into the environment. Instead of burying it, the Bristol team's solution is to remove most of the c-14 from the graphite blocks and turn it into electricity-generating diamonds. The nuclear diamond battery is based on the fact that when a man-made diamond is exposed to radiation, it produces a small electric current. According to the researchers, this makes it possible to build a battery that has no moving parts, gives off no emissions, and is maintenance-free. The Bristol researchers found that the carbon-14 wasn't uniformly distributed in the Magnox blocks, but is concentrated in the side closest to the uranium fuel rods. To produce the batteries, the blocks are heated to drive out the carbon-14 from the radioactive end, leaving the blocks much less radioactive than before. c-14 gas is then collected and using low pressures and high temperatures is turned into man-made diamonds. Once formed, the beta particles emitted by the c-14 interact with the diamond's crystal lattice, throwing off electrons and generating electricity. The diamonds themselves are radioactive, so they are given a second non-radioactive diamond coating to act as a radiation shield.
Seems like this kind of technology would be very useful for long duration space probes.
Check out my sci-fi book "Lacuna" at http://goo.gl/MVxX8
Don't get a radioactive man made diamond. Buy one of our questionably sourced ones.
We'll even train you how to spot the difference.
[My Mohs scale doesn't care. Minecraft has made me want a diamond everything hand tool.]
as long as you don't shatter the diamond!
What is the energy input required to create this vs the energy it will output?
What's the half-life of forever?
You don't eat bananas, either, do you? Because those monstrosities not only turn out beta radiation, they produce nearly-impossible-to-shield gamma radiation, and they occasionally even spit particles of pure antimatter. Boo!
The phone to hot to keep in stores
I do not see the difference from carrying around a watch that is illuminated by tritium illumination, which is not uncommon (I have had a Tracer H3 watch with tritium illumination which has been working flawlessly for ~10 years now).
Also, you are aware that all organic material (including you) is slightly radioactive and yet very few seem to care about eating eating bananas or sleeping next to another person?
So we have now created energy crystals that give off power for thousands of years.
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." - Arthur C. Clarke
Not sure if you are being sarcastic, but I think it's actually a great idea. I can stop worrying about my electronics running out of charge just when I need them the most.
My only concern is disposal, since some people will throw them in the trash bin and they'll end up in a landfill somewhere.
What is the energy input required to create this vs the energy it will output?
Its not that simple. Basically the true comparisons are the alternative nuclear waste storage and energy storage (battery) options?
This could be a real game changer if it manages to change some minds. We need nuclear tech to cope with the nuclear waste, and this can be done in an inherently safe and responsible way that turns the waste into energy.
I very much hope this example in doing this on the small scale, as with these diamond batteries, will translate into support for bigger inherently safe designs that allow to transmute nuclear waste into lesser problems.
We did go through a period of nuclear powered pacemakers. Plutonium 238 radiothermal was apparently the most popular.
It's considered good practice to remove them before cremation; but there are surprisingly few unpleasant stories.
Carrying around a tiny radioactive battery in every phone, watch, pacemaker, and remote control seems like a great idea,
Fine, power your bitcoin asic in the closet.
Or move the remote control a few centimeters away from you when not actively clicking.
From the summary: "Carbon-14 is a low-yield beta particle emitter that can't penetrate even a few centimeters of air"
This waste is really going to screw with any future archaeologists, let's put some of it in all our grade school time capsules.
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Almost certainly not.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Glow-in-the-dark watch dials are almost always phosphorescent paint, not radioluminescent paint. If after a long time in darkness your watch dial no longer glows, but it glows brightly after exposure to light, it is phosphorescent. If it glows with the same brightness regardless of light exposure history, it is radioluminescent. Personally I have never to my knowledge been in the presence of a radioluminescent anything.
Even if it is radioluminescent, if made in the last 50 years it probably isn't radium, but rather promethium-147 or tritium.
Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
There are still a few plutonium powered pacemakers out there. No disasters happened and they don't even have their batteries encased in diamond.
Hulk love bananas!
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
2010 called and it wanted to let you know that Bananas are radioactive—But they aren't a good way to explain radiation exposure.
Sdelat' Ameriku velikoy Snova!
Not really that surprising: the physics is relatively simple and well-understood. As such, all we're really talking about is choosing to avoid negligently flawed design decisions. The overwhelming fear of huge medical lawsuits is enough to at least do that much (though unfortunately often not much more, particularly on the security front).
-- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
Sounds too good to be true....but let's see what comes of it.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Makes me wonder if a mixture of diamond layers and high-molar boric acid might make a thin and effective radiation shield/low voltage power source for probes, satellites and interplanetary craft...
Yes it is electricity BUT it's measured in picoamps.
That was the turning point of my life--I went from negative zero to positive zero.
As the summary mentioned, the radiation from most waste can't penetrate even air, or tissue paper. So to have a problem you'll need to crush it, then snort it up your nose like cocaine.
Technically, the battery wouldn't be radioactive, because it would have some sort of case. Even wrapping it in tissue paper (or as the summary says, air) will stop the radiation in common nuclear waste, known as beta radiation.
To hurt yourself with these batteries (or most nuclear waste), you'll need to crush them into a fine powder and snort them up your nose like cocaine.
The scarier radiation is gamma - air doesn't stop gamma. Gamma radiation comes from living things.
What's the recoverable energy density of this? I mean, how many watts of electricity can I get out of on of these, for how long, per cm^3?
Video of some good progressive thrash music
These diamond batteries sounds very promising, but will they generate the 1.21 gigawatts of electricity I need?
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Okay, I'm not criticising the basic idea here, but this list of benefits applies to all batteries.
I have a watch from the 1940s that's still giving out plenty of radiation. Sadly, the phosphor is all used up so it doesn't glow at all.
Early glow in the dark paints used a mixture of radium and phosphor. The decay from the radium would excite the phosphor and make it glow. Unfortunately it also broke down the phosphor, so while radium lasts for centuries, the paint doesn't.
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The technical challenges were mostly solved decades ago. Since then it has just been political.
Actually, in a study of nuclear medicine technicians, it was fould that their mortality rate was slightly lower than others in healthcare who didn't get the exposure. It seems there's a sweet spot for radiation exposure and background radiation in many places is just a bit below it.
this makes it possible to build a battery that has no moving parts, gives off no emissions, and is maintenance-free
Okay, I'm not criticising the basic idea here, but this list of benefits applies to all batteries.
False. Moving parts, OK. But emissions? Google up on car battery explosions. And maintenance free? Google up some more on car batteries. In fact, if you don't maintain them when they have emissions, it makes them more likely to explode.
There are numerous batteries which are not just lumps which spit out power.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Personally I have never to my knowledge been in the presence of a radioluminescent anything.
They're not actually that hard to come by, you can buy radioluminescent keychains and you've probably stood next to someone with one in their pocket more than once without knowing it. You used to be able to buy tritium vial lights readily in the USA and you can still get them easily in the UK and other places.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Okay. Point taken. Although I'd really consider explosions to be a separate issue from emissions. And not exploding sounds like one of the legitimate advantages of these; the other key one being longevity.
It sounds like we're looking at expensive components, and other posts suggests picoamps. But what sized battery would we need to get that to something usable?
Do these have a potential use in satellites or are they too heavy? How about pacemakers? Or is the radiation shielding inadequate?
Get an old glow-in-the-dark watch instead - the Radium on the dial is a nice alpha-emitter, for about 1600 years
My 7th-9th grade physics teacher had a radium-based glow-in-the-dark watch, and would tell a story about how HIS physics teacher at uni would steer clear of him. :)
He had taken to store the watch in a metal box at the school, and used it for demonstrations of Geiger-counters
From a bit of googling, they'd use Radium-226, which is an alpha-emitter. Thinking a bit of crystal covering the dial, and a metal frame, and you're sorta safe, no?
A youtube demo is nice.. But what would REALLY be useful is to demo something that is used every day powered by diamond batteries. In that way it becomes something actually real to the average person. People have become SO jaded by researchers releasing papers and youtube videos only to find out it was a submarine attempt at getting more funding.
After all, burning batteries are so early 2016, potential for fission in a battery is the future.
Although I'd really consider explosions to be a separate issue from emissions.
They're really not separate when the emission is a flammable gas. I've blown the top off of a car battery during charging and desulfation before. I wasn't nearby when it happened, luckily. Presumably it had a low/empty cell, but it was a PITA to open so I didn't. Oh well! It was a failed battery anyway and blowing the top off doesn't affect the core/scrap value.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
A good idea until they put them in phones and they explode in your back pocket.
Competition Good, Monopoly Bad.
That, also low level radiation isn't as damaging as often portrayed. Much like you don't get sunburn after a year by walking in the sunshine every day for 1 minute. (But you might if you do it for 6 hours on one day)
Many exit signs and gun sights use radioluminescent paint (with tritium if I remember correctly).
2010 called and...
...I certainly hope you warned them about the election.
From a bit of googling, they'd use Radium-226, which is an alpha-emitter. Thinking a bit of crystal covering the dial, and a metal frame, and you're sorta safe, no?
Yes, you, the wearer of the intact watch, were completely safe; its housing would stop alpha radiation at effectively 100%.
The people who drew up the radioactive paint using mouth-operated pipettes, and the people who scavenged through the trash containing the smashed watch bits, not so much.
Until you can tell us what these cells can provide via voltage and amperage so we know the total energy density/capacity, fuck off with this bullshit hype story. Sure it's neat, but unless it gives us the geeky details, keep that shit set aside for the plebs.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
15 Joules a day is about 175 microwatts continuously, enough to power very simple integrated circuits, perhaps a simple LCD watch. Not enough to produce light or sound or to power much of a processor. It would be a challenge to find an application that wouldn't require a large number of them.
With batteries, emissions would also include leaks, and disposal concerns which are...significant. Basically the main reason they stopped insisting batteries went into hazardous waste instead of regular trash is because people were tossing them into the regular trash anyway.
I'd actually expect these to be safer on the disposal side, especially since once no longer producing power...well, they are diamonds.
Land of the Lost - Sleestak Pylon Control Panels here we come!
Bullcrap. Post a reference.
So this is the first step towards eventually having dilithium crystals.
Beware of the Redittor who loans you a Sharpie.
Cue the Leslie Fish song "Grandma Went Out With a Bang". (Annoying for the assumption that Grandma's plutonium pacemaker would explode at cremation, but a funny song, still.)
Yeah, I was thinking more in terms of 'end user does something stupid, now somebody gets to collect the plutonium dust' type problems. I suppose that the major advantage is that people are somewhat less likely to do dumb things to electronics that they'd need to cut open their abdomens to get at.
It's really the end-user/disposal problem that makes me nervous about nuclear batteries, not the 'will the engineers screw it up?' aspect. 'Sealed sources', containing various isotopes neatly packaged as radiation sources, are even simpler to implement than nuclear batteries; and generally aren't an engineering problem; but the DoE has gone to a lot of trouble hunting down 'orphan sources' that have left responsible supervision for one reason or another; and it's hardly unheard of for those to end up in some 3rd world junkyard being crowbared open by people who have no idea what a mistake they are making.
Pacemakers have the advantage of a more or less automatic paper trail(since the diagnosis of cardiac abnormality and implantation surgery tend not to be handled in cash and off the books) and people don't tend to cut through their own bodies in order to do stupid things to their gadgets; but I'd be rather pessimistic about the possibility of sound lifecycle management for nuclear batteries in broader application.
It's too bad; because they'd be extremely useful for a variety of low power off-grid stuff; but when people can't even be bothered to separate their trash from their recyclables; it's hard to be optimistic about their safe disposal of nuclear batteries.
overview. Also here and here.
Finally, here.
Please be a bit more careful where you throw that bullcrap. And WASH YOUR HANDS!