Sabine thinks it's "plausible enough":
https://youtu.be/MQtVv1eQki4?si=wBCwORk5AWFis6Fy:
A Chinese company has announced they're planning to mass produce tiny nuclear
batteries that can last up to 50 years, possibly beating both a British and an
American company who've tried to put those on the market for several years.
What does this mean? Will we soon all power our phones with nuclear power?
Let's have a look. We tend to think of radioactive material primarily as
dangerous, and that's for good reasons, but that it's radiating also means that
it's emitting energy. Radiative materials, therefore, make for great batteries.
If you use a material with a long half-life, nuclear batteries could last
thousands of years without having to recharge. The idea isn't new, especially
for medical devices where battery replacements are a health hazard. Already in
the 1970s, pacemakers were equipped with plutonium-powered batteries. Some of
them still run today. Newer devices use lithium batteries that have to be
replaced once in a decade or so, but nuclear power is currently enjoying a
strong comeback as an environmentally friendly source of energy. A few
companies are producing nuclear batteries powered by tritium decay, but at the
moment they're used primarily for scientific or medical purposes rather than
for the consumer market. It's because they produce very little power in the
range of nanowatts or microwatts. Just for comparison, your phone needs a few
watts at least. So these batteries are not replacements for the batteries that
you're used to. They're good to deliver low power, but for very long time.
There's a market for this, but it's a small one. In the past years, we've
repeatedly seen headlines about startups who want to bring more and bigger
nuclear batteries on the market. Notably, there's the British company
Arkinlight, formed by researchers at the University of Bristol. They said they
wanted to bring small nuclear batteries on the market by 2024, using carbon-14
in the range of up to 200 microwatts. That's on the high end of nuclear
batteries, but still very little compared to what most devices need. Their
website seems to have gone missing last year. Then there's the American company
Nanodiamond batteries that made a lot of headlines a few years ago by claiming
they can produce batteries that last more than 20,000 years from nuclear waste.
A few months ago, charges of fraud were raised against them. The claim is that
the company deceived investors by pretending to have tested technology that
didn't exist. So the half-life of that company was somewhat shorter than
expected. But just exactly what technology are these companies working on?
Batteries powered by nuclear decay come in two different types. The one is to
use radioactive substance to generate heat and then use the difference in
temperature between two places to generate a current. This is known as a
radioisotope thermoelectric generator. The technology for this was first
developed in the 1950s and 60s by the Air Forces in the United States and the
former Soviet Union. Back then, they were looking for a reliable and
long-lasting power source for space missions, particularly those exploring
environments where solar power isn't available. At least that's what they said
was the reason they were developing these things. Pretty sure they came in
handy for other purposes too. Would you like a nuclear battery with your
summon? Whatever the motivation to develop nuclear batteries, they've since
been used in many space missions. Also, the European Space Agency has recently
given up its opposition to using nuclear batteries. This is probably in no
small part because of what happened with the fillet probe that landed on a
comet in 2014 as part of the Rosetta mission. It had a rough touchdown, hopped
a few times and landed in the shadow. After three days, its batteries, which
were supposed to recharge and solar power, died. And that was the premature end
of a very expensive mission. ESA is now planning to use a nuclear-powered
spacecraft for its organoid, moon-lender schedule to launch in the early 2030s.
But while the technology for these radioisotope thermoelectric generators is
well understood, they tend to be quite big. Also, the detour through a
temperature gradient is rather inefficient if what you want to do is to
generate electricity. If electricity is what you want, a better solution is to
use semiconductors in which the generation of electricity is driven by nuclear
decay. The new battery put forward by the Chinese company is of that type and
so are the ones by the British and American companies. These types of batteries
are called alphavoltaic, betavoltaic or gammavoltaic batteries, depending on
whether they use radioactive alpha, beta or gamma decay. Just as a quick
reminder, alpha decay means that a large nucleus spits out chunks with two
neutrons and protons, which are helium nuclei. Beta decay means the nucleus
spits out electrons and gamma decay means that the nucleus spits out photons.
The Chinese company uses beta decay and calls itself betavolta after that.
They use nickel 63, which has a half-life of roughly 100 years, and layer it
between diamond semiconductors with a PN junction. This sounds kind of
technical, and I guess it is. But maybe it helps to know that this
semiconductor stuff is the same type of material that's normally used in solar
cells. In the solar cells, it's in falling light that creates a current. For
the nuclear battery, it's not in falling light, but the electrons emitted in
the beta decay that create the current. The company Betavolta won third prize
for their battery in a recent innovation competition by the China National
Nuclear Cooperation. The technology itself isn't new, but the push to the
consumer market is. The company's first product is called the BV100 battery. It
has a power of 100 microwatts and a voltage of 3 volts. It has about the same
size as the typical cell battery. The power is somewhat lower than what the
British company is aiming at, but the voltage they quote is somewhat higher. So
the Chinese battery looks plausible enough, but like the other nuclear
batteries, it's probably going to remain in niche technology for low power
devices that need to last a long time. It's a shame because if you had a phone
battery that lasted 20,000 years, you could watch all my videos in one go. Many
thanks to our sponsors on Patreon, especially those of you in tier 4 and
higher. This channel would not be possible without your help. And you too can
help us. Go check out our Patreon page or support us right here on YouTube by
clicking on the join button below. Thanks for watching. See you
tomorrow.
On 1/10/24 07:14, glen wrote:
I've been tricked before. Is this true? I find plenty of hits on diamond doping
and β-based batteries. And the Sri Lanka Guardian seems like a credible source.
But I can't help but doubt claims from https://www.betavolt.tech/
https://slguardian.org/chinese-firm-developed-nuclear-battery-that-can-produce-power-for-50-years/
Betavolt, however, has taken a different technical approach. They have
developed a unique semiconductor made of single-crystal diamond capable of
generating a current through the β particles (electrons) emitted from the
radioactive source nickel-63. By placing a 2 micrometer-thick nickel-63 thin
film between two diamond semiconductor converters, the decay energy of the
radioactive source can be converted into electrical current, creating an
independent modular unit.
https://www.betavolt.tech/359485-359485_645066.html via Google Translate
Beijing Betavolt New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. announced on January 8 that it has
successfully developed a miniature atomic energy battery. This product combines nickel 63
nuclear isotope decay technology and China's first diamond semiconductor (4th generation
semiconductor) module to successfully realize the miniaturization of atomic energy
batteries. , modularization and low cost, starting the process of civilian use. This
marks that China has achieved disruptive innovation in the two high-tech fields of atomic
energy batteries and fourth-generation diamond semiconductors at the same time, putting
it "way ahead" of European and American scientific research institutions and
enterprises.
Betavolt atomic energy batteries can generate electricity stably and
autonomously for 50 years without the need for charging or maintenance. They
have entered the pilot stage and will be put into mass production on the
market. Betavolt atomic energy batteries can meet the needs of long-lasting
power supply in multiple scenarios such as aerospace, AI equipment, medical
equipment, MEMS systems, advanced sensors, small drones and micro robots. This
new energy innovation will help China gain a leading edge in the new round of
AI technological revolution.
Atomic energy batteries, also known as nuclear batteries or radioisotope batteries, work
on the principle of utilizing the energy released by the decay of nuclear isotopes and
converting it into electrical energy through semiconductor converters. This was a
high-tech field that the United States and the Soviet Union focused on in the 1960s.
Currently, there are only thermonuclear batteries used in aerospace. This kind of battery
is large in size and weight, has high internal temperatures, is expensive, and cannot be
used by civilians. In recent years, miniaturization, modularization and civilian use of
nuclear batteries have been the goals and directions pursued by European and American
countries. China's "14th Five-Year Plan and 2035 Vision Goals" also propose
that the civilianization of nuclear technology and the multi-purpose development of
nuclear isotopes are future development trends.
Betavoltaic nuclear batteries develop a completely different technological
approach, generating electric current through the semiconductor transition of
beta particles (electrons) emitted by the radioactive source nickel-63. To do
this, Betavolt's team of scientists developed a unique single-crystal diamond
semiconductor that is just 10 microns thick, placing a 2-micron-thick nickel-63
sheet between two diamond semiconductor converters. The decay energy of the
radioactive source is converted into an electrical current, forming an
independent unit. Nuclear batteries are modular and can be composed of dozens
or hundreds of independent unit modules and can be used in series and parallel,
so battery products of different sizes and capacities can be manufactured.
Zhang Wei, chairman and CEO of Betavolt, said that the first product the
company will launch is BV100, which is the world's first nuclear battery to be
mass-produced. The power is 100 microwatts, the voltage is 3V, and the volume
is 15 X 15 X 5 Cubic millimeters are smaller than a coin. Nuclear batteries
generate electricity every minute, 8.64 joules per day, and 3153 joules per
year. Multiple such batteries can be used in series and parallel. The company
plans to launch a battery with a power of 1 watt in 2025. If policies permit,
atomic energy batteries can allow a mobile phone to never be charged, and
drones that can only fly for 15 minutes can fly continuously.
According to reports, the atomic energy battery is a physical battery, not an electrochemical battery. Its energy density is more than 10 times that of ternary lithium batteries. It can store 3,300 megawatt hours in a 1-gram battery. It will not catch fire or explode in response to acupuncture and gunshots. Because it generates self-generated electricity for 50 years, there is no concept of the number of cycles of an electrochemical battery (2,000 charges and discharges). The power generation of atomic energy batteries is stable and will not change due to harsh environments and loads. It can work normally within the range of 120 degrees above zero and -60 degrees below zero, and has no self-discharge. The atomic energy battery developed by Betavolt is absolutely safe, has no external radiation, and is suitable for use in medical devices such as pacemakers, artificial hearts and cochleas in the human body. Atomic energy batteries are environmentally friendly. After the decay
period, the nickel-63 isotope as the radioactive source becomes a stable isotope of copper, which is non-radioactive and does not pose any threat or pollution to the environment. Therefore, unlike existing chemical batteries, nuclear batteries do not require expensive recycling processes.
Currently, Betavolt has registered a patent in Beijing and will begin to
register global PCT patents. In the 2023 Innovation Competition held by China
National Nuclear Corporation, Betavolt, as one of the very few external
participating companies, stood out among hundreds of companies and research
institutions and won the third prize in the competition. It represents China's
authoritative nuclear technology companies' investment in Betavolt. Recognition
of atomic energy battery technology and products. Betavolt has also
communicated with China's professional nuclear research institutions and
universities, and plans to continue research on using isotopes such as
strontium-90, promethium-147 and deuterium to develop atomic energy batteries
with higher power and a service life of 2 to 30 years.
Zhang Wei said that the core of Betavolt atomic energy battery is the fourth
generation diamond semiconductor, which is the ultimate semiconductor material
well known in the industry and another high ground in the global semiconductor
field technology competition. Betavolt is currently the only company in the
world that can dope large-size diamond semiconductor materials. High-efficiency
diamond converters are the key to manufacturing nuclear batteries. Betavolt is
not only a new energy company, but also a fourth-generation semiconductor and
ultra-long carbon nanotube new material company. Nuclear batteries, diamond
semiconductors and supercapacitors are the three major technologies and
materials that are linked and integrated to form Betavolt's core technology and
innovation capabilities.
--
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