Posted on 11/28/2016 4:22:30 PM PST by BenLurkin
New technology has been developed that uses nuclear waste to generate electricity in a nuclear-powered battery. A team of physicists and chemists from the University of Bristol have grown a man-made diamond that, when placed in a radioactive field, is able to generate a small electrical current.
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The team have demonstrated a prototype 'diamond battery' using Nickel-63 as the radiation source. However, they are now working to significantly improve efficiency by utilising carbon-14, a radioactive version of carbon, which is generated in graphite blocks used to moderate the reaction in nuclear power plants. Research by academics at Bristol has shown that the radioactive carbon-14 is concentrated at the surface of these blocks, making it possible to process it to remove the majority of the radioactive material. The extracted carbon-14 is then incorporated into a diamond to produce a nuclear-powered battery.
The UK currently holds almost 95,000 tonnes of graphite blocks and by extracting carbon-14 from them, their radioactivity decreases, reducing the cost and challenge of safely storing this nuclear waste.
Dr Neil Fox from the School of Chemistry explained: "Carbon-14 was chosen as a source material because it emits a short-range radiation, which is quickly absorbed by any solid material. This would make it dangerous to ingest or touch with your naked skin, but safely held within diamond, no short-range radiation can escape. In fact, diamond is the hardest substance known to man, there is literally nothing we could use that could offer more protection."
Despite their low-power, relative to current battery technologies, the life-time of these diamond batteries could revolutionise the powering of devices over long timescales. Using carbon-14 the battery would take 5,730 years to reach 50 per cent power, which is about as long as human civilization has existed.
(Excerpt) Read more at phys.org ...
like a sword made out of iron would be very hard, but it would shatter the first time it struck anything.
Actually iron is very soft and malleable, it is
only the introduction of carbon that turns it into
steel which then can be hardened and then tempered
to give it the various properties we use it for today.
Hardened steels often crack just from their internal
stresses which the slow reheating releases and that is
called tempering which gives the various conditions
which allow steel to be used for so many objects.
We still live in the Iron/Steel age.
"The percentage of men accepted by the [U.S.] Army in Deaf Smith County is higher than anyplace where I have had an opportunity to obtain such figures. In June 1944, 93 percent of those called had passed the physical examinations. When we compare this with a scant 65 percent accepted for the whole nation and with the low points, where only 30 to 40 percent have been accepted, it becomes a remarkable record. "
Hereford is a city in and county seat of Deaf Smith County, Texas, United States.
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Hereford's local water supply contains an unusually high level of naturally occurring fluorine. Because fluoride is used to protect against tooth decay, Hereford earned the title "The Town Without a Toothache".
Nope. Just need to get a nuclear regulatory commission license and you are all set. Will probably set you back $100,000,000 and there is a lot of training and emergency drills required to keep your license and avoid nasty fines. You need to establish the safety basis against accidents, such as, demonstrate that the public radiation doses limits will not be exceeded if a 747 crashes into your C14 power supply.
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There is nothing to “drill” for with a decay cell.
There are no moving parts.
No emergencies either, unless someone bombs it from the air. Its just a container full of radio-active debris and thermocouples.
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The R&D team never made it past emptying the beer cooler.
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