Betavolt says its diamond nuclear battery can power devices for 50 years

https://newatlas.com/ ^ | January 16, 2024 | David Szondy

[Jonty30]

China's Betavolt New Energy Technology has unveiled a new modular nuclear battery that uses a combination of a nickel-63 (⁶³Ni) radioactive isotope and a 4th-generation diamond semiconductor and can power a device for 50 years.

Nuclear batteries may sound like something super-advanced, but they've been around in one form or another since the early 1950s. Most of these are what are called radio-thermal generators, which turn the heat from decaying radioactive elements into electricity by some sort of thermocouple or a Stirling engine.

In 2016, a new principle was introduced, which uses diamond layers doped with radioactive isotopes – in the case of the first attempt, carbon-14 (¹⁴C). The idea is to select an isotope that releases Beta (β⁻) particles, which are essentially high-energy, high-speed electrons or positrons. When these are released, the diamond matrix acts as a semiconductor to generate an electric

[Jonty30]

I'm just wondering why this isn't more developed by now? It's a great way to use up nuclear fuel and the batteries are essentially reusable.

[sauropod]

Bkmk

[Magnum44]

I'm just wondering why this isn't more developed by now? It's a great way to use up nuclear fuel and the batteries are essentially reusable.

[Boomer]

Radiation pollution is my guess. It does make sense though as soon as they can make it 100% safe.

This a ship load of EV's on fire

[hanamizu]

Yep, a Chinese-made nuclear battery. What could go wrong?

[epluribus_2]

Orobably more like:

Be one of the first to take advantage of this sure-fire investment!

(But first follow this link for a detailed promotional video by world renowned Energy expert...

[Blood of Tyrants]

Well, first, it’s in it’s relative infancy, producing only 100 microwatts (0.1 milliwatt) which could power a watch. The one watt version could power much more. I don’t know about the problems with scaling it up in size.

[Magnum44]

[epluribus_2]

Han-Tur-Bai-Dun.

[catnipman]

magic battery technology is becoming quite avant-garde lately: this one has BOTH diamond AND nuclear technology!

[thegagline]

“The BV100 can produce 100 microwatts at 3 volts”
Time to bring back the radium dial watch. /sarc

[Dead Corpse]

There have been other companies that have tried this tech...

They need air to work, so applications are still kinda limited.

A 50 year flashlight or cell phone is probably do-able though.

[Empire_of_Liberty]

The spray of water is a nice touch.

It’s probably to keep the flaming ship of EVs away…

[Fai Mao]

They are more advanced. China reverse engineered these

https://www.energylivenews.com/2020/09/02/us-startup-unveils-battery-made-from-nuclear-waste-that-could-last-up-to-28000-years/

[Orosius]

And they only cost a million dollars apiece.

[PGR88]

The side-story to this is - The US Dept of Energy apparently owns the patent on this technology, and sold it to China for pennies on the dollar.

[Revel]

“... and can power a device for 50 years. “

Already been done. Voyager 1.

[Secret Agent Man]

Tofu-dreg nuclear battery

[enumerated]

…can power a device for 50 years - as long as it is a very small device, in a warm environment and is turned off the whole time.

[G Larry]

They’re programing the chip to allow them to have it go critical via backdoor software......