Posted on 03/25/2025 8:55:15 PM PDT by Red Badger
The atomic energy of betavoltaic batteries can power a variety of devices, from aerospace and robots to your future smartphone, for up to a century without recharging.
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In the world of batteries, duration is king. Whether nestled in the smallest wearable or providing back-up power for the electric grid, a battery that provides reliable energy for longer will always outlast the competition—figuratively and literally.
The U.S. led the way in nuclear battery innovation over the past 70 years—and even developed the first battery that ran on nuclear radiation in the 1950s. But in the 21st century, China has become the undisputed champ of nuclear batteries, which make it possible to power endeavors for decades without needing to recharge. They could provide the backbone for whole industries we haven’t even invented yet, like cybernetics, which could enable a truly intelligent robot, or deep space missions that could fly us to the stars. In early 2024, the Chinese company Betavolt revealed a coin-sized nuclear battery named BV100 that uses Nickel-63 as its radioactive source, yielding an estimated 50-year lifespan. But this battery isn’t just a lab innovation—it’s already being mass produced, with the intention to power technologies ranging from medical and aerospace devices to future smartphones.
For most of us, better batteries are simply a convenience, but in some cases, battery life that’s more akin to a human lifespan is crucial. We may have no hope of long-term space exploration or life-saving medical interventions without such long-term batteries, which harness energy from a radiation source. Some elements, like uranium, are radioactive, and they have unstable atomic nuclei that spontaneously lose energy. There’s more than one way to capture that energy—in the 1950s and 60s, NASA developed radioisotope thermoelectric generators that transferred the heat from natural radioactive decay into practical energy.
But now, a new generation of batteries can trap energy from beta particles, which are electrons or positrons that fly away from their atomic nuclei during radioactive decay. This acts somewhat like photons hitting a solar panel, but in this case, beta radiation is bombarding a specially designed semiconductor, and this is how Betavolt is powering its batteries. Betavoltaic batteries comprise two parts: a radioactive emitter and semiconductor absorber. As the emitter naturally decays, high-speed electrons (aka beta particles) strike the absorber. This creates an “electron-hole” pair, which generates a small-but-stable supply of usable electric current. Since beta particles can be blocked using simply a thin sheet of aluminum, betavoltaic batteries are safe.
While not producing as much power as NASA’s thermoelectric method, these “betavoltaic batteries” can provide small amounts of reliable power for possibly up to a century—or maybe even longer, depending on the half-life of the material. It may not replace the old, reliable lithium-ion battery that powers most of our gadgets. However, the betavoltaic battery’s long life—coupled with its ability to operate in extreme conditions—makes it perfectly suited for planetary rovers, deep sea sensors, and even pacemakers. Basically, anywhere you desperately want to avoid frequent battery replacement. Nuclear batteries will become even more relevant as the world continues to decarbonize while also becoming increasingly dependent on smart sensors and other internet-connected devices. Several countries are pursuing betavoltaic battery development, including China, the U.S., South Korea, and in Europe.
Betavolt isn’t the only China-based company devising nuclear battery advancements. Just last week, Northwest Normal University in Gansu, China, announced its own carbon-based nuclear battery that can last up to 100 years. Although the basis of this battery, carbon-14, is extremely rare, the South China Morning Post reported that China has a carbon-14 commercial reactor in Zhejiang. Mimicking its photovoltaic playbook for solar energy, China is building the entire supply chain for these devices within its own borders.
While China forges ahead, the rest of the world is racing to catch up. In the U.S., the Miami, Florida-based City Labs is feverishly working on betavoltaic-based microelectronics for space missions. In November 2024, the company received significant funding from the NIH to develop long-lasting betavoltaic batteries for pacemakers (thanks to their low penetration depth, beta particles can be easily shielded from the body). Instead of Nickel-63, City Labs’ battery uses tritium, which will likely provide a 20-year battery life. Following China’s lead, the company also thinks the supply chain in the U.S. could support the batteries’ production. Scalable production of tritium can happen, because national labs and companies are forging a path, Peter Cabauy, chief executive at City Lab, told Chemistry World.
City Lab actually developed the world’s first successful betavoltaic battery called the “Betacel” back in the 1970s, but the battery’s relatively limited lifespan at the time, along with growing nuclear stigma in the U.S., essentially relegated betavoltaic batteries to laboratory research. Now, times are changing.
And City Lab isn’t going it alone. Two U.S.-based companies—Kronos Advanced Technologies Inc and Yasheng Group—announced a joint partnership to pursue nuclear battery technology last year. The U.K. joined the betavoltaic fray in September 2024 when the company Arkenlight developed its first carbon-14 battery, made from nuclear waste.
It doesn’t take much imagination to see how a battery that truly keeps “going and going” will be a game-changer for a variety of technologies. But one thing is certain—last year’s reveal of Betavolt’s 50-year battery was a wake-up call for companies, laboratories, and governments around the world. More than 70 years after the U.S. developed the world’s first betavoltaic battery, it seems this tech’s time has finally arrived.
It just may not be the U.S. leading the charge.
Ping!...................
America has spent the last 50 years training MBAs, cupcakes, and trannys.
No big deal, we have DEI lol
Innovation is not driven by government policy...except in states governed by the likes of CCP.
Thanks to progressivism, die and oppressive/destructive lockdowns the US is now - imho - on the order of a generation behind.
Family units, education, manufacturing and limited government is the formula for success.
We’ve been driven to the point of implosion by the minority in control of a party of stupid.
This battle has barely begun...
Another secret-to-unlimited-energy story. Geeze. Seems like there’s ten of em every year for the last 30 years. Stop it already. Please!
> America has spent the last 50 years training MBAs, cupcakes, and trannys. <
Don’t forget lawyers. We’ve got lots and lots of lawyers.
This style battery is perfect for pacemakers, hearing aids, And many other small electronics.......................
I wrote a class paper back in 1976 about the use of certain nuclear waste isotops for power supplies.
——— wiki-——
Betavoltaics were invented in the 1970s.[3] Some pacemakers in the 1970s used betavoltaics based on promethium,[4] but were phased out as cheaper lithium batteries were developed.[1]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betavoltaic_device#:~:text=A%20betavoltaic%20device%20(betavoltaic%20cell,is%20the%20hydrogen%20isotope%20tritium.
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We have been using them in space for decades.
If memory serves, the batteries powering the Voyager probes have beta-decay ‘batteries’.
This was announced about a year ago, Jan. 2024. Now Betavolt is hoping to start producing a 1 watt version this year than could power something pretty useful.
Then there’s all the radiosiotope thermal generators (RTGs) produced by the Soviet Union to power lighthouses and deserted for people to find and chopped open with axes by metal scavengers.
And, you can eat all the junk food you want and never gain weight!
In Heaven...................
Outstanding!
Color me skeptical.
China Tofu Dreg BS.
Do not ever trust the CCP to tell the truth. They are deceitful and wicked.
Space is a already full of radiation and people up there are necessarily in self contained environments. Contamination is easier to manage.
Voyager 1 and 2, are powered by radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs), which convert the heat from the natural radioactive decay of plutonium into electricity. The fuel is Plutonium-238. It is difficult to make . Shortages have led to some missions which would have been ideal with it , like the Titan probe , not using it. (We wait years and years for a probe to get all the way to Saturn, and then use a battery with only a few minutes of use.)
[Voyager 1]
IIRC, there was some sort of problem with Voyager 1.
Something, something, bald-headed woman, something...
A nickle sized battery powered by nickel? What could possibly go wrong?
I understand RTGs require a high temp differential too. Deep space is a good environment because is so cold.
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