US team unveil tiny 'nuclear battery'

digital spy ^ | 10/9/09 | By Andrew Laughlin, Technology Reporter

[Flavius]

US researchers have unveiled a new penny-sized "nuclear battery" which can retain almost a million times the power of conventional chemical batteries.

Developed by a team at the University of Missouri, the new battery produces energy from the process of decaying radioisotopes, which releases charged particles that can be harvested for an electrical current.

[Flavius]

power armor and with a gatling gun mode

[piytar]

This is actually the green/socialists biggest nightmare: virtually unlimited compact energy. Screw oil. We will soon no longer need it, and the wealth this could create will be HUGE.

That is, until zero and the donks find a way to kill it...

[cranked]

Look Mom, real portable nukes....

[SpaceBar]

Radioisotope thermoelectric generator

[Kevmo]

Fascinating.

This thing has a future.

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

This thing has a future.

As part of a dirty bomb, along with lots of smoke detectors.

[Edward Watson]

Very cool. I can think of a lot of applications ...

[Rocky]

Amazing. Can’t wait for these nuclear reactors to show up in wrist watches and cell phones. And pacemakers.

[SpaceBar]

The basic idea has been around for fifty years, this is just a smaller, more portable version. And you won’t find them in consumer items any time soon, lest Al-Qaeda or that nutcase “nuclear boyscout” from a few years back wants to purchase a few nuclear powered toasters only to harvest the guts.

[neverdem]

thanks, bfl

[Delacon]

Pretty much what defines a battery, except for that radioactive thing.

[lonster]

wow who came up with this mmm-mmm-mmm or kim jong il??

[ModelBreaker]

“Pretty much what defines a battery, except for that radioactive thing.”

Actually, this is more an energy source than a battery. A battery is a storage device that uses man-generated energy from another source. This is more like a generator, except the fuel is nuclear.

[lonster]

sorry, that’s Obammm-mmmm-mmmy!!!

[Clock King]

Awesome game! And just in time for the US-Chinese War!!

[Flavius]

That’s right

[Dacus943]

Cool!

Now we can power up our Phased Plasma rifles in the 40-watt range!!!

[MilspecRob]

Nuclear Pacemakers (really cardiac pulse generators) have been around a long time
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,909206,00.html

[FrankR]

I remember reading in - I think, Popular Science - back in the 50's, where they were doing the "future predictions" column, and the writer said that "in the future we won't have utility poles, because every house will be powered by a nuclear power generation unit about the size of a washing machine, with indefinite power.". Could be possible...however, I can see every electric company trying to quash that right away...

[Rocky]

Thanks for the update.

Truth is stranger than fiction.