A nuclear battery powered by radioactive decay rather than chemical reactions could last for decades. The most efficient design yet may bring this concept closer to reality.
Researchers have wanted to use radioactive atoms to build exceptionally long-lasting and damage-resistant batteries since the 1900s. While some prototypes have been assembled and even used in space missions, they were not very efficient. Now Shuao Wang at Soochow University in China and his colleagues have improved the efficiency of a nuclear battery design by a factor of 8000.
They started with a small sample of the element americium, which is usually considered to be nuclear waste. It radiates energy in the form of alpha particles, which carry lots of energy but quickly lose it to their surroundings. So the researchers embedded americium into a polymer crystal that converted this energy into a sustained and stable green glow.
Then they combined the glowing americium-doped crystal with a thin photovoltaic cell, a device that converts light to electricity. Finally, they packaged the tiny nuclear battery into a millimetre-sized quartz cell.
looncraz on
I am not particularly well versed in the exact design of the Voyager crafts, but isn’t this basically what they did already?
And I know NASA has sent up many other craft and vehicles with nuclear batteries and power generation as well…. I am just failing to see what’s new here, but that could just be my ignorance.
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A nuclear battery powered by radioactive decay rather than chemical reactions could last for decades. The most efficient design yet may bring this concept closer to reality.
Researchers have wanted to use radioactive atoms to build exceptionally long-lasting and damage-resistant batteries since the 1900s. While some prototypes have been assembled and even used in space missions, they were not very efficient. Now Shuao Wang at Soochow University in China and his colleagues have improved the efficiency of a nuclear battery design by a factor of 8000.
They started with a small sample of the element americium, which is usually considered to be nuclear waste. It radiates energy in the form of alpha particles, which carry lots of energy but quickly lose it to their surroundings. So the researchers embedded americium into a polymer crystal that converted this energy into a sustained and stable green glow.
Then they combined the glowing americium-doped crystal with a thin photovoltaic cell, a device that converts light to electricity. Finally, they packaged the tiny nuclear battery into a millimetre-sized quartz cell.
I am not particularly well versed in the exact design of the Voyager crafts, but isn’t this basically what they did already?
And I know NASA has sent up many other craft and vehicles with nuclear batteries and power generation as well…. I am just failing to see what’s new here, but that could just be my ignorance.