Claims of a Tiny Nuclear Battery That Can Last 50 Years: Real or Nah?

[@BlueFrenzy]

Just a small idea. Your smartphone is not actually 100% active all the time. You can have a smaller battery that keeps recharging with a few of these small betavoltaic devices. The mobile phone will still require resting times, but they won't require wiring to recharge, which is a great step up.

[@pcdispatch]

But you would need thousands of these batteries to power your phone. The output is really small.

[@shion126]

​@@pcdispatchadvertising be like: phone that only needs to charge once a year! Fineprint: 1 year to charge from 0 to 100

[@odeldodelhorst7549]

nah. A Modern ARM Mobile CPU only draws like 7W. Of course thats not including GPU and Display but the idea from OP is not bad@@pcdispatch

[@orcmcc]

Would probably need a couple of them in the phone, but yeah, having them recharge the main battery during lows and off set the power needs during highs sounds like it would work well. Definitely sell to the military first though. They would love an auto-recharging comes system for field use. They civilian version can come later one the safety has been tested on soldiers.

[@kevinclasher3160]

@@pcdispatchhow much voltage to power a smartphone nowadays? And how you come to the conclusion that you need thousands of these to do it?

[@wow_horac4663]

According to what I've seen reported in reviews of nuclear battery technology there are 2 applications where the tech is currently being used. One is in medical devices like pacemakers that require tiny amounts of energy to function. Using a battery you have to replace every 10 years means added surgeries to the patient. Using a battery that last longer than the remaining patient's life span cuts down on the risks of death from repeated surgeries. The second place I've read they are used is in space. I think the Voyager probes both use a form of Nuclear battery which is why they still have power so many years later. As Anton mentioned this is hardly the first company to come out and say they found a way to scale up this specific type of nuclear battery so we'll have to see if this one brings products to market or fizzles out like so many others have.

[@madmax2069]

Yup, the voyager probes, and pacemakers. I'm not sure but I also think the rovers do

[@Jake1702]

Don't the Voyager probes use RTGs?

[@antediluvianatheist5262]

Pacemakers use wireless chargers now.

[@mercerwing1458]

@@antediluvianatheist5262 Imagine forgetting to charge your pacemaker 💀💀💀

[@Notsogoodguitarguy]

@@mercerwing1458 I mean, it's not exactly a death sentence. Isn't the pacemaker there just in case? Like, it's not shocking your heart every 10 seconds. I'd venture a guess it probably triggers like 1 a day. And you probably have more than enough time to charge it even if you notice it's not working.

[@manw3bttcks]

that battery can make power for 50 years, but the amount of power is tiny

[@stratos7755]

Yeah. Just like tritium batteries.

[@blobrana8515]

My quartz watch needs this

[@DPedroBoh]

Yeah, no way one of those will power a cellphone. No way in hell they will be able to make a li-ion sized radioactive battery generate 1watt of power by 2025

[@MarcoCjOrg]

I've always loved watches that wound itself up with a counterweight and arm movement.

[@johnbennett1465]

​@@DPedroBohwhat do you base your claim on? While I have no idea of the technical difficulties of building this, the power density of the source is sufficient.

[@minacapella8319]

Feel like you and kyle hill could really do a lot of good with a crossover video to help raise more awareness on this. Because the more we overcome the stigma with nuclear power, the more people will want to put their brains and money into researching this.

[@bobeyes3284]

People would have a lot more trust if it wasn't Chinese I'm sure.

[@ottodidakt3069]

factually, world wide, nuke power is THE energy that receives the most research investment, in fact more than all other energies combined ... and the stigma has a half life equivalent to it's radioactivity half life. there's a physical reality involved till cold fusion becomes usable, if ever.

[@friedrichjunzt]

The "stigma" are Bad experiences (ie accidents) and the fact that humans dont really react well to radiation.

[@jip5889]

No one will want to invest in a product people will only buy once. This is not how business operate. They will want to sell you more batteries and if your battery lives forever there is no business.

[@BeardedFrog]

I couldn't agree more. Nuclear energy is the best option when it comes to versatility. For utility power generation, only hydroelectric energy is better on a clean practical scale, but is obviously quite situational. We should be spending much more time and resources into developing nuclear power on a broad scale. Potential future improved variants, and use cases for nuclear, are limitless. It has a stigma because of misinformation, and accidents that were all caused by poor oversight/decisions and/or older/inferior technology.

[@KrustyKlown]

Apple will develop a similar non-replaceable phone battery that lasts 2 years.

[@dekurvajo]

Which makes sense, due to the fact they are already disposable items

[@xaulted1]

...and costs 10X more

[@KrustyKlown]

@@dekurvajo well, they want you to think they are disposable, when replacements batteries and screens are cheap.

[@onigamerplays]

i understand the cynicism. but i would really like a deep dive into the engineering before i poopoo the concept. really power output is my main missing point from this video if i missed it i am sorry but watts per second applicable and the graph would make me a beliber.

[@hanswurst2923]

That won't fly in the EU at least.

[@chibinyra]

I was avoiding these articles, didn't want to waste my time. So thank you for covering this =o)

[@JCO2002]

Saw Sabine pop up with a video on it. Didn't click. She's abandoned physics and gone pure YT.

[@poetryflynn3712]

​@@JCO2002Sabine is too basic...talks about rather basic subjects elementary school students should learn.

[@JCO2002]

@@poetryflynn3712 She's not writing that much of the content these days, it seems. It's coming from some YT team.

[@MarsStarcruiser]

@@JCO2002It’s a shame because she use to do particle physics with CERN and astrophysical research on the side. I’ve been kind of waiting for her to go back to her roots.

[@poetryflynn3712]

@@JCO2002 It seems to be the future. There's a common complaint youtube forces you to become a company or simply stop growing.

[@damienakatubbyable]

Yeah, would make sense if your average bit of electronics didn't have planned obsolescence built in, the battery will be lasting 10x longer than the device its in! 😂

[@100c0c]

What planned obsolescence? If you replace the battery, a modern smartphone can last 6+ years for example.

[@MrPojopojo]

​@@100c0cyea but nobody is gonna own a smartphone for 50 years

[@rosenelzor1210]

Planned obsolescence is when the manufacturer intentionally builds a product to only last for a couple of years. That way they insure the customers will be back soon for an "upgrade". More $$

[@Dandelion_Stitches]

@@100c0c The fact that you've been trained successfully to think 6 years is acceptable lifetime for a potentially $1000+ device is proof that planned obsolescence is alive and well.

[@SpywareEverywhere]

Plus humans. All around the world, people would be throwing these batteries into landfills, in ditches, the ocean, or anywhere else that thoughtless people carelessly throw their garbage. I'm not sure if human beings are responsible enough to use these batteries in everyday devices.

[@LiveEnjoyment]

3V @ 30mA is actualy quite a lot and with a couple you could already power a small microcontroller. And if for 50 years thats impressive

[@SlavTiger]

it could trickle recharge a liion cell

[@sdjhgfkshfswdfhskljh3360]

In other sources it is 100 microwatts, not 100 milliwatts like Anton said.

[@TheFrewah]

Should work with an Arduino but not a Raspberry Pi

[@darrylkinslow5613]

It's not even close to 30mA It's about 0.0001 watts at 3v, that's only 0.033mA, you'd need at least 1000 to get 33 mA.

[@PsRohrbaugh]

​@@SlavTigeryou'd be much better charging a super capacitor. But yes you'd need some way to store up the power, and the nuclear battery couldn't power the phone at full draw 24/7

[@thedownwardmachine]

What happens to the energy produced by decay when the battery isn’t under load? Does it deform the diamond structure or get warm or what.

[@neil_mch]

It cleary works, the MSM tolds us so. No need to explain how.

[@nilnailscrew4784]

all sorts of things within the circuit could turn that energy into heat, like a resistor

[@MantraHerbInchSin]

@@neil_mch MSM?

[@rosenelzor1210]

Main stream media.

[@AnonymousAnarchist2]

Get warm. No clue if the battery contains saftey circuts for this or if the circut designer is supposed to take this into account but you very litterally cannot sell the battery if it warps when its not in use. At some point it has to be transported.

[@donaldcarey114]

Nuclear waste can be used to create steam and run a turbine - this has been demonstrated, but the insane fear folks have about using radioactive materials has kept it from being used.

[@Nemethon]

Have you ever thought that it's not "insane fear", but common sense. Radioactive material is only harmless as long as it is handled sensibly. This sensible approach only exists in theory. In practice, you just have to look at how many normal batteries end up in the environment. Now think of millions batteries with radioaktive material. Like a very slow nuclear war. I don't want radioactive waste in the hands of irresponsible people.

[@activatewindows]

What’re you stupid?

[@SimonMester]

You say that, but that 'common sense' is actually destructive. We are now stuck using more fossil power, because we dont use nuclear, which kills orders of magnitude more people, and even produces more radioactivity with their emissions. Not to mention plastic waste that we still do nothing about, and is now in our blood and organs too. Nuclear is just scary because the damage it does, when it does, is sudden and headline worthy, while we die by the millions in the slow poisoning of every other industry...@@Nemethon

[@RanEncounter]

​​@@Nemethon "Have you ever..." Yes I have. The statistics, data and science agrees with this take, however the huge radiation scare people have has limited many great uses of radiactive materials. We have so many radioactive materials all over our environment and no one cares as they are not that harmful. This should be about actual effect of these radioactive materials instead or being scared of everything radioactive.

[@Nemethon]

@@RanEncounter Medical statistics say otherwise. The number of cancer cases in such areas is quite remarkable. But I definitely don't want to argue about it on KZbin. I am well informed on the subject and have been following this since the 70s.

[@BikingwithJP]

Thanks for covering this, I saw several articles and videos but I felt like the authors didn't understand the tech enough to explain it properly or even critique its mass production possibilities. Thanks for confirming my thoughts, keep being awesome!

[@hillogical]

I've seen these headlines, but until you talked about it I couldn't care about what the article had to say. Thanks for telling it like it is, Anton!

[@christopherleubner6633]

The battery uses 63Ni as the isotope. This isotope is used in fast transit time switching tubes called krytrons at 0.5 to 5uCi, and for GC/MS detectors at 15 to 50mCi. The battery has 50 CURIES worth of this to generate 100uW of power. If you used SiC or GaN with a thin bismeuth gold alloy stacked up with Ni63 totalling 50 curies, you should get a few watts of power at 3.2V or so for many decades. It won't last hundreds of years due to solarization of the semiconductor. A PN boron/nitrogen doped diamond could be used as well. One use case that comes to mind are bore hole scanners and deep sea monitoring equipment. Anywhere that solar isn't practical and long term monitoring is required and size is at a premium.❤

[@ProbablyLying]

thanks!

[@jamesbarca7229]

The problem is that 100uW is not .1 watts as he stated at 9:06, it's .1 milliwatts or .0001watts. He's off by a factor of 1000.

[@DS-wl5pk]

It’s also fake

[@ProbablyLying]

@@jamesbarca7229 is there another science youtuber that explains concepts more in depth with examples and whatnot?

[@NeilABliss]

Nobody want a cell phone that lasts 50 years. They want to line up every October for the new models.

[@abesapien9930]

The market for such a technology would be massive. I personally would pay $300 for a transferable phone battery if it really meant I would never have to worry about charging any phone for the rest of my life.

[@fungames24]

Don't be cheap, such a battery is worth $30,000.

[@mikelund327]

Lol, the battery in a new Iphone is probably at least $300.

[@lichprincessdeshyr6805]

Cell batteries are pretty cheap or affordable, suppliers and merchants charge double or more what they pay for them. Everything is a scam. Source I worked at batteries plus for years.

[@abesapien9930]

@@lichprincessdeshyr6805 Almost every retailer doubles their money on a product. It's rare to have margins less than 100%, unless you're Walmart or a discount seller.

[@raybojr1]

@@mikelund327 Actually my mac book pro battery replacement was only 200 with labor through apple... Not too bad.

[@Fastlan3]

My mom used to tell me a guy created a battery in the 50's that could last up to 50 years... But the information was shut down to protect financial interest. While such greed and innovation is thwarted at times... When I investigated her story, I learned the ideas she was exposed too simply implied things that were not actually practical due to the nature of the batteries need to maintain temperatures below what was conducive to everyday applications. I trued telling, her but her story was pretty solidified in your mind.

[@WorldofKlown]

The Clarendon pile, the 2kv battery powering the Oxford electric bell has been running since 1840. While the Clarendon pile is a chemical reaction rather than nuclear, it is also a very low power like these current devices.

[@GoldenTV3]

I can imagine kids in the future going "Whattt, you had to charge your phones? How did you manage? What happened if you couldn't find a place to charge it?"

[@Jim-H]

I’mma order one when they come to Temu.

[@TLGIII]

You beat me to it. Dang

[@DrTheRich]

Ah yes, not just a radioactive device in you pants, but one made with mass production cheap chinese drop shipping quality...

[@MartinMizner]

Thanks Anton for providing information about this topic. I guess many of us didn't heard of it yet and the public discussion about it is gonna be insane

[@TLGIII]

Just got mines delivered off AliExpress! Battery life is there but for some reason I’m suffering from hair and nail loss. Strange.

[@rolandthethompsongunner64]

😂

[@Teejay82_]

Its a free feature.. give it a little more time, and itll give you free weightloss in form of vomiting as a extra bonus.. Because you are a highly valued customer in a big firm, and they only want the best for you ;)

[@rolandthethompsongunner64]

So you need perfect diamonds. Very expensive. Guess the question is could you substitute the diamonds for another source of carbon?

[@rolandthethompsongunner64]

@@Teejay82_ 😂

[@rolandthethompsongunner64]

@@Teejay82_ Well no more unwanted body hair 😂

[@uzz32carl]

Great reveal on this prospective game changer

[@oberonpanopticon]

Seems like this would be ideal for breakthrough starshot type probes. Imo it’s a good example of how pursuing that project could have fascinating technological rewards with real-world applications, even if this particular technology wasn’t specifically designed for said project.

[@GihabLiche]

Don’t they arlready have small nuclear power sources like from newer mars rovers

[@samscott6395]

RTGs?@@GihabLiche

[@francistaylor1822]

Nuclear batteries are already a thing. That is what the Pioneers / Voyagers are/were using. That said refinements and different implementations absolutely

[@oberonpanopticon]

@@francistaylor1822 RTGs are not the same as nuclear batteries. That’s like saying that a coal and nuclear plant are the same thing because they both use steam to drive a turbine.

[@jeffreyarnold2626]

the biggest hurdle this tech faces, the nuclear regulatory people. they don't want laymen to have nuke hardware.

[@artistanthony1007]

If it's that small, doubt it can be used for anything but say a tiny LED Diode.

[@aelux4179]

It's not even useful for lighting. The smallest useful LED COBs used are 150mA @3.3V, or about 0.5W. You'd need 5 of these batteries to power it and even then you'd be stuck with a dim light on constantly.

[@-whackd]

It is more for powering sensors that you will put in space, in environments that are hard to get to like the arctic, or underwater, or even powering sensors which document the health, behaviour and communication on whales. We will be able to put more "eyes and ears" in the universe around us.

[@filonin2]

@@aelux4179 You could also use one to charge a conventional battery for items that are used intermittently, like lighting.

[@merlinwarage]

@@aelux4179 Baby steps. If they manage it to work (in every way), they will could increase the power in many ways. We just need a stable foundation like with every other technology.

[@aelux4179]

@@filonin2 This is already done in emergency lighting, without issue. Besides there srenlefsl restrictions (at least in the US, Europe and Australia/NZ) as to how fast they must charge. You'd need an absurd amount of these to reach those charge times

[@davidpescod7573]

An excellent explanation of the principles behind the Betavolt battery. Many thanks for posting the video

[@mememachine2586]

You had me at “China claims”

[@imakevideos5377]

I love how it's, china claims, not Chinese researchers claim or Chinese University claims...

[@lexloose2112]

loved your channel for years and always wave back. bless you. hope time has helped x

[@MrValgard]

would it work with graphen? whould be more efficient with layer-controll and cheaper than dimonds?

[@otpyrcralphpierre1742]

I was thinking the same thing.

[@DrTheRich]

Graphene has a different crystalline structure from diamonds. Which means different properties. also, graphene is by no means cheap to produce

[@vladimirljubopytnov5193]

Funny is that anytime diamond structure is mentioned, graphene structure is shown in video..

[@DrTheRich]

@@vladimirljubopytnov5193 They showed carbon nano tubes this time actually. But reading the commments i can see how many people don't know the structure of diamond

[@vladimirljubopytnov5193]

@@DrTheRich 6:05, 5:40, 7:40 does not look like a nanotube to me. 5:18 might be one, but I think graphene is still a correct term.

[@kristensorensen2219]

This will be a practical product under regular safety proticals. Like Tritium gas tubes that light up my watch dial. Like radium in results but far less dangerous.

[@harrymckeithen3474]

One of the reasons I like you and your channel, Mr. Petrova, is that you think (adroitly) inside the box but also have a keen appreciation (soberly logical) for ideas that come from outside the box. Thank you.

[@SjS_blue]

That was really cool and well done. Thanks Anton

[@whisthpo]

Excellent Presentation and info Anton!

[@Vaultboy-ke2jj]

I can finally power my T-51 power armour!

[@ScibbieGames]

The nuclear taboo has set humanity back an immeasurable amount of time...

[@joethestrat]

Crazy, isn't it? It fits their list of criteria perfectly, but "scary". Lmao, as if other forms of power generation are 100% safe. There's a coal mining town that had to evacuate decades ago because the mine that went under the town, caught fire. That fire is still burning under that deserted town. No one could successfully extinguish it.

[@Shinobubu]

Nuclear batteries have been around for decades. the problem is it has the word "Nuclear" in it and now add "Made in China" and you have a battery that will never be allowed in any western market.

[@tbix1963]

Thanks for sharing, I’ve always been curious about atomic batteries. I remember reading about one that if I’m remembering correctly was based on tritium that glows like what was used in the old glowing dials on watches. The tritium vials were combined with solar type cells that generated your microscopic amounts of power. I remember them saying the frequency of the light of the cells were tuned to was very specific frequencies but the light from the tritium was a wider spectrum thus only a fraction of the energy was captured. I was thinking if they could combine quantum dots that are used in tv flat panel TVs maybe they could collect the full frequency and emit it to the photovoltaic cells at the correct frequency.

[@John-ir2zf]

Those glowing dials were painted with a paint that contained iridium and phosphorescent calcium. The alpha particles from the iridium would excite the calcium and make it glow. The ladies that used to make those watch dials used to lick their paint brushes to get a fine tip, and ingested iridium in the process.

[@tbix1963]

@@John-ir2zf thanks for the correction. I was trying to think of an example. I think they sell tritium vials on the internet for glowing sights on rifles and such. I do think it was tritium I was thinking of though. 😂 The real problem with these Batteries is the limited radiation that you are allowed to have outside of controlled storage conditions also limits the availability of energy to repurpose. IE if it was radiant enough to do any real work it would also be to hot to handle. My favorite tall tale was supposedly when the soviets went to collect their thermal piles that they were using to power light houses in remote locations. A few turned up missing and supposedly they retrieved one from some trappers that were using it as a heat source for their tents.

[@John-ir2zf]

@tbix1963 your welcome. oh man, that's a hell of a way to stay warm, those poor trappers probably didn't do too well. Yes, those small vials used in some gunsights did contain tritium, but tritium itself doesn't "glow". The radiation from the tritium is used to excite other elements that phosphores. No radioactive element glows on its own, it is always used to excite a phosphorescent element that then glows in response to the electrons in the phosphorescent element losing energy (gained from the radiation) and emitting visible light. Even a full nuclear load in a power plant doesn't glow, but does create cherenkov radiation through a similar process, except it is stripping electrons off of the water molecules, those stripped electrons create that blue glow around the fuel bundle.

[@hugegamer5988]

@@John-ir2zf I had one of those watches I got from my grandfather. Never worked but was really cool. Kept it in a metal box.

[@DarcyWhyte]

We used to put new batteries in our cell phones. Soon we'll put a new cell phone on our battery.

[@nimeq]

I think there might be some faulty news papers in action here, Betavolt BV100 3V produces 100 microwatts according to the press release, so 0.1 milliwatts. Their plans are to launch a 1 watt version in 2025 - which might be quite large.

[@ptamog]

Yes 100uW 100mW with that size would be revolutionary. 44KWh of coin sized battery decaying in your pocket

[@ThinkingBetter]

@@ptamog It's not even theoretically possible. For example, the natural decay chain power output is for Carbon 14 limited to 0.001305 Watts per gram. Unfortunately, the first law of thermodynamics means this is the forever maximum output power you can get and realistically you can only get a small fraction converted due to limited efficiency. Even in a very optimized best-case, an entire nuclear power plant of Carbon 14 wouldn't be able to power a motorcycle.

[@merlinwarage]

Baby steps. If they manage it to work (in every way), they will could increase the power in many ways. We just need a stable foundation like with every other technology.

[@JumpingSpiderDesign]

Dave Jones from eeVblog covered a similar thing a couple of years ago. It was in response to a bunch of hype, and the take away was that these beta decay batteries have been available for some time now, but are only suitable for REALLY niche applications due to the microwatt output. Happy to stand corrected, but I agree that Anton might need to shift the decimal point three spaces to the left!

[@Mick-Maverick]

Like 0.0001w... tlit would take 20,000 of these to power a cell phone (~2w).

[@Mark_Ocain]

I can't see this being a consumer-level product. Disposal of the battery at the end life will be an issue.

[@benmcreynolds8581]

The more i learn about our power grid, the more i realize modern nuclear energy would be our best option. Small form reactors, LFTRs, Thorium Reactors, molten salt reactors. Utilizing our advanced technology, Improved engineering & material science. Using our greater understanding of safety & well made designs. We have so much more advanced computer technology & robotics that can be used. It feels like even tho tons of advancement has occurred with engineering designs, safety measures, etc. It still doesn't matter to most people. It's like most people are ingrained with a natural negative response when talking about nuclear energy. We need to heal from the trauma of our past. See & learn that those things only happened solely from us not understanding what we were doing when it came to nuclear energy at the time. We didn't have advanced enough technology, material science, engineering, safety measures, understanding of how to go about everything, etc. This source of energy will greatly help the world improve towards the future and lowering emissions. More than anything else could, while also providing a very stable electrical grid system. Currently we have alternative energy options but the majority of our grid is powered off of fossil fuels and emission producing sources of energy. We will be so much better going forward commiting to modern advanced nuclear energy options. It will really allow places to be much more energy independent. Less reliant on fossil fuels. They'll have efficient, stable electrical grids and the rest of the grid could experiment with alternative power sources, etc.

[@alterego2421]

also thought about nuclear a lot and how to use it best one funny way to incorperate most of our infrastructure is to build ton of reactors ins saudi arabia or some oder oil rich country and use it to filter the air carbon capture stile than use the allready built rafineries and shipping routs u may ask why prsucing oil again its simple easy energy storage in high desity with a global suply net allready built but hey guess id rather have winter oympics in sa than a reactor got damnit thats why we cant have nice things

[@oberonpanopticon]

Nuclear energy could give us a utopia or a dystopia. Thus far we’ve used it for neither.

[@benmcreynolds8581]

@@oberonpanopticon The shame is that there is so much potential there but the public & governments aren't willing to give it a shot. One of the better things about nuclear energy is we can clearly track where any contamination is with extreme detail. Good luck doing that with any other form of pollution.. Also they've been finding creative ways to use nuclear waste so it can have multiple forms of use. We've learned so much from those past years and failures that i can see us succeeding in this field of energy options nowadays. Especially with all of our advancements. We can utilize them alongside our greater understanding of safety measures

[@KaraKobold]

imagine these left in caves, for people who are exploring, just having an emergency light always on, for like 50 years xD

[@TheLazyComet]

this has more likelihood of showing up in wireless security cameras and window/door sensors before it ends up in a smart phone. at least those things last longer then someone keeps a smartphone around

[@-whackd]

Probably will be used in weather, climate, arctic and space related sensors. I can even see them powering sensors which track the health and communication of whales.

[@DaynaMSmith]

Great step forward. 63Ni decaying into copper makes this brilliant. For size comparison, that 5 Yuan coin is about 20mm in diameter. 3v 0.1A in a 10x10mm (if the picture is accurate) form factor makes this even better. 14C, if I remember correctly, decays into nitrogen. Which could cause issues with the battery in the long term (Cracking, separating of layers, shorting, etc), granted that isotope is far longer term than 63Ni. Decaying into a stable, conductive, and recyclable or reusable material is fantastic. With power generation requiring the decay, the lower the half life the more electricity I would think it can generate in smaller periods of time. So we get the same amount of power in a smaller form factor, with very little or even no safety concerns, and is recyclable and re-usable, compared to a similar battery made of 14C.

[@cpmyers]

Scotty!! Check the dilithium crystals! We need warp speed, now!!!

[@CrimsonDragonX7]

years and years ago when i first started watching you, i wasnt so sure about that accent, but these days i associate that silky voice with comfort, happiness, and best of all...HOPE

[@AnonymousAnarchist2]

Its a pacemaker battety but better protected. Im sure its over hyped but common its not that useful or unusal

[@mattkelly2004]

I'm glad you covered this, I have heard about it but not the details

[@TheErichill]

This isn't nuclear fission. Also, even though making these devices powerful enough to run something like a cell phone with tens of watts, there are lots of applications that need power in microwatt quantities. I wish the press releases did a better job pointing this out. One last thing: C-14 decays into N-14, which is stable, and even more harmless than copper.

[@01pantagruel]

There's an argument for alpha decay being fission (you get two nuclei, one of which just happens to be helium), but beta decay is by no sensible definition fission.

[@senorelroboto2]

​@@01pantagruelyeah, or neutron capture with Li-6 or B-10. I wouldn't call it fission, though

[@konstantin7596]

Eeeehm, yeah the nucleuses neutron fisses into a proton and an electron (plus neutrino). So…?

[@jimcurtis9052]

Wonderful as always Anton. Thank you. ☺️👍

[@IsaacFoster..]

Yep, let's enjoy this idea once again before it goes back in the deep darkness again

[@Apollo1011]

I want it to be scaled up to run people's homes. Install a battery and forget about electricity from the power company.

[@AnonymousAnarchist2]

Its one of those things. So much tantalizing useful energy just right there. So utterly useless the energy you usually get.

[@daniel4647]

"Until I guess fusion comes out or something", you're a funny guy Anton.

[@lapurta22]

Beyond hysterical

[@douglasbrenner1351]

So we can start discarding radioactive waiste in landfills with all the other bateries we're not supposed to throw in the trash?

[@UnfollowYourDreams]

Batteries belong in the oceans

[@EstamosDe]

​@@UnfollowYourDreamsinside a turtle mouth

[@rolandthethompsongunner64]

Once it completely decayed yes. It would become inert.

[@aelux4179]

​@@UnfollowYourDreams All things must return to Poseidon

[@ghoulbuster1]

Those darn fish stealing all our depleted uranium!

[@xINVISIGOTHx]

what shape are the diamonds in the batteries?

[@jimgraham6722]

Nuclear batteries have been around for years. In fact you can make your own. Get a dozen or so high energy beta lights and duct tape them to a solar cell. Result a little bit of electricity. Such batteries last about six years.

[@user-zz3sn8ky7z]

Yeah, six years, not fifty

[@alterego2421]

​@@user-zz3sn8ky7zcosts about a 1000000th

[@filonin2]

@@user-zz3sn8ky7z The time it lasts depends on the element and isotope used and how much. The half-life of Nickel-63 is over 91 years, so yes, it should make power for at least half that long. What is even hard to believe or understand here?

[@mikecaster4612]

Not only does work but, you can make your own battery. Watch Robert Murray Smith make a nuclear battery out of a T-220 transistor and a smoke alarm.

[@iancowan3527]

Select Nuclear waste is used, sealed inside man-made Diamond material so the Nuclear material can be handled without the need for other protect gear... Only issue... Low wattage... But they potentially last for well over 100-200 years...

[@-whackd]

Sounds good for use in space applications, maybe for weather and communications devices in the arctic as well. We could probably power trackers that monitor whales and other long lived aquatic life. Or use it for powering underwater aquatic sensors.

[@DrTheRich]

robotic insects maybe. The smaller the object it needs exponentially less power to move.

[@craig7350]

For space applications, build a battery that requires gamma rays to operate, then just hang it overboard.

[@menthous305]

You'd hope they've tried different structures of graphene instead of diamonds

[@the80hdgaming]

People worry about radiation from cell phones but forget that they have at least one radioactive device in their homes with smoke detectors... They contain Americium... 😂😂😂

[@nomdeguerre7265]

Everything is ‘radioactive’, literally everything. Details matter. Simply saying something is ‘radioactive’ really doesn’t say anything at all. It implies a lot, with great ambiguity. But it really says nothing definite. I think Anton does a reasonable job getting into this without bogging down too much in the hazy and widely misunderstood terminology.

[@zefallafez]

There's on average a teaspoon's worth of uranium in a dump truck load of dirt.

[@xxdeadoutxx761]

the sun is more harmful then 5g towers and any appliance in your home, unless you cut the door off a micro wave but that's darwin at work

[@brianmarshall1762]

⁠@@zefallafezI think I read somewhere that around 1kg of U in about 10,000kg of soil on average so depending on the size of the dump truck, it could even be more than a teaspoon. Mind you, I have no idea how much a teaspoon of uranium weighs 😂

[@Captain.AmericaV1]

😂😂😂😂 Very clever 👏👏

[@caerdwyn7467]

Space applications? I'd be interested more in power-to-weight ratios, vibration sensitivity, how well they survive in vacuum and in the temperatures found in space.

[@DPedroBoh]

Its just tiny radioactive generators like in heart pacemakers or even the voyager space probes. They do last decades but provide very low energy. Like hundreds or thousands of time less than a lithium battery can. You can argue that in the long run it provides more, but there's very few use cases for such batteries and as i said they are already in use when applicable, its not new tech.

[@-whackd]

Expect them to power weather, space, underwater, arctic, biomedical/transplant and other sensors. I can even see them powering sensors to monitor communication and health in whales.

[@LorienGL]

AS always, great real content! Thank you!

[@TheHoveHeretic]

For those wondering about the size comparison with a PRC 5 Jiao coin, those have a diameter of 20,5mm (that's a smidge over ¾" in old money)

[@jlangevin65]

Thanks - the only system of measurement Americans fear more than metric is the 5-jiao coin.

[@MarioRodriguez-ow9rl]

If 14C can be used in betavoltaic devices, I wonder why not to turn this 14C into diamond, so you would have a diamond made of 14C. This way you would have the radioactive isotope in the diamond itself.

[@-yttrium-1187]

these types of batteries do have half-lives associated with their power output. But nature continues to surprise me because I found out that the nucleus of a radioactive atom can be put at an exited state that changes the half life of the isotope (nuclear isomers), making it possible to create a nuclear battery that only releases energy on activation. Though the caveat is that no working device has ever been produced, usually produces gamma decay, instead of beta decay as per this video, and that it may not produce enough energy to put the atom in its ground state.

[@Bob94390]

If you think you have "found out" this, then you should publish it. It sounds like extremely important and shocking news. What experiments have you done?

[@ColinWatters]

A forum post I found says the battery contains 50 curie (Ci) and apparently the annual limit on inhalation is 800 µCi and ingestion as 9 mCi. "So the battery contains more than 60,000 max annual inhalation doses, if it was all vaporized, and more than 5,000 max ingestion doses, if it found its way into the water/food supply."

[@hendrikvija310]

Yes, this is a very serious issue with the idea of nuclear phone batteries, household batteries etc. The battery would have to be completely unbreakable to avoid lethal ingestion (or even external radiation) accidents. And I don't think that's achievable, at least not in a commercially viable way. More numbers for reference: a generally lethal dose of radiation is 10 Sv (Sievert), which for an 80 kg person translates to about 800 J. Thus if the power of the battery is above 1W, you can die from holding a broken battery in your hand for 10 minutes.

[@garrett6064]

Damn! I really need a cell phone with a 50+ year battery for my phone that will be around for 4 years.

[@vael_]

Would rather have too much battery life than too little battery life on my phone. I see what you're saying though.

[@AnonymousAnarchist2]

I think if phones started using betavoltaic batteries we would start buying phones without batteries, kind of how a lot of phones no longer come with charging cables everything is just USB C.

[@-whackd]

Your brain is firing on all cylinders when the only application you can think of for a microwatt battery is "uh whatever I'm typing on right now."

[@mikecaster4612]

I was thinking more like "how about a flashlight, that I could stash in the car, that would work five years from now when you needed it".

[@garrett6064]

@@-whackd *Sarcasm* (N) Use of remarks that clearly mean the opposite of what they say, in order to... criticize something in a humorous way. I didn't think this needed to be explained, but apparently.

[@ratenfantguerre-objectifma3861]

Day of the tentacle explains why you will probably never have these tiny diamonds batteries: terrorism, terrorism, terrorism...

[@donQpublic]

If this came out of Japan I would be more likely to believe it.

[@CounterFiat]

About a week before this story went viral I was wondering this exact concept of a nuclear decay battery for electric car and which element(s) would be possible to achieve it. We're in the dawn of so many breakthroughs simultaneously. What an AWESOME time to be alive.

[@Walter-wo5sz]

Sounds a lot like the flying cars for everyone that have been promised for 60 years.

[@oberonpanopticon]

Nah, it’s real because it has a catch (the tiny power output)

[@AnonymousAnarchist2]

except weve had these types of battery longer then weve understood radation we have had radio voltaic devices, its litterally how we begain to understand radiation! Primitive batteries like this are what Curie was using! The question has been useful and safe. Its always been useful and safe. Because the useful ones where not safe, and the safe ones are very hard to get any useful energy out of. Very easy to get a lot of energy out of, but a lot doesn't mean useful. Typically these sorts of radio-voltaics would give millions of volts at nano amps practically impossible to measue small amps. So youd get electricity that you absolutly cannot contain at kind of low wattages. Great for making hand buzzers not so great for much else.

[@jamesfoster1859]

We have flying cars lol

[@ThinkingBetter]

@@AnonymousAnarchist2 Yes, this idea is idiotic. You need high power density to make such a battery competitive to modern batteries and that means it becomes insanely dangerous. A mobile phone battery outputting Watts of electric power means inside of it you have a radioactivity of multiple Watts of beta radiation (due to energy efficiency losses). Such beta radiation will quickly kill you if you crack open the battery.

[@justinpyle3415]

Flying cars are easy, just expensive.

[@kaarlimakela3413]

I have been saying for years we need better batteries by FAR! It is THE weakness in the power to gizmo situation.

[@fearthehoneybadger]

There's the old story about having some prime swampland for sale.

[@Butschrick]

Very interesting, keep us updated.

[@billiondollardan]

I haven't watched the video yet, but if it's Chinese it's fake :)

[@AgentLeon]

Michael Petrov here!

[@ryandavis4448]

Crazy that ancient civilizations veiwed gold and diamonds as being so valuable. And future technologies suggest they are imperative for success....Makes you wonder if we've done all this before?

[@oberonpanopticon]

Coincidences do happen you know. Gold was valued because it was rare and didn’t lose its lustre, and diamonds really were rare before modern mining and are extremely hard. Gold also happens to have good electrical properties, and diamonds are still hard. If there was a technologically advanced civilization before us, we would’ve noticed.

[@ryandavis4448]

@@oberonpanopticon human beings could possibly go back for a couple millions years at best. How much of our civilization would be "known" a million years from now. Even 200k years, only the pyramids would be noticeable.

[@oberonpanopticon]

@@ryandavis4448 Geology. If there had been any industrial or nuclear technology, we would see the geological fingerprint. A thin layer of irradiated, smoggy, plastic-rich rocks. Also we’d see their space infrastructure. If we can what bacteria were doing 3 billion years ago, we could detect what a global industrial civilization was doing a few million years ago. BTW, large granite structures can last millions of years. Think of Mount Rushmore, there will be signs of artificial sculpting for up to seven million years.

[@ryandavis4448]

@@oberonpanopticon maybe? But coastlines change. Mainland today would be the sea floor tomorrow. All I'm saying is I'm doubtful we know the entire story of human evolution.

[@oberonpanopticon]

@@ryandavis4448 We don’t know the whole story, but we can rule out any worldwide highly advanced/industrial civilizations in the last billion or so years. Don’t underestimate the geologists, their logic is rock solid. And never, ever take them for granite.

[@stephenselby4252]

This is something we may see sooner rather than later. Don’t underestimate the resources that the Chinese Government may be prepared to put into developing it.

[@Rek-55]

3:36 for sure it will be. As new niche- that is always difficult, but when focusing on problem - you have result. It's like PVC windows- in early 60 it was new, and not common, now most is PVC windows. Some prefer, some not ..

[@enkiduthewildman]

Interesting. When I first heard about this it sounded like tabloid science. Good to hear that it's not garbage. Smartphones are probably a dead-end application, since the device itself won't last 50 years, so why use that for a battery? But depending on form factor you could use this as a CMOS battery or incorporate into an SSD to refresh the memory cells. Or even more likely, if it can be made practical, this will power some new technology that hasn't been invented yet.

[@c0d3warrior]

Talking about potential harm of the electromagnetic radiation from cell phones: Early models (including phones installed in cars in the late 80s/early 90s) happily blasted out 10, even 20 Watts of power. Modern phones radiate 3 watts at most. So in the early days, discussions about potential harm did have their place and since then, regulatory bodies like the FCC have put limits in place to keep power output below harmful levels.

[@transArsonist]

note, the frame around the title card [rendered poorly on my cheap tv/monitor] nearly fooled me into thinking id already watched the video, if i had not been Looking for your video on this tech i would have missed it!

[@hendrikvija310]

The nuclear batteries used so far all have two things in common: they have a very low power (a couple of milliwatts or even lower), as pointed out by many other commenters, and they are used in situations where they can't easily be tampered with (in space, in pacemakers inside the human body etc). I believe the latter is a very important aspect. Some numbers for reference: a generally lethal dose of radiation is 10 Sv (Sievert), which for an 80 kg person translates to at most 800 J, depending on the type of radiation and the body part irradiated. So if the power of the battery is above 1W, you can die from holding a broken battery in your hand for 10 minutes. As pointed out by another commenter, the activity of even the

[@apocraphontripp4728]

By the design, I'm guessing a thin layer of something radioactive pinned to a peltier and surrounded by shielding. The heat gets converted to electricity by the nature of the peltier, and I imagine that the cooling side of the peltier keeps things cool.

[@taki_maciek4799]

I have just calculated, that 1 gram of Nickel-63 can theoretically produce around 3.5 mW, if only entire energy of the released beta particles is converted into electrical energy. Anton, you've said that the nickel particles can be doped into diamond, however I think that it is hard to do for even for such a small amount of nickel and the problem gets even bigger if we speak of watts instead of miliwats. I could rather imagine, that instead of using nickel, the diamond Schottky diodes can be made entirely of C-14 making the battery more energy dense. Even though halflife of C-14 is much bigger then in case of Ni-63, the mass of nucleus is lower and the beta particle has higher energy. What do you think?

[@ptamog]

The power of the battery is 100uW

[@sodsofbeachesmetaldetectin7208]

I have found that anything that does not allow for profit to be made will be stopped from being produced so even if this tec got super good it won't get to the market for the average Joe.

[@HappyPandaBear73]

Absolutely Fascinating Insight News Segment! Thank you very much.👍🙂

[@theevermind]

Well, this doesn't get rid of nuclear waste. it instead puts that waste to a productive use instead of letting it sit

[@filonin2]

So it's now a product, making it no longer *waste.* Hence why it is now productive.

[@JugheadJones03]

I was always curious about how many different ways there are to generate electricity. I look forward to that future video on it Anton. Thank you. Do we mostly use turbines because it it the most efficient?

[@igors_lv]

is it a battery tough? or maybe mini generator as it does not store, but continuously produce electricity.

[@stargazer5784]

Not a storage cell, but a power cell.

[@SuperGravey]

One thing that has happened in the electronic industry is the amount of zeros on the back of any number. For example. Light bulbs last for 100hrs didn't sell, so they added a zero 1000hrs to the same product. Competition kicked in and now they are 10k hours for the same thing, magic!!! I was told this by a distributor of electronic materials.

[@primoroy]

At least you exposed the "hidden" details behind it! Thanks.

[@mikebell2112]

I saw a video where they used 2 legs of a metal can transistor.

[@mikecaster4612]

Robert Murray Smith made a nuclear battery out of a T-220 transistor and a smoke alarm.

[@larrymarso4492]

tired: cell phone with a replaceable battery. wired: battery with a replaceable cell phone

[@jamesbarca7229]

From what I've read in more than one place, the Betavolt BV 100 produces 100 microwatts. That's not .1 watts as you stated at 9:06, it's .1 milliwatts or .0001watts. In other words, it would take 10,000 of these batteries to make a watt.

[@sprootown]

Spreading radioactive waste bits in the civilizations' trash system would be sheer madness.

[@balazsvarga1823]

This sounds great for any remote device needing power. Space probes, beacons, even perhaps radios in dark areas where you can't just put a solar panel on the forest ranger's outpost.

[@KellyBergerDeusVult]

Seems like a larger battery inside an enclosed unit would be ideal for every household. If it could be enough to charge a couple of cell phones, a radio that kind of thing. It's ideal for temporary power outages and emergencies

[@Rageagainstthemachine7447]

Anton I hope you read this. I recently read an article that discussed a new device to condense water from the atmosphere. The claims were 150 gals of water a day from a device the size of a window A/C unit. Can you please do a video on this tech Thanks

[@NoidoDev]

Making sure storage doesn't loose data by powering the storage up for a while, if the device is stored for a long period of time and not powered up. Or any camera in places where there's not much light or other energy sources, or this would be more difficult, e.g. in some caves.