This New Nuclear Battery Could Soon Go On the Market

[@marklewus5468]

A 100 uW 3 V battery is way more useful than it might appear. There are many devices - smoke & CO alarms, home intrusion sensors, etc - that average well below 100 µW. You can trickle charge a capacitor for intermittent pulses of higher power, for example, radio transmissions. One 3 V 100 uW beta battery is equivalent to a 3V lithium CR2025 cell (150mAh/450,000 uWh) being discharged & replaced every six months.

[@dananorth895]

Soo....watch batteries! I hate replacing those.

[@brothermine2292]

My watch bought in 2007 has never needed a battery change since it's solar-powered. It also synchronizes with the atomic clock radio signal so it never needs to have its time set.

[@joansola02]

@@brothermine2292 what a boring watch to have! 😀

[@brothermine2292]

@@joansola02 : A boring watch is good, yes?

[@dan_loup]

Given how tiny it is, you could just get a bunch in parallel

[@gj1234567899999]

Didn’t the voyager satellite have a nuclear powered battery that’s still working for almost 50 years?

[@SabineHossenfelder]

Yes!

[@hugegamer5988]

It’s an RTG yes, but it uses the heat from decay to power a peltier junction.

[@Bitchslapper316]

Yes. So does the curiosity and perseverance rovers on mars. That's why curiosity is still driving around even though it's covered in martian dust.

[@petevenuti7355]

I want one of those, doesn't Canada allow individuals to buy those? (RTG'S, not betacvoltaic)

[@1ycan-eu9ji]

What part of "bringing it to the consumer market" did you miss? it's a known technology it's just really hard to get to consumers for multiple reasons

[@s1gne]

As a young child when i saw a sign "do not open" then my mind would translate that into "Open, very interesting stuff in here".

[@JohnThomas-zg8kf]

Tasty too!

[@cw4608]

Fortunately you matured, but it is the Tide Pod eaters that concern me.

[@NikolajLepka]

thankfully beta decay isn't THAT dangerous

[@djrj9367]

The radiation coming from the battery will only penetrate the dead skin layer and no deeper even broke open

[@arthurcrown3063]

Do not press the red button ...

[@ubercorey]

I can't believe the algo didn't show me your channel sooner, you rock! I appreciate your content so much, thank you.

[@darksideblues135]

We should use these in EV's. No more range anxiety

[@drigondii]

"So the half-life of that company was shorter than expected." 😂 savage, Sabine!

[@TrickOrRetreat]

Indeed 😋

[@UglySephie]

Came here for this comment 🎉😂

[@salahh89]

👍😁😁

[@ihad2reload]

Nuclear burn

[@TonyRule]

I love me a nerd joke.

[@five-toedslothbear4051]

Excellent video! Unlike some other commenters, I actually like the 5 to 7 minute video with a single topic in it. Sometimes I’m just looking to take a quick breather from work or something, and a little science news is quite refreshing.

[@flamingspinach]

Agreed, I much prefer the format of one video per topic.

[@truthsmiles]

Seconded! I like knowing the main topic before clicking :)

[@lesk7427]

Me too

[@echindaplatypus]

I love the new format as well! It's much easier for me to follow because there's less context switching, so I can listen to it a bit more passively and still retain some useful information later when I have time to do more reading.

[@nickg2431]

Agreed ,I am not a scientist and just need to know the basics as its interesting ,positive news and a good conversation topic.I dont need to know all the intricate science details in the same way a music fan doesnt need to know what scales,sounds and other intricacies are involved.

[@ChipGuy]

3V, max. 33µA. Should be good enough for a high reliable real time clock circuit. There is also a EFM32 based themometer circuit with memory LCD which I think is also below the power output of this cell.

[@virtualworldsbyloff]

So later on, people will be droping unwanted old nuclear powered devices in the bins, some in the rivers, others in fireplaces... What happens then ??? Cause many people does that !!!

[@KamranRazvan]

Thank you.. when I read this article on Atlas I had a lot of questions.. all answered. Love your subtle sense of humor ..

[@toddbu-WK7L]

I do a LOT of work with low power LoRa communication devices. These devices work at 10mW with a maximum duty cycle of 1%. While solar is good to power a lot of these devices, it is not always an option. Solar is also fiddly and somewhat fragile. A battery like this could immediately have a very positive impact on my work.

[@userspylife]

what is LoRA communication device?

[@SwissPGO]

What about combining solar, a super capacitor and thermocouples? If there are vibrations, piezoelectric power could be harvested (typically way higher voltages though than thermocouples). And yes, this is not a small package and definitely way more complex than a coin cell. But humanity has done way too many mistakes in the past, don't add radio isotopes driven coin cells to the mix please. I used Sr-90 during my studies. Even the 5 cm of lead did not block all the x-rays generated by this beta emitter.

[@NathanBrown-z7o]

Yes, I have heard about super capacitor’s plus I know PSI and a little about table enough to make boom boom device’s however no timer design yet.

[@NathanBrown-z7o]

Glow, glow stuff dangerous lead vest it power military grade timer’s also conservative’s get to keep gun’s I’m not that dumb.

[@NathanBrown-z7o]

Flintstone’s cavemen with boom boom stick’s + table, basketball fun.

[@mckirkus]

100 Microwatts. For those wondering, you need 30,000 of these to power a single Xbox controller.

[@MarioNobre65]

For spy gadgets

[@comradecapybara]

The same company says they are expecting to get it up to 1 watt by 2025

[@vasiliigulevich9202]

​@comradecapybara This would require drastically more active material or larger volume. Neither is an option given environmental considerations.

[@ololh4xx]

@@comradecapybara they ... wont.

[@FGGiskard]

1st generation, also consumer goods probably not the target here but things that cannot be recharged easily

[@terryrogers6232]

it's not so niche. A small 3V nuclear battery would be ideal for the back up real time clock that is needed in a great many devices, especially industrial. Industrial products may need to be produced in volumes that would be used over several years or restored for years for economy during which it is convenient if the real time clock operates. If it's approved for US sale, I will definitely be looking at it for use in an industrial product. I can easily think that military grade products would need it also.

[@MonkeyJedi99]

Fun thing about electrical sources (like DC batteries), they can be connected in series to increase voltage, and connected in parallel to increase current.

[@tonyug113]

and vital to keep those killer robots running

[@lo2740]

in RTC LiSCL2 batteries are used, and they last for two decades, which is usually enough.

[@LaserFur]

I know a product that uses a rechargeable for the RTC, but it's hard to find a rechargeable that has a low self discharge.

[@daveh7720]

This is what I was thinking. Anyone who's ever had the CMOS battery on their PC motherboard die and found they were no longer manufactured would appreciate one that lasts longer than 10 years.

[@m.e.8273]

Many years ago I was given a couple small glass tubes filled with tritium that were coated with phosphorous on the inside. The guy told me they probably were used to illuminate the hands of measurement dials in a military-related jet or aeroplane. I figured it was a fun project to try to see if it was feasible to use the energy they produced as light to power something like a quartz watch. I got a couple of photodiodes with a really large surface area that were optimized for the specific wavelength they radiated, took the largest mould I could find for casting your own lead fishing weights, and painted the inside of the mould with titanium white paint with the hope of bumping up the efficiency a bit so little light would be absorbed by the casing. In the end, whilst it didn't work as well as I hoped, it did produce power in the order of tens of nanowatts. Later on, since the half-life of tritium is about 12 years and it would be a waste to get rid of those tubes (they're way more costly than I ever expected), I built a better case around it, added the electronics to spit out an analog voltage corresponding to the light intensity. A bit later after that, I managed to get a good measuring Eppley cell voltage standard, and I used the rate of decay of the tritium to compensate for the saturation of the Eppley cell for a calibration-lab-worthy level voltage standard that doesn't have to be characterized for a couple decades. These nuclear batteries are really exciting technology, and I really wish to get to hold one in my hands once in my lifetime. Nuclear energy is already a very beautiful concept by itself, let alone being able to have your own little generator right on your wrist to power a watch, or maybe one in your remote for the television, or one in your pocket calculator... How cool is that??? :-)

[@Internationalmanofmysteries]

The algorithm did extremely well this time! I'm glad that this video was offered for me since I'm highly interested in such topics. Instant sub!

[@12pentaborane]

Just a bit of history on military RTGs for Sabine: American and Soviets both used them for lighthouses and radio beacons. I think the US only had one in Alaska, while the Soviets littered the coastlines with them. There are a few stories of unfortunate scrappers finding them. Edit: lol, I guess the Americans had over 100 in Alaska and elsewhere. Thanks for the comments about removing them.

[@MrKotBonifacy]

Soviets weren't exactly famous for them being particularly fussy about nuclear and radiation safety... ;-)

[@georgelionon9050]

@@MrKotBonifacy Lake Karachay, you die when standing half an hour on the coastline.

[@MrKotBonifacy]

@@georgelionon9050 ...but should you go swimming you can beat it to a half-life of that... ;-)

[@lordgarion514]

Soviets weren't overly well known for giving much of a shit about the people's safety either. Not much has changed.

[@robo5013]

@@lordgarion514 That's what happens under a communist system, people are seen as renewable resources.

[@marsluna1]

Hello Sabine, you didn't mention (or I missed it) that radioactive decay batteries can't be throttled. That is, the battery will have the same lifetime whether you use its output or not. Beyond that, I love your channel and your mission to keep things real.

[@mattbland2380]

I guess you can connect to a capacitor or a small trickle charge battery to store energy for when it is needed in larger bursts, kind of like a reservoir.

[@RS-ls7mm]

She also didn't mention that radioactive materials are highly regulated and not available to the public. Lots of reasons including terrorism.

[@FZs1]

@@mattbland2380 You can, but at this level you probably would also have to take self-discharge into account.

[@RS-ls7mm]

@@retiredbore378 I was thinking of dirty bombs.

[@marsluna1]

Yes that would be beneficial in many use cases where average power needs are predictable long term but not short term@@mattbland2380

[@kmech3rd]

Can't wait to see Electroboom get his hands on one...

[@SabineHossenfelder]

😀😅

[@SocialDownclimber]

I think these batteries are a bit electroweak for him 🥁🎶

[@GreenJimll]

Or Big Clive. He'd probably manage to set fire to it in his "explosion containment pie dish"

[@hifinsword]

The idea of a nuclear decay happening on my wrist all day long kinda reminds me of the disaster that happened early last century with women licking their brushes in a radioactive paint used for watch face numbers. I would not buy a nuclear powered anything I had to be near all day.

[@binbashbuddy]

I don't understand why they're called batteries. They aren't energy storage devices, they use decay to create electricity, it would be more correct to call them generators wouldn't it?

[@dananorth895]

One of my dark fantasies since my teen yrs when I first found out about nuclear batteries in the 70's. Was as a way to get rid of nuclear waste by encasing it in two nested metal spheres, and burying it in a mountain as a 25,000 - 50,000 yr power supply. Say a communication hub/cental repository/library/data center. A half dozen or so of those distributed around the planet would ensure availability/survival of knowledge for some time.

[@NineInchTyrone]

Cool idea

[@ojoshiro]

Please. Once it's curtains, let it be curtains. Exit stage left. Go have a drink with the dinosaurs. BUT STAY OUT! I would prefer the next intelligent species, be it Terrestrial or extra-Terrestrial, does not find anything on a species with very big heads that called themself "Homo Sapiens" (but behaved like a shaved monkey) that kept on defaecating in its own bed.

[@paulgoogol2652]

considering how short lived electronic parts are... why not

[@KuK137]

@@paulgoogol2652 Electronic parts are short lived because 1% scum want you to buy new stuff every year so they engineer them to break and die. Engineer them to last and they will easily last centuries if not millennia, Voyager probes are still online for example...

[@nomms]

​@@paulgoogol2652Most electronic parts last a incredibly long time. Only parts I can think of that don't are batteries, old capacitors, and vacuum tubes. Most are solid state these days and last forever.

[@ololh4xx]

100 µW is enough to power a ultra-low-power microcontroller ... you can do calculations and (wired, low-resistance) signalling with that amount of power ...

[@edfx]

All those zigbee sensors last about a year on 150mAh 3v cell. Thats exactly 100uW

[@ololh4xx]

@@edfx i dont think you know how energy units work, how all of this is calculated nor even what uW means ... because your words refuse to make any sense. I am sorry. Its just .... use google.

[@edfx]

@@ololh4xx youre right, my math is wrong. I should have used google earlier. zigbee sensor lasts a year on CR2023 button cell which is 0.5Wh. Googling the average consumption "0.5 watt hours per year to microwatts" gives the answer 57uW. Still perfect for the application.

[@edfx]

​@@ololh4xxwww.google.com/search?q=(150*3)+milliwatt+hours+per+year+to+microwatts gives 51uW to be exact. 100uW was way off.

[@JKVisFX]

I really like this new shorter, single subject format for SH news. I allows you to dive a little deeper on a single subject yet still keeping the overall length shorter.

[@nysewerrat6577]

2:17 the second ad on the right 😂😂😂

[@villagerjj]

Gonna put one of these in my Pokemon blue cartridge, wont ever have to worry about the save dying

[@hyau512]

Thanks, you are the first reporter I've seen that bothered to quote the power output!

[@jeddaniels2283]

What we need Sabine. Is another 20 minute update on LFTRs and their new reactor counterparts!

[@hugegamer5988]

It has a power density about 1,000 times lower than the batteries for your phone. So unless you want to haul around a 100lb wheeled battery, it’s not going to replace anything anytime soon.

[@Validole]

It's gonna replace 3V lithium 2032 coin cells in sensor applications where those could last 10 years and then you need to dig/cut/demolish the place they're embedded to replace the battery. Strain gauges in the walls of skyscrapers or in the concrete of bridges, for example

[@Validole]

Or more likely, applications that currently use LiSOCl2 batteries.

[@thorin1045]

but if you do not need to haul the thing, you can just place and forget for the next fifty year.

[@K162KingPin]

So if your battery is only putting out 200 micro watts, and you need at least 10 watts to charge your phone. You just need to carry around 50,000 of these nuclear batteries lol. Seriously though, there are a lot of applications for small power sources which we use every day. Also it would be common to use even in larger current demand devices which are not needed often by using the nuclear battery as a trickle charger to keep a much larger battery topped off. Still 200 uw can easily power devices like wrist watches, remote controls, a huge variety of passive sensors, cameras which are not required to move, or provide light but simply record, hearing aids, the list goes on and on. The only question is how small can they make them, what geometries can they make them. How hard is it to change the voltage output from say 3v to 1.5, as many devices are already designed for these voltages. Also cutting the voltage in 1/2 doubles the current output. The total power remains the same, but then you don't lose power having to convert it. There are countless applications for such a battery even if they fall far short of powering our current cell phones.

[@jsc3417]

Many IoT devices have a sleep current of about 10uA. A 100uW with 3V gives you about 33uA. Put two of these batteries in series, it will keep an IoT device on idle for more than the life oth device itself. At the same time, use solar power to charge up a super cap for burst current need.

[@chicojcf]

Sabine, in part you say ". . . half-life of that company". Brilliant!

[@Thomas-gk42]

😂yes

[@Pure_Science_and_Technology]

Put them in series to increase the voltage.

[@cravenmoore7778]

Sabine, excellent topic. Although vaguely familiar with this, I appreciate you taking the time on this topic. Good visual contrast. Excellent show as usual 👏 ❤

[@cravenmoore7778]

Please take care of yourself 😘

[@richard84738]

Sabine's formula: give around 3-5 sentences of real news/analysis, then 1 sentence of snark; repeat until end of video. AND I LOVE IT. Edit: I've now unsubscribed from Sabine. After being a fan for awhile, I'm noticing her anti-religion comments have grown. I don't have time for hate like that in my feed, even if it's "snark". I'm sorry to say, this science communicator just turned off a fan who found her topics super interesting. Luckily there are others out there who don't feel the need to belittle others.

[@Corteum]

What place does snark have in science? It's unnecessary. Just stick to the facts, that's enough.

[@Dragoon710]

@@Corteum You dont need to let everyone else know you're fucking lame you can just keep that to yourself

[@sensuella]

simp

[@chesshooligan1282]

"Would you like a nuclear battery with your salmon"? That must be the famous German humour.

[@tacitozetticci9308]

@Corteum it helps you reach the end of the video as a viewer. If said video happens to contain lots of good science, snark is now great for scientific knowledge proliferation. Snark helps science.

[@jasoncthomas]

Great video. What if you had both types of batteries in a device? A lithium cell for main power and then one of these nuke batteries to slowly recharge it. This could be good for devices that need intermittent power, like a GPS locator for instance. It could charge for 30 minutes and then wake up and burst data and then go back to charge mode.

[@Chrille354]

🧐

[@fabianfeilcke7220]

Probably should use a capacitor for that

[@commandvideo]

Yeah we can use it to slowely recharge our phone during night .

[@112Famine]

The only things I can think of that would use such a low powered battery would be house alarm sensors, as in door & window open/close switches, movement & breaking glass sensors.

[@EverydayRoadster]

If you look for those in regular household appliances, you would also find them in regular waste pretty soon as well.

[@kaasmeester5903]

There are already some regular lithium batteries on the market that last 10 years or better in low power applications. My smoke detectors are supposed to last 10 years on a single battery (6 years now and still going strong). There's a 10-year lithium battery in my AED that is capable of providing a hell of a lot of juice when needed, and its replacement battery has a 20 year shelf life.

[@apostolakisl]

I was thinking the same thing. Lots of different sensors that currently use coin cells and require annoying battery change maintenance. And then there is a good chance that you fail to replace the battery and then miss some event that the sensor was supposed to warn you about it costs you a bunch of money.

[@WarrenKLiu]

Or keeping cmos alive on electronics

[@plvmbvm513]

I was thinking that if this could be paired with more traditional rechargeable batteries or something along those lines, then you could get around the issue of low power output and just consider the nuclear battery as a way to charge without an outlet. I'm sure that my reading tablet sits unused in my bag for long enough between uses that I could handle a smaller traditional battery for the trade of never needing to plug it in 🤔 Still limited in application but im sure this reasoning could extend to other devices that only get intermittent use

[@MichaelRBaron]

This was my thought exactly. It's base load. I have a pixel 7. Battery capacity is around 16.227 watt hours. It's rare I need to recharge it more than once per day. That means .676 watts per hour are consumed. Accounting for charging losses, .85 watts per hour would keep it perpetually charged. Maybe that's not feasible to carry around, but acceptable for a base station.

[@absalomdraconis]

With a 50 year lifespan, you'd probably want a non-electrolytic capacitor instead, perhaps with that charging something else itself. I know of at least Edison cells lasting for close to a century, but that's with maintenance, so some non-battery energy storage mechanism is probably best for pairing with this technology.

[@MrAranton]

@@MichaelRBaron The Watt is defined as "work over time". "Watts per hour" would be "work over time²" which would denote how much power out increases or decreases over time. If you put nuclear batteries into a base station that isn't meant to be carried around, you might as well use a wall plug. On top of that: Charging your phone from empty to full at stationary base station that provides 0.85 W would take almost 20h. I don't think a phone that needs to be plugged to a non-portable device for twenty hours is exactly mobile. For the consideration "with an avarage consumption of 0.676W charging with 0.85 W would keep the battery perpetually charged", the nuclear battery needs to be constantly connected to your phone. However that does not take into account that Li-Ion batteries don't like being kept at level. They lose capacity quite rapidly if they are constantly being topped off. And the smaller the capacity of your conventional battery the less effective the "avaraging out is". What's the point of having a nuclear battery if your conventional battery is empty after a 15 minute call that can't be sustained on the power provided by the nuclear battery alone? Sure, you can counter this, with a battery management system that allows the battery to drain to a certain degree - but then you might find that your battery's nearly empty when you want to use your phone. And when you're phone's full, the nuclear battery cannot be turned off. It will still generate power that needs to go somewhere. Odds are it's going to be bled off in the form of heat and having a heater in your phone when you're outside on hot and sunny summer day is not that good an idea. Besides: putting a battery that's supposed to provide for 50 years into a device that's going be obsolete and is will to be replaced after a fraction of that time doesn't make sense.

[@dominus6695]

@@MrAranton no you don't need to consume the excess power. Just like you can put a solar cell in the sun and not use any current...

[@MrAranton]

@@dominus6695 What I said was "the power needs to go somewhere", not "it needs to be consumed". The point being: If you don't use the excess power, you still need to deal with it. You brought up solar cells. Let's talk about them then: If you put a solar cell into the sun without a load, it will heat up significantly more than it would with a load attached. Essently because the power it generates is converted into heat instead of current. Even if the cell doesn't overheat to the point of immediate destruction the semi-conductor materials that absorb the sunlight degrade at an accellerated rate if the current they generate has nowhere to go. That means their efficiency suffers and if you regularly expose disconnected solar-panels to the sun, you'll need to replace them more frequently. So while you can put a solar cell into the sun and not use the current, it's not a smart thing to do. That's what dealing with excess power is about: Find a way to get rid of it that doesn't cause damage.

[@Lucius_Chiaraviglio]

I have my doubts about how long these batteries will actually last. Not because of the radioactive decay half-life, but because of the radiation damaging the semiconductors of alphavoltaic/betavoltaic/gammavoltaic cells, eventually causing the flow of electricity to short-circuit and rendering the battery useless. To a lesser extent, radiation damage is a problem even for radioisotope thermal generators, and is usually the limiting factor on how long they last, rather than decay of the radioisotope.

[@Alexagrigorieff]

Low energy beta rays (electrons) don't cause crystal lattice damage, unlike neutrons or alpha particles (helium nuclei)

[@Rob2]

@@Alexagrigorieff Still, when you read about a 28000 year lifetime you know it has been written by a salesman, not an engineer.

[@Lucius_Chiaraviglio]

@@Alexagrigorieff That would have to be quite low energy, which would make the power to weight ratio not very good. And add my vote to what Rob2 says above about being wary of stuff written by Sales.

[@Thomas-gk42]

​@@Alexagrigorieffentirely correct

[@Deftleigh_Daft]

How am I supposed to stay on the toilet for 28,000 years?

[@Ramkumar-uj9fo]

Seriously, you can make a battery from the nuclear waste. I thought they put it in a thick cement shell and buried it in the sea.

[@SpudHead42]

I think combining it with a rechargeable battery or super capacitor to make a self charging battery would be useful. An emergency flashlight that’s always charged would be great. Even if it takes a month or more to charge. Or making it the size of a car battery or larger but capable of charging a phone or iPad would also be great for off grid power or disasters. I keep a ton of books on my iPad for first aid and survival because I live in Japan where there’s constant earthquakes. I think the main problems would be that they wouldn’t want joe public having a few Kg of radioactive material.

[@absalomdraconis]

Super caps aren't a great choice because they apparently have a fairly high self-discharge rate. I'd say that batteries are too short-lived (usually won't reach 50 years while functioning), but your slow-charge flashlight is a good enough idea that I think it would be justifiable anyways.

[@Termini_Man]

Super caps have a low energy density, but they have a VERY high power density. Because of this, they are often used as a power supply for things that need a very small electrical reservoir that doesn't need to last long, or for smoothing voltages. A normal lithium polymer would probably work better for something like you were suggesting.

[@assepa]

Funny how the Chinese use the Radioactive emblem as marketing. In the western world people would freak out by just seeing that logo.

[@dantronics1682]

It just shows how programming works

[@JoeCensored]

I'm wondering if an external battery pack which doesn't have the same size constraints of a phone would be viable. You can probably get up to a few watts with a large enough number of cells and still be portable.

[@Nonononono_Ohno]

For 10 W, you only need 100,000 of these nuclear cells. Single cell size = 15 x 15 x 5mm = 1,125 mm^3. So 100,000 cells, that's a cube with a side length of ~48 cm. Include glue to stick everything together, plus a few wires, and you can probably manage to build a cubical 10 W battery with a side length of less than 2 meters. Not sure how much that will weigh, though. You might need a crane to lift it.

[@ATom-jm2jw]

@@Nonononono_Ohno I believe it scales non-linearly. I hope to see powerbank with infinite energy instead of current "power your powerbank so it could power something else later" bullshit

[@Nonononono_Ohno]

@@ATom-jm2jw Not sure what you want to power. In the region of about 10 W electrical power, you will need a considerable mass of the respective radionuclide. This would not only make such batteries very expensive, but enormously unsafe to use in everyday life - even *if* you could manage to get them into backpack size. There's a reason why since the invention of radioisotope batteries in the early 20th century, still (almost) noone is running around with these things. Even these much much tinier batteries from the video give me the creeps, especially when considering that they come from the land of burning electric cars and water-fuelled rockets.

[@aberroa1955]

@@Nonononono_Ohno Also, ensure that you're not near the critical mass density with your cube, or the assembly could end up, well... brightly.

[@Nonononono_Ohno]

@@aberroa1955 Good point, but fortunately physics prevents this. The "betavolt bv100" cells contain nickel-63, which converts into copper-63 by beta minus decay. In this process, only fast electrons and antineutrinos are being created, but no neutrons, which would be necessary for induced fission and chain reactions. Copper-63 is a stable isotope, so no secondary reactions can take place either. Thus, there's no such thing like a critical mass for nickel-63.

[@williambaikie5739]

Problem with Carbon 14 is you need a lot of it to generate enough Wattage to be comparable to chemical batteries. Therefore a C-14 beta-voltaic is not really hand portable. "So what" I say. Imagine having a concrete cast buried in your backyard which gives your house 400 Watts of continuous electricity for several decades, and then only needing it's betavoltaic cells replaced during servicing while the C-14, circuitry, insulation and concrete lasting over a century more. 28,000 more years in the case of the C-14.

[@robinireland810]

Quality presentation. Went down well with this morning’s porridge (which is also a great source of unlimited power).

[@europaeuropa3673]

Interesting subject. While working on my MS thesis in the 70's, I used a thermoelectric generator in reverse by passing several amps through the thermoelectric generator using a square waveform. This produced an almost sinusoidal temperature profile on the plate of the thermoelectric generator. Mounted on the plate of the thermoelectric generator was a pyroelectric detector. My objective was to measure the responsivity of the pyroelectric detector. Pyroelectric detectors were being made by a PHD student for his dissertation funded by the Air Force.

[@MR-backup]

My question is if seebeck potential difference (voltage) generation is good enough to work with a radioisotope heat source, why can't it work for the gagillions of other heat sources we have on this planet?

[@absalomdraconis]

​@@MR-backup : It _can_ work with those, we just consider the results inferior. In essence, with thermo electrics you want the thermal insulation between hot and cold to be high, but the materials largely don't cooperate with that, so if you can get enough total heat then e.g. a more conventional generators will work better. _HOWEVER,_ even if you can't get enough heat to run a conventional generator (e.g. direct-connection turbine, steam engine, or even a Sterling engine), you _can_ still get a thermocouple system to work, which allows very small scale heat gradients to be used.

[@echelonrank3927]

sounds like thermal cameras before 1970s were a no.

[@echelonrank3927]

@@MR-backup it can, but the efficiency and amount of generated power is very small. i built an experimental generator unit which runs on 3 candles, about 200W total heat. i obtained a peak of around 0.3 - 0.35 W of electrical power out, which was enough to power only one very small 3 volt lightbulb. it was the worst performing thing i ever built in my life . i read somewhere about a russian generator that could power a radio from a kerosene lamp as a kid, i never realized it meant a very small radio. i imagined subwoofers and everything.

[@europaeuropa3673]

@@echelonrank3927 not accurate, kind of crude.

[@PrincipalAudio]

I remember when I was a kid and went to a nuclear power station, I was thinking _"Why do we convert nuclear to heat to run steam turbines that then produce electricity? Why not just go directly from nuclear to electricity and cut out the efficiency losses?"_ Of course, as a kid I had no idea how it would be designed, and also didn't realise all of the issues with making high power density nuclear-electricity batteries. I was a kid, after all! Thanks for the vid Sabine. I hope it becomes a useful technology one day, and I hope the human race becomes responsible enough to use it widespread.

[@SocialDownclimber]

I hope so too, but we have a long long way to go. It would help if we put more money into social sciences - the sciences that actually research responsibility.

[@jRoy7]

We'll see if it ever comes to market, but Helion's approach is to go directly from fusion to electricity, skipping the steam step.

[@crono331]

The old "diamond battery" scam. These "batteries" exist since some time but produce tiny amounts of energy. Eevblog did a video about it if i remember well. Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators are also old school. Problem: almost nobody produces Pu238 anymore.

[@hugegamer5988]

They aren’t a scam if you need micro power for a junction or want an everlasting battery to keep your ram energized.

[@crono331]

@@hugegamer5988 doubt that power would be enough to power any ram. probably enough for some RTC clock but not much more. RAM (DRAM) is power hungry. it is a scam because plenty news articles saying that it will power mobilephones in the future. why not electric cars. also good for clickbait.

[@crono331]

@@hugegamer5988 i remembered correctly. it is a scam www.sec.gov/files/litigation/complaints/2023/comp25829.pdf their website is still on. go check and tell me if thats not a scam.

[@monnoo8221]

that was indeed a brilliant swoope of logics

[@ShonMardani]

Gamma is "گرما garmma" which means "Heat", it is not a unknown radiation, the only way to convert heat to electricity is Thermocouple: When two dissimilar metals are put into contact with each other, a small voltage in the millivolt range is generated. This junction emf is temperature dependent and can be used as a thermometer. If a loop is made from two lengths of wire of dissimilar metals, and the two junctions placed at different temperatures, a small current will flow around the wire loop. A practical thermometer can be constructed by putting one junction at a standard temperature, say an ice bath, and the other at the temperature to be measured. Iron is often one of the materials used, and a common material with which to pair it is constantan. This combination gives a voltage on the order of 5 millivolts when one junction is at 0 C and the other is at 100 C. (from hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu edu)Remember that in space or on the earth it takes more energy to maintain the temperature spread required for the current.So all the claims made here are false, not only one mentioned by Sabine.

[@WalkOverHotCoal]

Interesting video. That battery is promising for everyday appliances such as watches and mobile phones. But one fact we ought to be aware is that people don't discard their flashy gadgets because of the battery has gone, but rather because they wanted a new one, sucked in by nifty advertising. So the nuclear power battery probably is destined for scientific purposes rather than on the wrist of people who appreciate bling rather than practicality.

[@jebise1126]

pacemakers already run on nuclear batteries

[@hugolindum7728]

That would be insane. They Lithium iodine batteries.

[@AB-Prince]

there's a device often referred to as the Dallas clock chip. it's an RTC chip that was mainly used on older motherboards,. and it had an integrated battery. I could see a similar technology making a comeback with these new nuclear batteries, as you only really need a small amount of power to keep the time. no more will there be a need for a cr2032 on motherboards.

[@guytech7310]

No, do to disposal issues. You cannot throw them in the trash. They need to be sent to a radioactive waste site. Current nuclear batteries require special licensing & regulations to follow & are only available for commerical use.

[@tristan7216]

Nobody keeps a mobo for 50 years... Well, industrial machines do, but that is increasingly running afoul of cyber security unfortunately. There's a real problem with orphan equipment with outdated computers running things like Windows XP, works until there's a cyber attack. It's only going to get worse with crypto locking of equipment and the SaaS business model, where a vendor going out of business or changing direction means you can't use that expensive industrial machine any more because they shut off the cloud servers.

[@Rob2]

a CR2032 costs less than a dollar or euro, and over the typical lifetime of a computer it usually does not have to be replaced, sometimes 1 time, let's say 2 times in extreme cases. So unless these nuclear batteries are very cheap and very safe (so they can be disposed of similar to lithium cells) there really is no business case for computers.

[@absalomdraconis]

In addition to what everyone else has pointed out, you can still get new-built Dallas Semi clock chips. The part number is different, but they _are_ compatible, and their batteries are fresh.

[@juimymary9951]

Interesting... I wonder what the potential applications could be

[@danparish1344]

A Sega GameGear that is playable with battery power alone

[@HarryNicNicholas]

well, those AI robots won't want to just keel over...

[@metalcake2288]

Probably devices that you cannot access frequently. Maybe even grid storage.

[@RS-ls7mm]

Radioactive materials will never be made available to the public. Its all highly regulated for many reasons.

[@davemarm]

haha potential. I see what you did there.

[@pranavid]

I came across this news and was skeptical. Thank you providing more information. Edit: The power is very small. 0.1 milliwatt.

[@SabineHossenfelder]

That's micro, not milli.

[@ThubanDraconis]

You would need 10,000 of them to get a watt of power. That makes them useful for things like pacemakers but useless for things like powering cell phones... and a vehicle powered by them probably couldn't even move the weight of the battery.

[@pranavid]

@@SabineHossenfelder Ugh... sorry. Need coffee. Thank you for the correction.

[@brothermine2292]

Since 0.1 milliwatt equals 100 microwatts (shown at 6:18), your comment has it right, and the "correction" is wrong.

[@repit5014]

​@@brothermine2292they edited their comment

[@CoolDudeClem]

EEVblog debunked this.

[@wifegrant]

I love being able to spot the CCP shill propaganda channels. Luckily, I unsubscribed a while back. Because this fraud could not tell the difference between a male and a female.

[@giovannilaforgia-bruner7760]

I'm an American who works in the STEM space. What a joy to find your channel! Its so rare that EU scientist get recommended to me via the algorithm. Happily a new sub!

[@p4p3rm4t3]

Isaac Asimov predicted these in the Foundation series.

[@heroicnonsense]

Let's hope some of the other facets of Foundation don't come true then ;)

[@prentrupathome5319]

The problem, surely, is what happens to them at the end of use. This will be governed not by obsolescence of the battery, but of the device or its function - and that is usually short. There are good statistics about what proportion of batteries are irresponsibly disposed of, so you might as well visualise that lot going straight into landfill, furnaces, and the sea. Not nice.

[@KuK137]

Fun fact - coal and oil power plants produce 50 to 100 chernobyls each year thanks to radioactive elements in coal and oil (minuscule amounts but we burn millions of tons so it adds up). The fossil fuel lobby and imbecile "renewable" greens hiding how safe alternative to their crap nuclear power is just do everything to bury this inconvenient parts. Compared to this, a handful of low radioactive contained nuclear cells are so tiny problem it's not even worth mentioning...

[@osdias]

Precisely. The risk of it being mishandled is what makes portable radioactive technology unviable.

[@abstuli]

Polonium 208, 209 and 210 are used in nuclear batteries. Therefore, nuclear batteries will never become available to the general public. Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned by Polonium 210 and the lethal dose is 1 millionth of a gram or 250,000 times more lethal than hydrogen cyanide.

[@SocialDownclimber]

We already have extremely high rates of recycling hazardous batteries in cars. The small size of these will pose significant extra problems though.

[@johnhudson9167]

And obsolescence of the people who create/use them.

[@op4000exe]

I imagine it might be used for things like smoke detectors. Having one of those that doesn't need a new battery would make them a lot more prevalent, also they oftentimes already contain radioactive elements in them, so adding a bit more isn't really a problem. And if the house is burning down, small doses of ionizing raditation, is the least of your troubles. Edit: Brain went dumb, and I wrote something that made no sense: "small dose of radiation that isn't ionizing" and replaced it with "small doses of ionizing radiation" Edit 2: A lot of people are pointing out, that these batteries wouldn't be able to run a smoke detector, and that smoke detectors "only" have a 10 year lifespan anyway, so current battery technology is sufficient for ones that only need changing when the detector itself is obsolete. Tldr: my idea doesn't work.

[@edwardlulofs444]

@@johnnysilverhand1733that would be neutron or gamma Where the radiation doesn’t have a charge.

[@12pentaborane]

​@@edwardlulofs444 in this case it's beta. Basically really fast electrons which are definitely ionizing, just not penetrating.

[@Zheeraffa1]

@@edwardlulofs444 Radiation is called ionizing when it's able to ionize the medium, not when when it is ionic itself.

[@samuelbucher5189]

​@@johnnysilverhand1733Good luck explaining that to the average consumer.

[@ghosthunter0950]

@@Zheeraffa1 I can only imagine how Sabine is facepalming at these comments lmao.

[@TheArseen]

4:03 not totally. Communication was restored half an year later for an year.

[@PeterMilanovski]

Nuclear energy and environmentally friendly are two things that should never be said together in one sentence! But you did, naughty naughty girl.....

[@crawkn]

Sabine I hope you have a friend in the biophysics biz who can extend lifespans to 20,000 years so we can all watch all of your videos, once they work out nuclear batteries for cellphones. Of course by then, "cellphones" will refer to implanted phones grown in a biolab.

[@RonTodd-gb1eo]

Won’t need implants. By then the whole planet will be saturated with tiny but powerful computers. Say who you want to talk to and the appropriate combination of computers will connect you.

[@BlackHoleForge]

That'd be really awesome to put some of those in the spacecrafts and satellites. Couple those with a capacitor, an intermittent communication, it might work.

[@absalomdraconis]

Or even just pair them with solar cells. A number of satellites have failed purely because their batteries failed while still on the launch pad.

[@ayaderg]

they've been doing that for decades, it's a very smart idea for any craft that expects to spend significant time further out from the sun, or on the dark side of a planet.

[@BlackHoleForge]

@@ayaderg but aren't the nuclear power cells for those craft also meant to produce heat to keep the spacecraft at operating temperatures. This would be more like a supplemental power supply, like an emergency backup.

[@milannesic5718]

My pipe dream is that every device in the house has a battery that will last as long as that device lasts. Or one year at least. That way there would be no wires or installation, and no dependencies of outside networks, that could go wrong anytime, or could be turned off. Total freedom

[@ghosthunter0950]

Don't get your hopes up for general computers and phones. those always require a lot of power.

[@FurtiveSkeptical]

A whole year huh? I'd rather work towards eliminating planned obsolescence and disposable consumerism frankly.

[@dazley8021]

With how amazingly bad right to repair is supported, i wouldnt be surprised if devices wont outlast their non-nuclear, irreplaceable batteries in a few years. The only problem i see with household nuclear batteries is the logistics involved in disposing depleted or broken stuff. People treat electronics so responsibly (not), surely putting radioactively decaying stuff in those will make it better!

[@juanpacillas9855]

According to Mr N Tesla, electricity is free and it's just another sub product from planet earth.. that's the problem today with the Democratic establishment governments WORLDWIDE that they are enforcing extremely high prices for electricity being used by citizens around the world.. 😅

[@jwc4520]

About 15 years ago a company was giving away little ceramic pill which contained tiny bits of radio active waste.

[@TravisCotter]

Sabine this is some electrifying stuff. Mr. X

[@rickkearn7100]

Sabine is my go-to for science truth and accuracy. She's a veritable "science snopes". Cheers.

[@TonyRule]

That's offensive to Sabine to be compared to 'snopes'.

[@digitalchris6681]

So I'd need 30 million of these to power my electric fan heater. And 3 billion for my electric car.......

[@argoneum]

One million for me, and I'm good 😁

[@jfverboom7973]

They are cost prohibitive at these numbers.

[@digitalchris6681]

@@jfverboom7973 ... and my electric car would be the size of a small town...

[@Darkmatter321]

A similar battery was in the Voyager. But no one had made a small enough battery to be able to produce it commercially. Kudos to China for their innovations. They seem to be at the forefront of all good technologies at the moment. Truly exciting times ahead!

[@danielleriley2796]

Mistake. She mentions thousands of years of battery life before needing to recharge. They can’t be recharged. The battery is literally destroyed, broken apart at the particle level not a chemical level which just requires rearranging the electrons again. To ‘recharge’ a nuclear battery would require a nuclear reactor that has a step in its reaction chain the reverses the nuclear decay, adding energy and splitting the constituent atoms apart at the particle level and making them rebuild as the original unstable atoms…. Yeah nope doesn’t work that way. A supernova of our sun to make a cold gas cloud that makes proto stars that gets a planetary disk that runs a ten million year collision cycle trying to make planets and if that doesn’t fail AND the proto star doesn’t fail and pushes through to full star status then you give it another 4-6 billion years then that new life gives a fuck about electricity and makes a nuclear battery then by all means consider it recharged.

[@MikkoRantalainen]

Even 100 µA would be interesting because you can literally take full power at all times. Use it to charge a 3V supercapacitor and run more power hungry parts in short bursts. Of course, that's not good for smartphones that you use for hours per day but could be enough for taking a phone once an hour for hundreds of years.

[@Pilot_engineer_19]

How much does it cost and can everyone buy one? I seem to remember that there was a portable nuclear power plant for submarines in the 1950s. It was known as SNAP. You need at least 1-6 volts at about 1-5 anps

[@SabineHossenfelder]

As so often with Chinese news, there's very little information to go by. But typically these batteries are sold to scientific institutions or research labs and I doubt they're cheap.

[@TheWatcher408]

@Pilot_engineer_19 imagine the tariffs associated with it ?

[@svenjohannes8017]

Several thousand €/$ and you will have to show legitimate usage.

[@Pilot_engineer_19]

I don't know. The one that I mentioned in the 1950s was about a 1kw and weighted about 60 lbs. I thought it might have been thermocouple type but the information now days that they don't have the efficiency. As far as imports from China you know you can buy 50 or 60 cmos ics for about $10. So if they wanted to price would not be an obstacle. ​@@SabineHossenfelder

[@MrWildbill]

All of our military subs are nuke powered but the only thing "portable" about them is that they are in huge submarines and of course the sub is portable.

[@netdragon256]

Solar/photovoltaic cells don't necessarily use radioactive nickel. I did one in a class lab in a clean room using a silicon wafer + standard lithography ('90s equipment) and doping the same way you could create a bunch of micro scale diodes or transistors 😀 It worked well, however it was not commercial efficiency by today's standards. It also involved etching with an HF bath, which is probably a lot more dangerous than radioactive nickel 😕

[@spvillano]

What is the beta energy for nickel-63? The search engines are clogged with blurbs on the vaporware battery. Of course, the Chinese won't worry about the HF bath... The smog is far more toxic there anyway.

[@absalomdraconis]

​@@spvillano : The Chinese will worry about the HF bath, because otherwise production will be at constant risk of collapse due to sudden staffing shortages.

[@spvillano]

@@absalomdraconis that was more in reference to a couple of decades back, the PRC had some problems with solar cell plants discharge of pollutants, some containing HF.

[@Vaeldarg]

@@spvillano "couple of decades back" To this day, they're still trying and failing to hide the thick smog in their cities in their propaganda, actually. There's been clouds with weird colorings shown on their social media in the past year, much less decade. (tends to get scrubbed instead of their air, of course)

[@Termini_Man]

@@spvillano Have you tried Google Scholar?

[@interstellarsurfer]

Finally, a power source capable of running our pocket calculators.

[@zdspider6778]

In the dark, you mean. Because they've had mini solar panels since the late 70's. Like the Royal Solar 1, the Sharp EL-8026 Sunman, and the Teal Photon. As long as you had light, you could do math.

[@airgunningyup]

smoke detectors, remotes for the tv, radio stuff , any type of sensor on industrial machines, avionics in hobby planes, watches, etc. Making one with a higher discharge rate for phones would be a game changer for those addicted to social media

[@gebruikerarjan]

Lets go back to the 80s with mobile phones that just fit in your backpack!

[@greggwilliamson]

The Doctors told me that my pacemaker would be good for 12 years. The next words out of my mouth were, "why in hell do I have to charge my phone every freaking day?!?"

[@DoubleM55]

Well, your pacemaker does not send radio waves at like 1000m+ distances, decode GPS signal from sattelites, doesn't have huge bright screen and power hungry processor running at multiple GHz frquency and is equivalent to 90's super computers in terms of processing power.

[@petevenuti7355]

. .Oh no, It says right on it, "do not dismantle" right on it, I guess that's going to be one of the next KZbin videos I'll see about it... someone dismantling...

[@bartsanders1553]

Good. Plainly Difficult is running out of material.

[@xpusostomos]

Spoiler alert... Nothing to see

[@prolarka]

There are many smart home IoT devices that require very low power.

[@cancerking9416]

I hope they do some research on if these batteries can have any side effect on people using them!

[@lomotil3370]

🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation: 00:00 ⚛️ *Chinese company plans mass production of tiny nuclear batteries lasting up to 50 years, potentially surpassing British and American competitors.* 01:23 🔋 *Nuclear batteries face limitations: While lasting a long time, they provide low power (nanoWatts or microwatts), not suitable as direct replacements for traditional batteries.* 02:46 🔄 *Two types of nuclear batteries: Radioisotope thermoelectric generators (heat-based) and direct semiconductors (alphavoltaic, betavoltaic, gammavoltaic), with the Chinese company using betavoltaic technology.* 05:34 🔋 *Betavolt's BV100 battery: Uses beta decay with Nickel-63 between diamond semiconductors, delivering 100 microwatts and 3 volts, resembling the size of a typical cell battery. It's considered a niche technology for low-power, long-lasting devices.* 06:54 💡 *Consumer market push for nuclear batteries: While not new, there's a renewed effort to bring nuclear batteries to consumers, with the Chinese company's BV100 being an example of this push.* Made with HARPA AI

[@johnholly7520]

Can I be your American husband?!

[@Lekwis]

LMAO

[@mattrocde]

She's a bit higher class than youtube comment dating I think

[@MetalheadAndNerd]

And she doesn't need a green card

[@kanal7523]

💀💀💀

[@HarryNicNicholas]

amazing what they are doing with AI these days, in a while you'll be able to 3D print a partner, at least i hope so.

[@nbaua3454]

Why no one is talking about the radiation.. Is there any concerns about it and other climate or environmental issues

[@99solutionsit10]

Very correct. What about a kid opening a couple of these batteries?

[@nbaua3454]

@@99solutionsit10 even worse china plans to blast them at once across several countries using mobiles controlled by satelite and create chaos around the world..😉😜

[@HR-rt9nh]

Just saw, first time viewer, subscribed, now going to see what other goodies Sabine has!

[@tosvus]

I would guess the faster the material decays, the more power it outputs, and since people swap their phones pretty often, it would be great with say 3 years before discarding or swapping. As a complete novice on this, I guess it would be hard to find a material that produces such a short half life though?

[@EdwardGatey]

Love your humour, Sabine! And your cutting edge commentary!

[@SergeiPetrov]

If you connect a 3V ionistor in parallel to this battery, you can power very serious devices that operate periodically.

[@davidtrautman6482]

Now our trash is going to become radioactive!

[@mikeshoults4155]

What if...... You have a hundred of these little nuclear batteries.....slowly charging a lithium battery...in an emergency when there are no other sources of electricity. Th nuclear battery doesn't "run out" like a gas tank. It just keeps going at its steady pace until the half-life is complete. That could be a long long time. Nice to have a reliable, albeit slow, source of backup energy.

[@robbieberlingieri3282]

I have heard from a very informative high source that these batteries have a huge cost and safety issues . These batteries cost thousands of dollars to make. They are costly and have been making theses claims for years .

[@a1productionllc]

Sabine, thank you for the bit of humor about watching all your videos. Have a good day.

[@tonysolar284]

I know the government would want a chip in cellphones that cannot be powered off.

[@seabastian7996]

we still got people online making videos of "what happend when" you pierce a LIPO battery flameing and exploding... you thing people are going to be smart enough not to open up one of these batteries even if it has a warning on it. like LIPO batters have now and people still crack them open and injure themselfs.

[@asherasator]

Beta decay as an electron power source has been known for over 100 years and thousands of patents have been developed. Battery sales and electrical monopoly in general has prevented simple devices from becoming the norm.

[@ragsdale9]

Nice, maybe we can slow the drain of a 3v battery or capacitor. Honestly this is great technology because just trying to grab electrons sounds more efficient than trying to catch all the different wavelengths of light.

[@nunyabidness117]

For phones it makes sense to have a low power nuclear battery attached to a buffering li-on battery that would be continuously recharged.

[@MeltWithU]

My question is, what happens if a house catches fire and there’s a bunch of these batteries located inside different devices that burn? Same thing goes for if they were to use these in cars, what happens if an action occurs and the batteries are compromised or catch on fire?

[@hereIam1965]

It could maybe be fitted into one of those fairly new power generators called a JACKERY . it is usually trickle charged . So possibly 4 batteries charging it continuously would provide adaquate 240v output amps / watts. Or 1 battery combined with solar panel. Another way is pick up and drop off the jackery . Same as calor / LPG butane system works.

[@rickhickman45]

Tritium is used in some watches, tritium tubes as glow markers.

[@garybigwolf5239]

People can't even dispose of regular batteries properly. What could possibly go wrong....