So in fallout the power armor says it's a 60,000 watt system. Running the math... That's 600 Million of these batteries. So sure you could have a mech suit. But it would have to be lugging around .. math ... 4,700 large suitcases. Seems doable. 😅
the insanely low power density of nuclear battery is kind of difficult to overcome. Unless you have some intermediate energy storage with high power throughput per kg, it's kind of hard to use them in mobile vehicle application. Perhaps pairing a nuclear battery (high gravimetric energy density but low power density) with an electrolyticapacitor (high gravimetric power density but low energy density) can get the best of both worlds without suffering defect from both side. nickel-63 density is about 8.9 g/cm3, so power density would be around 1 w/kg. A tesla model 3 cruising at 65 mph draw roughly 15kw with existing battery weight around 500 kg. So in a betavoltaic/capacitor paired system, assume 80% beta/20% capacitor battery mix proportion of the same weight would have 400w power. A typical 1 hours at that speed commute would require about 37 hours to let the battery "self-charge". Maybe it work if you only drive once every two days. In adjacent technology side, solar cell is about 40 w/kg, you might as well just buy bunch of solar cell and pull them out to charge your car when it's parking, as oppose to use nuclear battery, which has far work power density. Unless the nuclear battery power density doubles via using short half life isotope, it's probably not going to work compare to alternative technology.
This is also interesting because nuclear batteries cannot be turned off so the energy has to go somewhere. Good engineering can make this excess energy quite the benefit. To get higher voltage / current obviously, you arrange them in a useful way. Beta decay is trivial to mitigate, however should the battery packs be shredded, there needs to be a way to create a layer of insulation on demand to shield and insulate any exposed isotopes so that concentrations of decay are benign to rescue crew. Enough beta decay in short order can do damage to materials. Even then, it's still far safer than lithium ion which catches fire easily with traces of water and continues as long as there is lithium or moisture.
If this is the betavoltaic i'm thinking of, it was touted with a conversion factor of like 8% and ended up producing something along the lines of 0.1 milliwatt. As it stands, this is another solar roadways boondoggle but even worse.
The power density can't possibly be 1W/kg. According to Betavolt themselves, their cell measures around 15mm X 15mm X 5mm, I think that will likely weigh around 2.5g ~ 5g as it isn't fully made of Ni-63, it also contains carbon in form of the semiconductors, shieldings and other less dense stuff. It is supposed to output 100uW, or 1/10000W. Assuming 2.5g, then 1W is 2.5g * 10000 / 1000 = 25kg. I'm guessing, at best they can do 1W/25kg.
true, but there is an inovation here (if it works). RTG rely on he heat from the isotope to run a a strienling engine or (most commumn) to get electricity from thermo electric effect, wih requires a cold source, hence big heavy radiators. Using a more direct approche can save a lot of weigth on a satelite. 20 years from now, diamond based tech could make a big difference in probe capabilities (espacially in low light conditions)@@martyfight3834
@@martyfight3834 radio isotope generators currently used are huge compared to diamond batteries, obvious generating significantly more power than diamond batteries. Inefficient they may be but diamond batteries are more flexible in tuning the power to size/weight ratio
Statements from 4:30 to 5:30 are especially ridiculous and hype! Everybody here should dislike this video so this disinformation hype doesn't show up in anybodies feed.
@@LovSven2011any interaction is enough for the algorithm to suggest this video to other people. Dislikes will just cause it to be shown to people that react to rage bait and understand basic science.
Yeah youtubers have shown these batteries can produce much more energy from off the shelf parts. In a lab they should be able to generate multiple times more energy from this battery.
Besides, the fact of the shielding weight for any substantial output to remain at safe levels seems pretty questionable, especially in the field of avionics. Just slinging from the armchair here.
I love your videos but you've totally misunderstood the specs of the battery. At 1.56 you display 3.3 Watt hours per gram - this is the total energy produced over the entire lifetime of the battery. It does not equal 3.3 Watts per gram. This battery is many orders of magnitude less power dense than a lithium ion battery and could never be used to power a vehicle.
Yes, it may be less power dense in a matter of little time. But for a longer time it is way more dense since it will lasts for 50 years which in the end more energy dense than any battery in the world While lithium ion can store more energy each Cm³ or each Kg. But it won't last forever, you need to charge it every day Not even considering the degradation that happens on Li-ion. Average Li-ion live span is only 10 years. Which is already 20% decreasing on efficiency in a matter of 3 years. And in 10 years you'll be left with only 30-40% capability of storing energy While betavoltaic nuclear energy barely even degrades, and takes 50 years to make it unusable Which in the end is denser and way more better
@@avixs1543 maybe for phone. Especially if we have a very efficient 1nm Chipset, we can use this betavoltaic. Since it's as small as a coin. We can fit 8 betavoltaic in the phone, which is enough to power the phone
@@avixs1543 yea. That would be very good specially in an emergency situation It possible to have nuclear powered car but maybe not today. Since this betavoltaic isn't efficient enough, maybe in 10 or 20 years ahead we would have a better betavoltaic technology that can independently power the car
this could help people who need pacemaker on their bodies, by the way, given the fact their timespan is +50 years. And, considerating the average age of cardiac arrest's survivors as 40, that'll mean one surgery is needed for their entire lives.
There were actually nuclear powered pacemakers implanted into people back in the 70s. 139 people got a NUMEC NU-5 and those are still going (for the people still alive after all that time at least). Those were plutonium powered though, probably why it didn't take off that much
This is total bullcrap!!! Power Density: The 3.3Wh/g figure is total possible power output over 50 years, but the continuous power output is extremely low. According to Betavolt, the battery is 15mm X 15mm X 5mm or 1.125cm^3 and only outputs 100uW or 1/10000W. Assuming the battery weighs 2.5g, that means to achieve a 1W output, you need 25kg of this battery. For example, watching this video and writing this response, my chunky phone uses 5W. That means I will need 125kg worth of this battery for this simple task! Cost: You are correct to point out that Nickel-63 can only be manufactured in a nuclear reactor, as such 1g of Ni-63 costs around $4000USD!. Carbon-14, while it is a form of nuclear waste from reactor control rods and can be found in nature, is also extremely expensive at around thousands to tens of thousands per gram! Cooling: These betavoltaic cells can not be shut off or disconnected. They will run continuously, which means they also require constant cooling even if not in use. In fact, when assembled at scale, I'd wager the amount of heat generated by these cells will require more continuous power to cool than the power they can feasibly generate. Conclusion: Uness we can drastically increase output density by 500X~1000X, decrease cost of Ni-63 or C-14 by 500X~1000X and figure out a passive cooling solution that doesn't increase weight, these types of betavoltaic cells will never have any mainstream usage. It will only have niche applications and be the snake oil that draws in gullible and scientifically illiterate investors/news readers.
City Labs and a bunch of other American companies have been working on nuclear batteries for decades, it's strange how a China's nobody company got so much attention in the news.
While American labs have researched for years, China is the world leader in electric applications by far, and provide far more funding to their domestic research facilities than the US GOV will ever provide for US based research in these fields. American news don't tend to like talking about how China is funding more electric research than the US.
@@Real_MisterSir it has nothing to do with funding and research. The claims are bs. You've been able to buy these batteries for decades, so the technology is well understood, and there is no breakthrough happening.
Sorry but the calculation of 3,3wh/gram is very off. If 10 microwatts in 1cubic cm then we have a power output of 10watts per cubic metre or am I wrong here?
No this video is Very misleading. I think he is comparing power density over the entire 50 year of discharge to a single discharge of a lithium ion battery. Basically at 3v these only produce .0000333 amps. That's 4 zeros. To run a 6w cell phone you would need 36,000 of these batteries.. or 500 times the volume of an iPhone 14.... These are useless for anything that is intended to move or be mobile.
You're absolutely correct, 3.3Wh/g is the total energy produced over the entire lifetime of the battery. These can only be used for very low power applications where access is difficult eg satellites and pacemakers.
@@cubafish21 Yeah it was absolutely absurd to suggest these batteries could be used to indefinitely power automobiles or aircraft... I don't know how that makes it past even a rough first pass of fact/logic checking.
@@Kiromosyes I believe that is it. Over 50y that is not much output at all but as you said for low power applications it might be quite good. Also watches, remote controls etc. This is probably one of the „I make the ai do all the work“ channels.
@@SilkyWayFPVA remote control needs to be cheap, you'll never see a nuclear powered battery in that. And the very cheap, current batteries, last for years in a remote control, it makes no sense anyways.
NDB's arent "fake" so to speak, just their power output is very low. One of these things would have trouble powering a pocket calculator. Its not going to power a car, or a smartphone. Because of the low power output your applications ave very limited. While you can use multiple batteries to increase available power, that also increases the amount of heat that is created. In summary NDB's are great for the handful of niche applications where they can be used.
@@rubiconnn yea but it would be kinda big and loud. You would need to fly it pretty high because of buildings and trees. Drones could get into alleys and stuff like that
@@SubjectZeroScience if you get this You're welcome and If I may ask it be awesome if you could make a discord server I'd you don't have one it be awesome to talk with people like you on their if you could one day please that's my request it could bring a community together and could be great for your channel and such. I'm just saying, but I love to give video suggestions or ask questions.
I take huge issue with the claims of it being useful for things like EVs or really anything even remotely larger or energy demanding than a TV remote. As you said, beta voltaics aren't anything new, and their claimed capacities also look incredible, the issue is the energy capacity is has is all it will ever have. These aren't rechargeable batteries so while on the surface they look ten times as energy dense as normal batteries, in reality any rechargeable battery is far more useful. If I just recharge a normal battery 10 times I've already utilized it more than the beta voltaic can be in its entire lifespan. Plus that 50 years means that the energy it has must be released over the entire lifespan. While with a rechargeable batter we dream of the power of dumping the entire battery as fast as possible for more power, this one would only output barely a fraction the energy at any moment. It's fairly manipulative that people keep spreading this on beta voltaics as they're only effective for low power needs. The plutonium on the Mars rovers for example also lasts for 50 years, but it only outputs 110W of power. That's basically a single light bulb of power in a box the size of most car engines. Yes they last really long, but they don't make much power. I remember the last time the diamond batteries were paraded around 5 years back the company was advertising it at running 0.1W of power, yet they were talking about using it for smartphones. The battery alone would be twice the size of the phone just to generate enough power to run it.
I agree, Skylancer. To anyone listening to this video and nodding like "YEAH! Awesome!" I would say that statements at 4:30 - 5:30 are mostly preposterous and incorrect! IMHO, This battery could be used for some clocks (WITHOUT display or clock hands that move) if it can be a little bit bigger. Because the betavolt battery alone at cca. 1V, 1mA (1mW) is about 1 liter or cube of size 10 cm (4 inch). It's good for applications where it is important to be unattended for 10-50 years, be reliable and device does NOT need to be SMALL. Cars, airplanes and mobile phones (portable devices) is not a likely user of this battery. Pure misinformation!
@flubalubaful and if you believe that you clearly didn't read my main post. Yes you can make long lasting beta voltaic batteries, but the tradeoff is they're incredibly weak. The curiosity rover for example is the size of a car and can easily run 20 years off the plutonium they used, but it will only move at 0.086mph. That battery is also as large as most combustion engines so you can't really add more to make it stronger. Like I said, this field is full of misinformation. Yes it "could" power a car, but at speeds and torque levels that make it completely unusable. If it lasts longer, it means it also makes less instant power. That's why I said rechargeable batteries make more sense. Their shear energy density isn't nearly as high, but you can use all of it in minutes. In this design you have a ton of energy dispersed over years. Think of it like having the brightest flashlight ever that can light a stadium vs the longest lasting flashlight that barely does anything with a bulb you'd find on a keychain. Yes it will last forever, but would you really want that?
To back up why i think this video and these batteries are horrible lets do math. The bv100 has 100 microwatts at 3v. 1volt x 1amp = 1watt. So the bv 100 is 3v at .000033 amps. A phone might use 6 watts, take that down to 3v and thats 1.2 amps. So 1.2 divide by .000033 means you need 36000 batteries to run your phone. One battery is .0686 cu in times 36000 is 2471 cu inches. An iphone 14 is 5 cubic inches. Meaning to power your iphone with these batteries you need 500 more iphone sized batteries to supply the 6 watts. The power equation on this video is comparing the power over 50 years to one discharge of a lithium ion. Of course over 50 years the power density looks good. But for a phone you need all that power continuously. When you look at these battery's amp output then they are completely useless for anything that moves. No drone or plane can fly with the weight of these batteries. Heck i looked at it from a how many boxcars of these batteries would it take to run 1 electric train engine and its like 150 train cars of these to run the 1 engine... So they dont work for anything that moves. No consumer products would use these even if they were cheap.
Waste of time reading, everyone knows the limits , the fact a youtuber proved this technology and managed to generate even more electricity, albeit only triple the amount , in a shed in his back garden from off the shelf parts proves the plethora of negative comments are bots, or those convinced by bots. Most would probably have agreed cars should never be made and that horse draw carriages were much safer as humans would not be able to catch there breath over 32mph. Ignore naysayers and look at the development of a technology, do experiments or watch others do them. These batteries are much more capable than in this video.
The batteries do not provide 3w/g but rather 3milliwatts per gram. A battery roughly the size of a regular lithium cellphone battery would barely be able to run a wrist watch. These kinds of batteries have been in use for 60+ years and they're so weak that their only real useful application is providing emergency power for systems that have frangible memory. If those batteries were really outputting 3w/g of density they'd be so radioactive they'd be hot to the touch and require significant radiation shielding.
Something you've missed out on here is that small nuclear batteries have an even longer history than you've mentioned in the video. There are nuclear powered pacemakers dating back to the 1970's though those were plutonium based rather than the more modern nickel 63 based you're talking about in this video. It even led to some rather interesting cases where the pacemakers not only outlasted their patients, but outlasted the companies that were supposed to deal with them afterwards. While i can see these used in more regulated areas such as aviation, I would be more concerned about their use in cars with the general public having access to nuclear batteries and doing dumb shit with them. Whereas in aviation i would trust trained pilots, technicians and such to actually treat these things with care and not smash them open with a rock to see whats inside or jerry rig it to something really stupid
was there not already a nuclear pacemaker, which are no longer produced since they where risky as hell. i think the last person using one of them died somwhere around 2001.
I think this is just hypothetical best case scenario. In reality, what betavolt made has a very low energy density and the battery for a phone is way bigger than the phone itself. See how their battery can output 1 micro W so you need 1 million of those for 1 W. And the phone needs closer to 10 W actually.
Because we watch it and understand what he is saying does not make sense at all. To make a typical EV go 60 mph you would need at least 200 million of these batteries costing 100 billion dollars, and it would be over 8000 cubic feet, that is the size of a small house. He is talking science fiction. Pretty, but fiction.
It is expensive to make these batteries, hard and costly to repair, radiation concerns in case of accidents, and unsafe for the environment. These batteries are not suitable for mass adoption.
I have been talking about BetaVoltaics for years and I am so happy this finally is becoming a reality for mass markets... there are many other nuclear battery technologies.
No, they are not doing anything spectacular. Those can only work for very, very low power devices. You need 1 million of their batteries to output 1W, a phone needs about 10 times that. This is 1000% hype, 0% reality. We've had nuclear powered batteries in medical devices for decades.
Betavolt aims for 100 milliwatt output for their first battery. A Tesla Plaid uses ~ 750 kilowatt during a pull. So you would need about 7500000 cells. If a cell weigths a gram, thats 7,5 tons worth of batteries.
Well, it's hype marketing for old technology, after all: It's a betavoltaic battery with a radiation power (theoretical maximum power output) fresh from the factory 19.85 nW, yes that's 0.00000001985 W, you then have to subtract all losses and aging of the battery. Such batteries were used in the 1980s in commercial products: pacemakers, as they didn't need power, but just reliability. Such batteries are prohibitively expensive though, and they are already well beyond what would be allowed to be sold in many countries of an amount of Ni-63.
I’m not interested in a car battery, but I am interested in a laptop battery or portable power bank that can be used to power electronics when away from the grid.
Its not a dangerous idea, its a dead end. People have done nuclear batteries before, the reason why they always never take off, is because the power you get out of these things is so abysmally small, that it camt be used for anything
@@TheEvilmooseofdoom yup. One of the more recent attempts, the nuclear diamond battery which uses carbon 14, has a measly power output of one micro watt
I wouldn't say its a dead end. I can see these 'batteries' being used in some remote/hard to reach sensors, however many of the suggested applications are insane. Do these tech bros really think people I going pop some radioactive 'batteries' into their tv remote or have the heaviest earphones known to man.
Don't forget the massive safety advantage for aircraft of not hauling around massive quantities of flammable liquid. Aircraft accidents would be only a kinetic hazard, the flames and explosive risk is gone.
I think I want one in my phone that eats up five watts watching TH-cam, and nearly nothing with the screen off. Heck, maybe even two batteries - you'd still save weight, and still have space for a small battery to act as a buffer.
Though diamond filters are a little expensive to manufacture, it is a small battery that can last for a few thousand years, I believe the proposition for this battery was mentioned around 2019, and the process to manufacture it was a bit out of its time, at the time, our advancements in technology were not as advanced as we are now, it’s amazing how far the human race has advanced in the last 20 years
You seem to have misplaced a few orders of magnitude there. These things output in the hundreds of micro amps. You need thousands to power things we would consider to be very low power devices. A car? Not a chance, not ever.
Given the energy density it would be suitable for cars but the car would have to have sufficient crumple zones in case a crash comes from any side. It makes sense from an accident perspective since the car will be much lighter and nimble to control and avoid a crash. However these cars should have their own dedicated lane if they are road legal.
Please consider the cost of these batteries when talking about automotive and aerospace industry. If we at least get them in our phones, headphones and laptops at a reasonable price that would be more than enough.
I watched a TH-cam channel that does experiments make a rough nuclear battery using radioactive elements you can buy off the shelf. They managed to generateca lot more electricity in the same or similar size cell. This technology is possible and extremely safe but I honestly suspect is being prevented from development from the energy industry. Imagine having a car battery size nuclear battery that could produce enough energy to power everything in your home for 50 years. It might not produce enough to directly power bigger devices but that could be overcome by storing power produced in power banks. I.e if you could have a 5000kw battery charged by the nuclear battery 24/7 it would be able to power devices needing higher power for short periods of time. But where technology might make a big difference is making devices that consume less power, for example heat generators or fridges.
It would be nice to see it on commercial use like planes and stuff like that which is way harder to get in to a crash or have an normal citizen just trying to obtain them to test out howmuch he can harm.
Certainly an interesting challenge. This battery seems to act more like a photovoltaic RTG than an electrochemical cell. In my opinion, a few mm is still too long of a distance for inverse square to keep consumers safe. Enough keep their phones in their pockets or sleep with them that we really should have a cell which does not allow radiation past the cell walls beyond background. It would be interesting to see specific energy and capacity once safety concerns like that are considered. As well, a large concern with radioisotopes acting in smoke detectors is not that there is a radioactive source, but that some have ventured to take a number of them apart and do projects with the americium inside. My guess is that a reason the amount in each smoke detector is kept low so that the volume of devices one has to buy to do anything harmful will get noticed before anyone can do anything inappropriate. Something I'd like to see tried is miniaturization of these individual cells. Sure in this case we need massive lab grown diamonds, but continuous crystals the size of a cell are going to be extremely expensive and volatile. Perhaps the end goal is to see something like exists in Lithium Ion cells where at the microscopic scale, the reactive materials are actually beads surrounded by a graphite layer numerous enough to make a difference. Perhaps at a scale like that, we might be able to make this more cost effective. Tough to imagine connecting so many microscopic PV cells like that, however. Thanks for the awesome video and the interesting thought experiment. Excited to see where this goes.
These are only for super-low-power devices like sensors or pacemakers. They aren't going to be getting used for vehicles. Don't go misleading people as to their capabilities.
To be honest, money hunger would end it if it gets popular, after all, those who invest in normal accumulators and fossil fuels wouldn't want to lose money. Like what happened to Tesla's "free" electricity (passively generated electricity which would've been transported wirelessly even, though this idea never was tested) thanks to the afore mentioned people's lack of support
I think that you should look to power cars and stuff with HIGH power usage, this is mean to power phones that are never charged, low power laptops, watches and that kind of stuff, lights too
I really love these types of videos, the first wall video was *so good* and helped me picture everything way better than my textbook! I hope you can keep doing them, even if only at a pace that your resources allow. (ITER diverter, NIF, or ReBCO would be amazing) Though for this video specifically, if you look at the specific activity of Ni63 and the beta particle energy it only comes out to roughly 22.2 W/kg and much, much lower for C14. So the maximum power released is unfortunately not enough for large battery uses.
I would like to know about the scarcity of these isotopes? or is it more a matter of producing them from nickel and carbon? and if so is the production on a larger scale feasible?
❤❤❤ I'm going too say solid slate hydrogen battery, same type of battery but solid no liquid just add water and hydrogen is created for all combustion engine conversion
Could you do video about Carbon-14 ? How it compares in numbers with Nickel-63 and other potential materials for diamond battery. Idea of not fueling/charging my car is very intriguing 😂
The efficiency of nuclear batteries is terrible: First, it requires a horrible amount of energy to produce those radioactive materials with particle accelerators, and then in operation, they produce mainly heat and a little bit of electricity as a side product. With this Betavolt product that's in the microwatt range, neither matters much, but both become massive problems in applications with higher power demand such as cars and planes. That's why they will probably never happen. But a lot more important is the problem of damage to the battery after inappropriate disposal, for example if it is burned. This will release the radioactivity for sure. There's only one way to prevent that, which most developed nations use already: All radioactive material needs to be tracked at all times. Products with such batteries would probably come with the requirement to get an appropriate license and possibly insurance to find the battery if it is ever lost. This won't be economically feasible, except in some very niche cases like pace makers. So sorry, your video is way too optimistic, omitting several key problems of this technology.
I could see this working for large battery arrays for storing renewable energy. We already have ways to contain radiation, so storing these batteries in a containment building or underground is something we can easily do. Of course, it only worth it if its cheaper than fission reactors.
I think this video is not great, because usage is for small power need, but without ability to charge, for example space probes, monitoring device (placed in place without power, eg jungle to monitor animals), etc. 2nd is really important and is cost per Wh, because it will decide if is good alternative for current solution, what if it last as long as car, when it would cost $1million dollars? And radiation is even emitted by rocks, so question is how much of it, and how strong. And if it ionising one, because if it make things only warm it mean nothing. EDIT not cost per Wh, but per W, because they have too long discharge time to be worth talking.
I dont think this would work for automotive. Imagine you got home and turned your car "off" The Carbon or Nickel would still be going through Radioactive decay meaning technically the batteries are still being used. Same with an airplane or anything that uses it really. You cant truly turn it off unless you can stop the decay somehow
In all honesty, these aren't "batteries" as you don't charge them to store and then discharge energy -- they are generators consuming their fuel the same way gasoline generators consume their fuel. The nickle 63 has a 100 year half life, hence the 50+ year rating (3/4th remaining at that point). It is producing power at a reliably constant rate that decays with time, so the 50+ year rating again makes sense. It also kinda saddens me there is so much fear about radiation rather than understanding -- there is nothing scary about this. In fact, nickle 63 requires _no_ shielding what so ever. Why? The power output of each decay is on average 17 keV with a max of 66 keV. That means it has a maximum range of 5 cm in air, at which point there is no more radiation. In addition, it can only penetrate less than 100 um of skin (< 0.1 mm) if directly applied, which means it cannot make it through the dead layer of the epidermis even in the thinnest regions and poses zero health hazards to a human externally -- your skin is all the shielding you need. The toxicity of the heavy metal nickle itself will be higher if ingested than any radiation produced -- don't eat it, just like don't eat lithium batteries or gasoline or tide pods. Carbon-14 on the other hand can make it 22 cm through air, and get through 270 um of skin if directly applied, just enough that around 10% of the radioactivity can make it through the dead layer to living tissue in certain thin skin areas of the human body, so shielding is needed in quantities above millicurie amounts -- but even thin plastic would provide that shielding. These nuclear generators (again, they are not actually batteries, there is no charging and storing up of energy to discharge on demand, power is constantly produced by decay) are very low power though, but even so there are uses. For cars or planes though, you'd definitely need much more energetic isotopes to get enough power for such applications, which is actually dangerous at that point to have in consumer markets.
I just ask the governments to put my money to good, proper use in the development of the neutron bombs. Consequence free atomic bombs that will drive the prices of land down really fast and be affordable again.
Time for Power Armor in real life, aw yeah
A 20 kg Ni-63 putting out 66kw and lasting 50 years makes powered body armor a distinct possibility.
So in fallout the power armor says it's a 60,000 watt system. Running the math... That's 600 Million of these batteries. So sure you could have a mech suit. But it would have to be lugging around .. math ... 4,700 large suitcases. Seems doable. 😅
The armour can keep the bullets out and the radiation in. WIN-WIN.
Wait so the Chinese will be the first to get power armour, meaning anchorage may end quite differently…
The only reason we're really here, when not thinking about the Romans.
the insanely low power density of nuclear battery is kind of difficult to overcome. Unless you have some intermediate energy storage with high power throughput per kg, it's kind of hard to use them in mobile vehicle application. Perhaps pairing a nuclear battery (high gravimetric energy density but low power density) with an electrolyticapacitor (high gravimetric power density but low energy density) can get the best of both worlds without suffering defect from both side. nickel-63 density is about 8.9 g/cm3, so power density would be around 1 w/kg.
A tesla model 3 cruising at 65 mph draw roughly 15kw with existing battery weight around 500 kg. So in a betavoltaic/capacitor paired system, assume 80% beta/20% capacitor battery mix proportion of the same weight would have 400w power. A typical 1 hours at that speed commute would require about 37 hours to let the battery "self-charge". Maybe it work if you only drive once every two days.
In adjacent technology side, solar cell is about 40 w/kg, you might as well just buy bunch of solar cell and pull them out to charge your car when it's parking, as oppose to use nuclear battery, which has far work power density. Unless the nuclear battery power density doubles via using short half life isotope, it's probably not going to work compare to alternative technology.
This is also interesting because nuclear batteries cannot be turned off so the energy has to go somewhere. Good engineering can make this excess energy quite the benefit.
To get higher voltage / current obviously, you arrange them in a useful way. Beta decay is trivial to mitigate, however should the battery packs be shredded, there needs to be a way to create a layer of insulation on demand to shield and insulate any exposed isotopes so that concentrations of decay are benign to rescue crew. Enough beta decay in short order can do damage to materials. Even then, it's still far safer than lithium ion which catches fire easily with traces of water and continues as long as there is lithium or moisture.
i aint readin allat
If this is the betavoltaic i'm thinking of, it was touted with a conversion factor of like 8% and ended up producing something along the lines of 0.1 milliwatt. As it stands, this is another solar roadways boondoggle but even worse.
The power density can't possibly be 1W/kg. According to Betavolt themselves, their cell measures around 15mm X 15mm X 5mm, I think that will likely weigh around 2.5g ~ 5g as it isn't fully made of Ni-63, it also contains carbon in form of the semiconductors, shieldings and other less dense stuff. It is supposed to output 100uW, or 1/10000W. Assuming 2.5g, then 1W is 2.5g * 10000 / 1000 = 25kg. I'm guessing, at best they can do 1W/25kg.
the aptera is solar powered
No power armor probably, but a cool tech for satellites
Already in use, for info look up radio isotope generator
true, but there is an inovation here (if it works). RTG rely on he heat from the isotope to run a a strienling engine or (most commumn) to get electricity from thermo electric effect, wih requires a cold source, hence big heavy radiators. Using a more direct approche can save a lot of weigth on a satelite. 20 years from now, diamond based tech could make a big difference in probe capabilities (espacially in low light conditions)@@martyfight3834
@@martyfight3834 yea, i know, thanks!
@@martyfight3834 radio isotope generators currently used are huge compared to diamond batteries, obvious generating significantly more power than diamond batteries. Inefficient they may be but diamond batteries are more flexible in tuning the power to size/weight ratio
ahh yes! the 10000 year battery casio.
I'm afraid you need to pull this video and release an update. The power density calculation is WAY off.
Statements from 4:30 to 5:30 are especially ridiculous and hype! Everybody here should dislike this video so this disinformation hype doesn't show up in anybodies feed.
@@LovSven2011any interaction is enough for the algorithm to suggest this video to other people. Dislikes will just cause it to be shown to people that react to rage bait and understand basic science.
Yeah youtubers have shown these batteries can produce much more energy from off the shelf parts. In a lab they should be able to generate multiple times more energy from this battery.
Besides, the fact of the shielding weight for any substantial output to remain at safe levels seems pretty questionable, especially in the field of avionics. Just slinging from the armchair here.
I love your videos but you've totally misunderstood the specs of the battery. At 1.56 you display 3.3 Watt hours per gram - this is the total energy produced over the entire lifetime of the battery. It does not equal 3.3 Watts per gram.
This battery is many orders of magnitude less power dense than a lithium ion battery and could never be used to power a vehicle.
Yes, it may be less power dense in a matter of little time. But for a longer time it is way more dense since it will lasts for 50 years which in the end more energy dense than any battery in the world
While lithium ion can store more energy each Cm³ or each Kg. But it won't last forever, you need to charge it every day
Not even considering the degradation that happens on Li-ion. Average Li-ion live span is only 10 years. Which is already 20% decreasing on efficiency in a matter of 3 years. And in 10 years you'll be left with only 30-40% capability of storing energy
While betavoltaic nuclear energy barely even degrades, and takes 50 years to make it unusable
Which in the end is denser and way more better
@@azizsetyawan3038 But it outputs low wattage soo not great for a vehicle to run on
@@avixs1543 maybe for phone. Especially if we have a very efficient 1nm Chipset, we can use this betavoltaic. Since it's as small as a coin. We can fit 8 betavoltaic in the phone, which is enough to power the phone
@@azizsetyawan3038 That I feel is a much better usage for these batteries, reliable mobile devices that dont need to be charged.
@@avixs1543 yea. That would be very good specially in an emergency situation
It possible to have nuclear powered car but maybe not today. Since this betavoltaic isn't efficient enough, maybe in 10 or 20 years ahead we would have a better betavoltaic technology that can independently power the car
I'm pretty sure compared to Nickel 62/63, Eiffel 65 has proven to generate more energy in the last decades.
Is it blue?
Da ba dee
this could help people who need pacemaker on their bodies, by the way, given the fact their timespan is +50 years. And, considerating the average age of cardiac arrest's survivors as 40, that'll mean one surgery is needed for their entire lives.
There were actually nuclear powered pacemakers implanted into people back in the 70s. 139 people got a NUMEC NU-5 and those are still going (for the people still alive after all that time at least). Those were plutonium powered though, probably why it didn't take off that much
Plus the battery is right under the skin with pacemakers. Replacement does not require an open heart surgery, but a simple skin incision.
This is total bullcrap!!!
Power Density:
The 3.3Wh/g figure is total possible power output over 50 years, but the continuous power output is extremely low. According to Betavolt, the battery is 15mm X 15mm X 5mm or 1.125cm^3 and only outputs 100uW or 1/10000W. Assuming the battery weighs 2.5g, that means to achieve a 1W output, you need 25kg of this battery. For example, watching this video and writing this response, my chunky phone uses 5W. That means I will need 125kg worth of this battery for this simple task!
Cost:
You are correct to point out that Nickel-63 can only be manufactured in a nuclear reactor, as such 1g of Ni-63 costs around $4000USD!. Carbon-14, while it is a form of nuclear waste from reactor control rods and can be found in nature, is also extremely expensive at around thousands to tens of thousands per gram!
Cooling:
These betavoltaic cells can not be shut off or disconnected. They will run continuously, which means they also require constant cooling even if not in use. In fact, when assembled at scale, I'd wager the amount of heat generated by these cells will require more continuous power to cool than the power they can feasibly generate.
Conclusion:
Uness we can drastically increase output density by 500X~1000X, decrease cost of Ni-63 or C-14 by 500X~1000X and figure out a passive cooling solution that doesn't increase weight, these types of betavoltaic cells will never have any mainstream usage. It will only have niche applications and be the snake oil that draws in gullible and scientifically illiterate investors/news readers.
this better power my home.. I'm tired of paying bills.
👁️👁️👃👁️👁️🙏
give me a constant power output of 5kW * 60 years.
City Labs and a bunch of other American companies have been working on nuclear batteries for decades, it's strange how a China's nobody company got so much attention in the news.
Cus they lying about the capabilities 😂
Kinda like room temp superconductors a couple of months ago.
While American labs have researched for years, China is the world leader in electric applications by far, and provide far more funding to their domestic research facilities than the US GOV will ever provide for US based research in these fields. American news don't tend to like talking about how China is funding more electric research than the US.
@@Real_MisterSir it has nothing to do with funding and research. The claims are bs. You've been able to buy these batteries for decades, so the technology is well understood, and there is no breakthrough happening.
Because of Chinas Billion dollar propaganda campaign 😂
Sorry but the calculation of 3,3wh/gram is very off. If 10 microwatts in 1cubic cm then we have a power output of 10watts per cubic metre or am I wrong here?
No this video is Very misleading. I think he is comparing power density over the entire 50 year of discharge to a single discharge of a lithium ion battery. Basically at 3v these only produce .0000333 amps. That's 4 zeros. To run a 6w cell phone you would need 36,000 of these batteries.. or 500 times the volume of an iPhone 14.... These are useless for anything that is intended to move or be mobile.
You're absolutely correct, 3.3Wh/g is the total energy produced over the entire lifetime of the battery. These can only be used for very low power applications where access is difficult eg satellites and pacemakers.
@@cubafish21 Yeah it was absolutely absurd to suggest these batteries could be used to indefinitely power automobiles or aircraft... I don't know how that makes it past even a rough first pass of fact/logic checking.
@@Kiromosyes I believe that is it. Over 50y that is not much output at all but as you said for low power applications it might be quite good. Also watches, remote controls etc.
This is probably one of the „I make the ai do all the work“ channels.
@@SilkyWayFPVA remote control needs to be cheap, you'll never see a nuclear powered battery in that. And the very cheap, current batteries, last for years in a remote control, it makes no sense anyways.
The world news sucks, but advances in renewables/clean energy and battery tech are a ray of sunshine peering through the clouds for me
This is fake. it has been disproved multiple times but shills gotta shill and clickbait
@@gafrersGet your head out of the sand. The principle is proven. The practical engineering is only a problem to be solved.
@@EdwinWiles What practical engineering? The fact that nuclear energy exists and works. The rest is vaporware.
@@EdwinWiles LOL.
You should buy some shares in it before they rocket in price.
I'm sure you'll thank me in the future for the tip.
NDB's arent "fake" so to speak, just their power output is very low. One of these things would have trouble powering a pocket calculator. Its not going to power a car, or a smartphone. Because of the low power output your applications ave very limited. While you can use multiple batteries to increase available power, that also increases the amount of heat that is created. In summary NDB's are great for the handful of niche applications where they can be used.
In the minute 1:50, you say: 10^-6W/cm3 and 3.3W/g (let's consider 1 hour), that means the battery density is 3,03g/m3... 🤨
+50 years of energy, I think that we can make large nuclear bateries that can power houses, cars and planes.
Nuclear drones would be realy scary. Imagine drones just flying around your city 24 7 watching everyting you do.
You don't need nuclear power for that. It's quite east to build a solar powered autonomous RC plane that can loiter indefinitely.
aaaand thats different from today, how exactly?
Something China would do actually
@@rubiconnn yea but it would be kinda big and loud. You would need to fly it pretty high because of buildings and trees. Drones could get into alleys and stuff like that
But you have a phone
I'm so happy you're uploading on this channel again. I know these vids are expensive to make, but thank u man.
No, thank you.
@@SubjectZeroScience if you get this You're welcome and If I may ask it be awesome if you could make a discord server I'd you don't have one it be awesome to talk with people like you on their if you could one day please that's my request it could bring a community together and could be great for your channel and such. I'm just saying, but I love to give video suggestions or ask questions.
@@SubjectZeroScience
No, THANK YOU, random citizen
@@andrewreynolds912 I do have one, just don't use it yet. I will start using it soon.
I take huge issue with the claims of it being useful for things like EVs or really anything even remotely larger or energy demanding than a TV remote. As you said, beta voltaics aren't anything new, and their claimed capacities also look incredible, the issue is the energy capacity is has is all it will ever have.
These aren't rechargeable batteries so while on the surface they look ten times as energy dense as normal batteries, in reality any rechargeable battery is far more useful. If I just recharge a normal battery 10 times I've already utilized it more than the beta voltaic can be in its entire lifespan. Plus that 50 years means that the energy it has must be released over the entire lifespan. While with a rechargeable batter we dream of the power of dumping the entire battery as fast as possible for more power, this one would only output barely a fraction the energy at any moment.
It's fairly manipulative that people keep spreading this on beta voltaics as they're only effective for low power needs. The plutonium on the Mars rovers for example also lasts for 50 years, but it only outputs 110W of power. That's basically a single light bulb of power in a box the size of most car engines. Yes they last really long, but they don't make much power. I remember the last time the diamond batteries were paraded around 5 years back the company was advertising it at running 0.1W of power, yet they were talking about using it for smartphones. The battery alone would be twice the size of the phone just to generate enough power to run it.
I agree, Skylancer. To anyone listening to this video and nodding like "YEAH! Awesome!" I would say that statements at 4:30 - 5:30 are mostly preposterous and incorrect!
IMHO, This battery could be used for some clocks (WITHOUT display or clock hands that move) if it can be a little bit bigger. Because the betavolt battery alone at cca. 1V, 1mA (1mW) is about 1 liter or cube of size 10 cm (4 inch). It's good for applications where it is important to be unattended for 10-50 years, be reliable and device does NOT need to be SMALL.
Cars, airplanes and mobile phones (portable devices) is not a likely user of this battery.
Pure misinformation!
Lol why? Do you yern for the days transport was with horses and there were no cars?
They just released a nuclear battery for space exploration enough power to power a car for 30 years
@flubalubaful and if you believe that you clearly didn't read my main post. Yes you can make long lasting beta voltaic batteries, but the tradeoff is they're incredibly weak. The curiosity rover for example is the size of a car and can easily run 20 years off the plutonium they used, but it will only move at 0.086mph. That battery is also as large as most combustion engines so you can't really add more to make it stronger.
Like I said, this field is full of misinformation. Yes it "could" power a car, but at speeds and torque levels that make it completely unusable. If it lasts longer, it means it also makes less instant power. That's why I said rechargeable batteries make more sense. Their shear energy density isn't nearly as high, but you can use all of it in minutes. In this design you have a ton of energy dispersed over years. Think of it like having the brightest flashlight ever that can light a stadium vs the longest lasting flashlight that barely does anything with a bulb you'd find on a keychain. Yes it will last forever, but would you really want that?
To back up why i think this video and these batteries are horrible lets do math. The bv100 has 100 microwatts at 3v. 1volt x 1amp = 1watt. So the bv 100 is 3v at .000033 amps. A phone might use 6 watts, take that down to 3v and thats 1.2 amps. So 1.2 divide by .000033 means you need 36000 batteries to run your phone. One battery is .0686 cu in times 36000 is 2471 cu inches. An iphone 14 is 5 cubic inches. Meaning to power your iphone with these batteries you need 500 more iphone sized batteries to supply the 6 watts. The power equation on this video is comparing the power over 50 years to one discharge of a lithium ion. Of course over 50 years the power density looks good. But for a phone you need all that power continuously. When you look at these battery's amp output then they are completely useless for anything that moves. No drone or plane can fly with the weight of these batteries. Heck i looked at it from a how many boxcars of these batteries would it take to run 1 electric train engine and its like 150 train cars of these to run the 1 engine... So they dont work for anything that moves. No consumer products would use these even if they were cheap.
Waste of time reading, everyone knows the limits , the fact a youtuber proved this technology and managed to generate even more electricity, albeit only triple the amount , in a shed in his back garden from off the shelf parts proves the plethora of negative comments are bots, or those convinced by bots. Most would probably have agreed cars should never be made and that horse draw carriages were much safer as humans would not be able to catch there breath over 32mph.
Ignore naysayers and look at the development of a technology, do experiments or watch others do them. These batteries are much more capable than in this video.
Imagine a car in which the batteries are 75% of the total cost. Still, the 1960s Batmobile is looking more an more realistic.
*Warning: DO NOT SWALLOW!*
In case of ingestion, consult mortician...
So just like lithium or petrol then.
Damit
Do not insert into bum, also.
Don't tell me how to live
This is one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time!
Currently betavolt battery only out puts 100micro watts, or 1/10000 of a watt.
The batteries do not provide 3w/g but rather 3milliwatts per gram. A battery roughly the size of a regular lithium cellphone battery would barely be able to run a wrist watch.
These kinds of batteries have been in use for 60+ years and they're so weak that their only real useful application is providing emergency power for systems that have frangible memory.
If those batteries were really outputting 3w/g of density they'd be so radioactive they'd be hot to the touch and require significant radiation shielding.
Something you've missed out on here is that small nuclear batteries have an even longer history than you've mentioned in the video. There are nuclear powered pacemakers dating back to the 1970's though those were plutonium based rather than the more modern nickel 63 based you're talking about in this video. It even led to some rather interesting cases where the pacemakers not only outlasted their patients, but outlasted the companies that were supposed to deal with them afterwards.
While i can see these used in more regulated areas such as aviation, I would be more concerned about their use in cars with the general public having access to nuclear batteries and doing dumb shit with them. Whereas in aviation i would trust trained pilots, technicians and such to actually treat these things with care and not smash them open with a rock to see whats inside or jerry rig it to something really stupid
I can see these powering future humanoid robots, TBH... A nuclear heart!
was there not already a nuclear pacemaker, which are no longer produced since they where risky as hell. i think the last person using one of them died somwhere around 2001.
Just don't swallow the battery.
Just dont swallow any battery, this would be less dangerous than swallowing a hearing aid battery.
I want this in my Steam deck!
accidentally breaks the battery and throws into the office dustbin. 💀
I think this is just hypothetical best case scenario. In reality, what betavolt made has a very low energy density and the battery for a phone is way bigger than the phone itself. See how their battery can output 1 micro W so you need 1 million of those for 1 W. And the phone needs closer to 10 W actually.
It baffles me how this channel is not in the million-subscriber class yet, a gem on youtube that should not be hidden!
Because we watch it and understand what he is saying does not make sense at all. To make a typical EV go 60 mph you would need at least 200 million of these batteries costing 100 billion dollars, and it would be over 8000 cubic feet, that is the size of a small house. He is talking science fiction. Pretty, but fiction.
It is expensive to make these batteries, hard and costly to repair, radiation concerns in case of accidents, and unsafe for the environment. These batteries are not suitable for mass adoption.
I have been talking about BetaVoltaics for years and I am so happy this finally is becoming a reality for mass markets... there are many other nuclear battery technologies.
No, they are not doing anything spectacular. Those can only work for very, very low power devices. You need 1 million of their batteries to output 1W, a phone needs about 10 times that. This is 1000% hype, 0% reality. We've had nuclear powered batteries in medical devices for decades.
What are the best electrodes for a neutron decay battery?
How is it a battery then? It doest store any energy? Its a portable nuclear/diamond generator
so instead of charging a battery we'd incorporate a nuclear generator in every device. huh.
These videos grow in quality. Keep up the amazing work subject zero science!
I love this channel. Give this man a like and follow, such high quality content.
Thanks for another new video. Welcome back...
not sure plastic can survive 50 years without internal degradations - moreover if subjected to internal radiations.
This will be game changer in Space Technology such as Satellite, rovers.
Betavolt aims for 100 milliwatt output for their first battery. A Tesla Plaid uses ~ 750 kilowatt during a pull. So you would need about 7500000 cells. If a cell weigths a gram, thats 7,5 tons worth of batteries.
Well, it's hype marketing for old technology, after all: It's a betavoltaic battery with a radiation power (theoretical maximum power output) fresh from the factory 19.85 nW, yes that's 0.00000001985 W, you then have to subtract all losses and aging of the battery.
Such batteries were used in the 1980s in commercial products: pacemakers, as they didn't need power, but just reliability. Such batteries are prohibitively expensive though, and they are already well beyond what would be allowed to be sold in many countries of an amount of Ni-63.
6:38, you make me angry, "lastign"
I’m not interested in a car battery, but I am interested in a laptop battery or portable power bank that can be used to power electronics when away from the grid.
I'd be intersted if it didn't come from China
Could be a great use for tiny interstellar probes!
Its not a dangerous idea, its a dead end.
People have done nuclear batteries before, the reason why they always never take off, is because the power you get out of these things is so abysmally small, that it camt be used for anything
Is that why there is no mention of how many amps it puts out?
@@TheEvilmooseofdoom yup. One of the more recent attempts, the nuclear diamond battery which uses carbon 14, has a measly power output of one micro watt
I wouldn't say its a dead end. I can see these 'batteries' being used in some remote/hard to reach sensors, however many of the suggested applications are insane. Do these tech bros really think people I going pop some radioactive 'batteries' into their tv remote or have the heaviest earphones known to man.
Zigbee devices? Smoke detectors?
Don't forget the massive safety advantage for aircraft of not hauling around massive quantities of flammable liquid. Aircraft accidents would be only a kinetic hazard, the flames and explosive risk is gone.
The technology is very interesting but is still at its infancy. There is a lot of potential!
I think I want one in my phone that eats up five watts watching TH-cam, and nearly nothing with the screen off. Heck, maybe even two batteries - you'd still save weight, and still have space for a small battery to act as a buffer.
Though diamond filters are a little expensive to manufacture, it is a small battery that can last for a few thousand years, I believe the proposition for this battery was mentioned around 2019, and the process to manufacture it was a bit out of its time, at the time, our advancements in technology were not as advanced as we are now, it’s amazing how far the human race has advanced in the last 20 years
But I believe the 2019 battery was to be using nuclear waste to generate power for smaller devices
You seem to have misplaced a few orders of magnitude there. These things output in the hundreds of micro amps. You need thousands to power things we would consider to be very low power devices.
A car? Not a chance, not ever.
Given the energy density it would be suitable for cars but the car would have to have sufficient crumple zones in case a crash comes from any side.
It makes sense from an accident perspective since the car will be much lighter and nimble to control and avoid a crash. However these cars should have their own dedicated lane if they are road legal.
Very cool for exploring nearby stars
Our ancestors 5000 years a go couldn't develop it smaller. We really advanced
Please consider the cost of these batteries when talking about automotive and aerospace industry.
If we at least get them in our phones, headphones and laptops at a reasonable price that would be more than enough.
I watched a TH-cam channel that does experiments make a rough nuclear battery using radioactive elements you can buy off the shelf. They managed to generateca lot more electricity in the same or similar size cell. This technology is possible and extremely safe but I honestly suspect is being prevented from development from the energy industry. Imagine having a car battery size nuclear battery that could produce enough energy to power everything in your home for 50 years. It might not produce enough to directly power bigger devices but that could be overcome by storing power produced in power banks. I.e if you could have a 5000kw battery charged by the nuclear battery 24/7 it would be able to power devices needing higher power for short periods of time.
But where technology might make a big difference is making devices that consume less power, for example heat generators or fridges.
I think there a severe miscalculation of optimism here.
It would be nice to see it on commercial use like planes and stuff like that which is way harder to get in to a crash or have an normal citizen just trying to obtain them to test out howmuch he can harm.
Certainly an interesting challenge. This battery seems to act more like a photovoltaic RTG than an electrochemical cell.
In my opinion, a few mm is still too long of a distance for inverse square to keep consumers safe. Enough keep their phones in their pockets or sleep with them that we really should have a cell which does not allow radiation past the cell walls beyond background. It would be interesting to see specific energy and capacity once safety concerns like that are considered.
As well, a large concern with radioisotopes acting in smoke detectors is not that there is a radioactive source, but that some have ventured to take a number of them apart and do projects with the americium inside. My guess is that a reason the amount in each smoke detector is kept low so that the volume of devices one has to buy to do anything harmful will get noticed before anyone can do anything inappropriate.
Something I'd like to see tried is miniaturization of these individual cells. Sure in this case we need massive lab grown diamonds, but continuous crystals the size of a cell are going to be extremely expensive and volatile. Perhaps the end goal is to see something like exists in Lithium Ion cells where at the microscopic scale, the reactive materials are actually beads surrounded by a graphite layer numerous enough to make a difference. Perhaps at a scale like that, we might be able to make this more cost effective. Tough to imagine connecting so many microscopic PV cells like that, however.
Thanks for the awesome video and the interesting thought experiment. Excited to see where this goes.
Output of 3V and nanoAmps going to revolutionize what exactly?
These are only for super-low-power devices like sensors or pacemakers. They aren't going to be getting used for vehicles. Don't go misleading people as to their capabilities.
I think it is revolutionary.
And I think it is dangerous idea.
To be honest, money hunger would end it if it gets popular, after all, those who invest in normal accumulators and fossil fuels wouldn't want to lose money. Like what happened to Tesla's "free" electricity (passively generated electricity which would've been transported wirelessly even, though this idea never was tested) thanks to the afore mentioned people's lack of support
Now we discovered a new use of diamonds, this is so cool.
Even if they did put these in vehicles: they'd make sure you couldn't own them to potentially open the battery cases.
I think that you should look to power cars and stuff with HIGH power usage, this is mean to power phones that are never charged, low power laptops, watches and that kind of stuff, lights too
I really love these types of videos, the first wall video was *so good* and helped me picture everything way better than my textbook! I hope you can keep doing them, even if only at a pace that your resources allow. (ITER diverter, NIF, or ReBCO would be amazing)
Though for this video specifically, if you look at the specific activity of Ni63 and the beta particle energy it only comes out to roughly 22.2 W/kg and much, much lower for C14. So the maximum power released is unfortunately not enough for large battery uses.
3300 wh/kg that's astonishing it could be use event in airplane
Some pace makers that have nuclear batteries in them. They last like 100 years or some crazy amount of time along that scale.
great video! it's a fascinating subject.
Oh there is an writing error @6:35 "long lastign"
Would it be possible to use nuclear power plant waste for this concept ?
"What's the year?"
"Idk, 2,025?"
Can be used to powered missile system or underwater drones.
If you can’t trust China to make toys without led, I wouldn’t trust them making a safe nuclear battery.
I would like to know about the scarcity of these isotopes? or is it more a matter of producing them from nickel and carbon? and if so is the production on a larger scale feasible?
In Detroit become human they had androids that worked on a battery lasting 150 years. Now sounds like it’s not so distant future
❤❤❤ I'm going too say solid slate hydrogen battery, same type of battery but solid no liquid just add water and hydrogen is created for all combustion engine conversion
Mini chernobyl for everyone. 😊😊
Battery companies will never allow it . And we know why just as why water is never thought to be fuel for vehicles. Interesting isn't ?
Imagine each house having its own nuclear battery
Could you do video about Carbon-14 ? How it compares in numbers with Nickel-63 and other potential materials for diamond battery.
Idea of not fueling/charging my car is very intriguing 😂
The efficiency of nuclear batteries is terrible: First, it requires a horrible amount of energy to produce those radioactive materials with particle accelerators, and then in operation, they produce mainly heat and a little bit of electricity as a side product. With this Betavolt product that's in the microwatt range, neither matters much, but both become massive problems in applications with higher power demand such as cars and planes. That's why they will probably never happen.
But a lot more important is the problem of damage to the battery after inappropriate disposal, for example if it is burned. This will release the radioactivity for sure. There's only one way to prevent that, which most developed nations use already: All radioactive material needs to be tracked at all times. Products with such batteries would probably come with the requirement to get an appropriate license and possibly insurance to find the battery if it is ever lost. This won't be economically feasible, except in some very niche cases like pace makers.
So sorry, your video is way too optimistic, omitting several key problems of this technology.
I could see this working for large battery arrays for storing renewable energy. We already have ways to contain radiation, so storing these batteries in a containment building or underground is something we can easily do. Of course, it only worth it if its cheaper than fission reactors.
These are not rechargeable, so can not be used to store renewable energy. To-date the best way to store renewable energy is with pumped hydro.
@@pfifo_fasti guess you could use power from renewables to produce nickel 63/carbon 14
This paired with loitering munitions is an actual nightmare
Lasts forever*
*not forever, but several decades.
I think this video is not great, because usage is for small power need, but without ability to charge, for example space probes, monitoring device (placed in place without power, eg jungle to monitor animals), etc. 2nd is really important and is cost per Wh, because it will decide if is good alternative for current solution, what if it last as long as car, when it would cost $1million dollars?
And radiation is even emitted by rocks, so question is how much of it, and how strong. And if it ionising one, because if it make things only warm it mean nothing.
EDIT not cost per Wh, but per W, because they have too long discharge time to be worth talking.
So how do you stop these from melting down?
Spelling mistake at 6:51
Even if they could make a car with practically infinite fuel/energy, they simply won't)
nuclear decay , does that mean this is a solution to the problem of nuclear waste , could these batteries be made using the waste from power stations?
What happens to the electrons when the battery is not in use?
I dont think this would work for automotive. Imagine you got home and turned your car "off" The Carbon or Nickel would still be going through Radioactive decay meaning technically the batteries are still being used. Same with an airplane or anything that uses it really. You cant truly turn it off unless you can stop the decay somehow
If I’m not mistaken this kind of battery exists since the 70’ or the 80’…
Great video, thanks for your hard work
Two things can be true at the same time. I would say it's definitely dangerous but it also could very easily be a game changer.
Just think of it as a trickle charging solar panel that works in the dark.
In all honesty, these aren't "batteries" as you don't charge them to store and then discharge energy -- they are generators consuming their fuel the same way gasoline generators consume their fuel.
The nickle 63 has a 100 year half life, hence the 50+ year rating (3/4th remaining at that point). It is producing power at a reliably constant rate that decays with time, so the 50+ year rating again makes sense.
It also kinda saddens me there is so much fear about radiation rather than understanding -- there is nothing scary about this. In fact, nickle 63 requires _no_ shielding what so ever. Why? The power output of each decay is on average 17 keV with a max of 66 keV. That means it has a maximum range of 5 cm in air, at which point there is no more radiation. In addition, it can only penetrate less than 100 um of skin (< 0.1 mm) if directly applied, which means it cannot make it through the dead layer of the epidermis even in the thinnest regions and poses zero health hazards to a human externally -- your skin is all the shielding you need. The toxicity of the heavy metal nickle itself will be higher if ingested than any radiation produced -- don't eat it, just like don't eat lithium batteries or gasoline or tide pods.
Carbon-14 on the other hand can make it 22 cm through air, and get through 270 um of skin if directly applied, just enough that around 10% of the radioactivity can make it through the dead layer to living tissue in certain thin skin areas of the human body, so shielding is needed in quantities above millicurie amounts -- but even thin plastic would provide that shielding.
These nuclear generators (again, they are not actually batteries, there is no charging and storing up of energy to discharge on demand, power is constantly produced by decay) are very low power though, but even so there are uses. For cars or planes though, you'd definitely need much more energetic isotopes to get enough power for such applications, which is actually dangerous at that point to have in consumer markets.
3,300 MW-hr/kg ÷ 50 years = 2 Watt/kg
It's 30 grams = 0.03 kg) ; × 2W/kg = 0.06 W
Or ; 60 milli-Watt (on Average)
I just ask the governments to put my money to good, proper use in the development of the neutron bombs. Consequence free atomic bombs that will drive the prices of land down really fast and be affordable again.