Nuclear Batteries

Background History

From your car to your cell phone to your calculators, batteries are used constantly in our everyday lives. But eventually these batteries die, and they need replacing or recharging. Well, this can often be a hassle and a pain, and could you imagine a world where the amount of replacing and recharging batteries was drastically reduced. This is where the idea for nuclear batteries was born. Since the 1950s, methods have been known to convert nuclear energy into electrical energy. As the field of nanotechnology rapidly grows, nuclear batteries are becoming more of a reality than just an idea.

How It Works

Similarly to a nuclear power plant, nuclear batteries convert radioactivity to electricity as opposed to storing electricity like in an ordinary battery. Like nuclear power plants, nuclear batteries let off small amounts of radiation which is very dangerous to humans. Even if the nanotechnology is developed, its radiation emission still makes it unusable to the public, but still has other real-world applications.

Impacts It Has On Society

Nuclear batteries can be developed to fuel spacecraft. Once launched into space, these batteries can last over 10 years. Other application would be implantable medical devices (IMDs). This would include small medical electronic devices like hearing aids. To make the technology possible, the radiation admitted would have to be lowered significantly. As of now, the nuclear technology is not advanced enough to make the nuclear batteries a realistic application in everyday life.

Related Engineering Fields

• Areospace Engineering
• Electric Engineering
• Energy Engineering
• Nanoengineering
• Nuclear Engineering
• Power Engineering
• Power Plant Engineering

Works Cited

Brown, Eric S. “The Atomic Battery.” MIT Technology Review, MIT Technology Review, 21 Oct. 2012, www.technologyreview.com/s/404293/the-atomic-battery/.

Park, Junwon. “Review and Preview of Nuclear Battery Technology.” Review and Preview of Nuclear Battery Technology, 3 Mar. 2017, large.stanford.edu/courses/2017/ph241/park-j1/.

Sebastian Anthony on September 19, 2014 at 11:38 am Comment. “This Nuclear Battery Could Power Your Smartphone Forever - as Long as You Don't Value Your Life or Sperm Count Too Highly.” ExtremeTech, 19 Sept. 2014, www.extremetech.com/extreme/190555-this-nuclear-battery-could-power-your-smartphone-forever-as-long-as-you-dont-value-your-life-or-sperm-count-too-highly.

Multimedia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=We51PWXoMjk
http://factor-tech.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/nuc.gif
https://inhabitat.com/uks-national-nuclear-laboratory-to-transform-waste-plutonium-into-batteries-for-spacecraft/