We have an unquenchable energy need. When we need to run anything that cannot be plugged in, electricity will have to come from a battery, and the quest for a better battery is being launched in laboratories around the globe. Hold that thought for a moment.
Nuclear waste is radioactive waste generated by nuclear
power plants that no one wants to be kept near their houses or even carried
through their communities. The ugly substance is poisonous and deadly, takes
thousands of years to disintegrate completely, and we continue to produce more
of it.
Now, a California-based business, NDB, says it can resolve
both of these issues. They claim to have built a self-powered battery made
entirely of radioactive waste that has a life expectancy of 28,000 years,
making it ideal for your future electric car or iPhone 1.6 x 104.
Rather than storing energy generated elsewhere, the battery
generates its own charge. It is constructed of two kinds of nano-diamonds,
which makes it almost crash-proof when used in vehicles or other moving things.
Additionally, the business claims that its battery is safe since it emits less
radiation than the human body.
NDB has already created a proof of concept and intends to
construct its first commercial prototype once its laboratories restart
operations after the COVID outbreak (which should be soon).
The nuclear waste from which NDB intends to manufacture its
batteries consists of reactor components that have become radioactive as a
result of exposure to nuclear power plant fuel rods.
While this is not considered high-grade nuclear waste—that
would be spent fuel—it is nonetheless very poisonous, and a nuclear plant
generates a lot of it. The International Atomic Energy Agency estimates that
the "core of a typical graphite-moderated reactor" may contain up to
2000 tonnes of graphite. (A tonne is equal to one metric tonne, or about 2,205
pounds.)
Carbon-14 is a radioisotope found in graphite. It is the
same radioisotope used by archaeologists for carbon dating. It has a half-life
of 5,730 years and ultimately decays into nitrogen 14, an anti-neutrino, and a
beta decay electron, the charge of which piqued NDB's curiosity as a possible
source of electricity.
NDB cleanses graphite and then converts it to microscopic
diamonds. The business claims that by using current technology, they've
engineered their little carbon-14 diamonds to generate a large quantity of
electricity. Diamonds also operate as a semiconductor, absorbing energy and
dispersing it via a heat sink.
However, since they are still radioactive, NDB encases the
miniature nuclear power plants in other low-cost, non-radioactive carbon-12
diamonds. These glistening lab-created shells provide diamond-hard protection
while also containing the carbon-14 diamonds' radiation.
NDA intends to manufacture batteries in a variety of common
and unique sizes, including AA, AAA, 18650, and 2170. Each battery will feature
many stacked diamond layers, as well as a tiny circuit board and a
supercapacitor for energy collection, storage, and discharge. The ultimate
result, the business claims, is a battery that will last an extremely long
period.
According to NDB, a battery may live up to 28,000 years when
utilized in a low-power setting, such as a satellite sensor. They predict a
usable life of 90 years as a car battery, much longer than anyone vehicle would
last—the business believes that one battery could theoretically power one pair
of wheels after another. For consumer gadgets like phones and tablets, the firm
estimates that a battery will last around nine years.
“Think of it in an iPhone,” NDB’s Neel Naicker tells New Atlas. "With the same size battery, it would charge it five times an hour from zero to full. Imagine that. Imagine a world where you wouldn’t have to charge your battery at all for the day. Now imagine for the week, for the month… How about for decades? That’s what we’re able to do with this technology.”
NDB expects commercialising a low-power version in a few of
years, followed by a high-power version in roughly five years. If all goes
according to plan, NDB's technology will represent a significant step forward
in terms of delivering low-cost, long-term energy to the world's electronics
and cars.
The company says, “We can start at the nanoscale and go up
to power satellites, locomotives.”
Additionally, the business anticipates that its batteries
will be comparably priced to existing batteries, including lithium-ion, and
maybe much cheaper after they are produced of nuclear waste may even pay the
company to take care of their poisonous issue.
The garbage of one enterprise becomes the diamonds of
another.
Reference: NDB