Recharging your phone every day may soon be a thing of the past, thanks to growing momentum in the nuclear battery industry.
Just months after Chinese startup Betavolt unveiled its pilot program for a nuclear battery the size of a coin that can run for 50 years straight, two U.S. companies have joined forces to patent their own version of a similar battery, reported Interesting Engineering.
The companies, Kronos Advanced Technologies and Yasheng Group, aim to capitalize on the rising market potential of nuclear batteries, both domestically and abroad. Kronos will file a patent in the U.S., while Yasheng files in China — but they plan to share 10% of profits made in each country with each other, making it a mutually beneficial deal, according to IE.
Nuclear batteries are part of an energy storage revolution that also includes high-powered thermal cells and theoretical black hole batteries. They function differently than nuclear power plants, which use chain reactions. Instead, these batteries create electrical energy by decomposing a radioactive isotope, in this case, Nickel 63. Most importantly, they are extremely small, safe, and long-lasting, explained IE.
The American-made battery will boast a 50-year lifespan like the Chinese one and could end up supporting a variety of sectors. Since it does not need recharging, it could be ideal for use in long military and space flights or computing equipment that requires a maintenance-free power source, according to a joint press release from the companies.
However, the battery's more widespread applications could be in medical devices that are hard to replace, like pacemakers and cochlear implants. Consumer electronics like smartphones and laptops could be forever altered, as they would no longer need regular recharging, reported IE.
The majority of standard batteries are manufactured using coal and oil, so the higher the adoption of diverse energy sources — like nuclear — in creating batteries, the bigger the dent put into the systemic reliance on those sources of pollution.
The new battery will also feature robust safety measures, from a thermal management system to radiation-shielding housing. Plus, when it runs out of juice, all that will be left is a non-toxic metal, meaning it doesn't create any nuclear waste, according to IE.
Reshaping how we store energy in these ways is becoming a bigger and bigger part of the clean energy conversation. Consumers and industries alike can save money while also cutting down the amount of harmful battery waste that enters landfills — all by modernizing battery-dependent objects to be as efficient as possible.
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