Credits: Social Media
Never charge your phone again as company in China unveils nuclear battery with 50-year lifespan
Keeping your phone charged is a daily chore in todays world but a company in China has revealed a nuclear-powered battery with a 50-year lifespan that could remove the need to charge your phone ever again.
Company unveils nuclear-powered battery
A Chinese tech startup called Betavolt has unveiled a new battery that is powered by nuclear isotopes and could generate electricity for 50 years.
The BV100 battery is powered by 63 radioactive isotopes of nickel-63 which are placed in a module smaller than a coin.
Betavolts first-generation battery produces 100 microwatts of power, which is not strong enough to power a smartphone just yet, but there are already plans to launch a 1-watt battery in 2025 and more powerful versions in the years after.
The company hopes that atomic batteries will allow for smartphones that never need to be charged and for drones that can fly continuously.
How is a nuclear battery safe?
Having 63 radioactive isotopes powering the phone in your pocket may seem like an accident waiting to happen but Betavolt claims that its battery is safe enough to power pacemakes and artificial hearts inside the human body.
To prevent radiation from escaping the battery, it features layers of a crystal diamond semiconductor that is just 10 microns thick (0.01 mm).
Betavolt claims that its product is absolutely safe, has no external radiation, and is suitable for use in medical devices such as pacemakers, artificial hearts and cochleas in the human body.
Atomic energy batteries are environmentally friendly. After the decay period, the nickel-63 isotope as the radioactive source becomes a stable isotope of copper, which is non-radioactive and does not pose any threat or pollution to the environment.
It should also be noted that this sort of technology, known as betavoltaic batteries, has actually been around since the 1970s and has already been used in spacecraft, to power pacemakers and watches.
Social media reacts
Unsurprisingly the idea of a nuclear-powered battery has been met with skepticism by many on social media.
Commenting on an Instagram post, one social media user said: Sounds healthy enough to have in your pocket every day.
A message echoed by this commenter: Never run out of battery but give you cancer at the same time.
This Instagram user joked: But when damaged it takes out a whole city.
Terrible idea, began this commenter. People will still throw phones out every 2-3 years for new models, and now you have nuclear batteries in landfills everywhere.
The problem, surely, is what happens to them at the end of use,” said a commenter on a YouTube video discussing the battery. “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 visualize that lot going straight into landfill, furnaces, and the sea. Not nice.
And finally, this commenter joked: Nuclear batteries in pacemakers are heartwarming.
