wooooooo ..... SHINY!

[unixronin]

They're calling it a "nuclear battery" ... researchers at the University of Missouri have developed a prototype radioisotope thermoelectric generator the size of a postage stamp.  Imagine low-drain devices like, say, wireless remote strain sensors, with batteries that last for the life of the structure the sensor is monitoring.

Comments

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

This is something which became technologically-possible in the 1960's, and I'm glad to see that someone's finally done the research to develop it into a practical model. Now let's hope that they flood our society before the anti-nuclear people even notice their existence :)

[dr-nebula.livejournal.com]

Now let's hope that they flood our society before the anti-nuclear people even notice their existence :)

Ah, just like smoke detectors.

*g*

[rain-manpnw.livejournal.com]

How 'bout a cell phone, PDA, or laptop that never needs recharging?

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Whether they're feasible for applications like that depends principally on probably three things: how much current they can source, whether they can be shielded enough to prevent damaging the electronics in the device without overheating, and probably most important of all, public acceptance.

But yeah, providing those issues can be solved ... cell phones, PDAs, netbooks, hearing aids, augmented-reality glasses, e-book readers, wristwatches, electronic calculators, probably any relatively-low-drain device.

[montieth.livejournal.com]

Imagine radioisotopes being scrapped and people dying because they handle radioactive devices and don't know it. I think the worst case I read of was the X-Ray emitter from an X-ray machine being played with and carried around.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

There is that hazard. Frankly, though, it's an education problem.

[rain-manpnw.livejournal.com]

You must be referring to one from radiation therapy type machine. The diagnostic-level X-ray machines don't use a radiation source; the tube is totally safe when unpowered.

[montieth.livejournal.com]

You're right. I guess I did know that. I guess the anecdote I read of a few months back was the Goiania incident (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goiânia_accident) in Brazil. Two men managed to get the shielding container open and manage to spread cesium chloride around their home and neighborhood. One of their children played with the pretty blue pixie dust and painted herself with it. Her mother carried it eventually to the hospital on the bus. One of the people who initially got the metal thought to make a ring out of it for his wife! Naturally, a bunch of people died from this.

The fact that some of this makes it into regular scrap makes me want to get a surplus geiger counter and check the background radiation of my house and property regularly to be sure I don't have anything untoward that's been made with scrap somehow contaminated with ionizing radiation sources.