New Diamond Battery Will Last 28,000 Years, Powered By Nuclear Waste

A US-based startup has combined radioactive isotopes from nuclear waste with ultra-slim layers of nanodiamonds to assemble a battery that will last up to 28,000 years.

And just for perspective, before this ridiculous battery runs out of juice, an average Indian would¡¯ve died 400 times over (geez!); more than a thousand generations would¡¯ve passed by; and Jaegers might have finally sliced the last of Kaijus--who knows, those monstrous machines would be powered by one of these things.

NDB

Diamond battery will be available by 2023

The Nano Diamond Battery (NDB) says that the radioactive battery is 'completely safe' for humans and it hopes to start selling the battery to commercial partners, including space agencies for long duration missions, within the next two years.

The company is also working on a consumer version of the battery that could power a smartphone or electric car for over a decade without a charge. This doesn¡¯t just save the hassle of recharging our devices but also holds key to the environmental implications of the manufacture and disposal of batteries.

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The technology behind diamond battery

The battery is powered by radioactive waste graphite--used in graphite-cooled nuclear reactors--which is encased in layers of nano-thin, single crystalline diamond, which act both as a semiconductor and heat sink.

Each unit will contain a single crystalline diamond that absorbs energy from the isotopes. Now diamonds are rare and also have the highest energy-conductivity, meaning it quickly transfers heat from the radioactive graphite--and the transaction is so quick that it generates electricity.

AFP

The diamond layers not only collect charge, but also prevent radiation leakage. NDB even claims that the radiation levels emitted by the cells will be less than those emitted by the human body.

The firm hasn¡¯t produced the batteries yet but has a proof-of-concept design, called ¡°Diamond Nuclear Voltaic,¡± which was presented in 2016 by scientists from the University of Bristol using waste graphite blocks.