Nuclear Batteries - Powering the Micro Devices of Tomorrow

Engineers and researchers at the University of Missouri have produced a nuclear powered battery which is approximately the size of a penny. This battery produces power from the decay of radioisotopes and is claimed to produce a million times more power than an ordinary battery. This is an amazing feat for battery engineering. There are numerous uses of such a device such as in micro medical devices, remote sensors, spacecraft and other hard to reach devices which require a continual source of power.

Radioactive substances are known to decay in a continual and reasonably predictable manner. When they decay, they release charged particles which can be gathered and routed into creating electric current. This differs from the nuclear processes in power plants where energy is obtained from the splitting of radioactive atoms creating multitude of other radioactive byproducts. This is much safer since it is a natural process of decay harnessed into electricity. Since radiation emanates from the source in every direction, the contraption that contains this radioactive substance must successfully capture all the discharged particles without letting any harmful particles escape.

Nuclear batteries are currently being used for numerous applications mainly in aerospace and military uses. Although people may think that nuclear radiation is something to be cautious about, nuclear power sources are already powering a number of useful devices such as satellites, pacemakers and systems underwater. Radiation is a well researched and known phenomenon and if these radioactive substances can be used in the correct manner and application, they are extremely effective and last for hundreds of years.

The ability of these engineers to make a battery smaller is through the use of liquid semiconductors as opposed to solid semiconductors which were required to be larger in size. This liquid semiconductor captures the decaying particles that are emitted more effectively than solid semiconductors. This is because due to the highly volatile energies of the emitted particles, solid semiconductors suffer great structural damage and need to be larger in size. This is why liquid semiconductors are better suited for batteries by cushioning and absorbing the energy of these emitted particles and putting them to proper use.

Although these batteries are not commercially available, they are continually being researched and being made even smaller to power the micro devices in medical applications. The main use of these nuclear batteries is to power tiny devices which are known as nano and micro electromechanical systems. These will give the medical field more options in terms of electrical implants as well as robot assisted surgery.

Although we may be far from using these nuclear batteries to power our remote controls and alarm clocks, the research is ongoing to solve our power problems and allow us to probe further and understand the world we live in today.