FrankRizzo
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Nuclear Batteries
Here's some interesting reading regarding the possible future of nuclear batteries.
http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/WEBONLY/publicfeature/sep04/090...
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Oxydro
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I always kind of wondered why you couldn't just make a nuclear power cell just like this:
http://oxydro.atspace.com/nukecell.htm
Sorry I couldn't just post it, but atspace doesn't allow hotlinking so I have to route you through the page... I can't remember my
logins for my other accounts (that maybe support it).
Anyway, the idea is that alpha particles radiate from a source, and encounter a wall, picking up two electrons to form helium, and leaving the wall
with a positive change. In version 2, there is also a beta source producing a corresponding negative charge.
I'm fairly sure that there's a very obvious and simple reason that they don't work, but II just can't happen to think of it at the
moment.
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Marvin
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FrankRizzo,
For what its worth I think the whole article is a pipe dream. What with speculation about dirty bombs noone is willing to put nuclear batteries with
any significant amount of power in the hands of ordinary people.
Oxydro,
That does work, eg Strutts radium clock. Where the voltage produced charges a gold leaf electroscope which then shorts. Not entirly unlike the
piezoelectric generator described in the article though a century or so earlier.
The thing is though, you dont want a 6 million volt battery at a few picoamps. You also have the problem that as the helium is produced it gets more
difficult to keep the thing insulated. If its not done in a vacuum you generate ionisation that shorts out the power produced.
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Reverend Necroticus Rex
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I gave much thought of late to nuclear batteries, how about utilizing the heat produced by decay, some deep-space probes use batteries like this
powered by curium i believe.
One allotrope of boron monosulfide is apparently the strongest thermoelectric substance known to science, not sure what allotrope though, how about a
very simple arrangement of a shielded casing, with layers of the monosulfide, and a long-lived radioisotope, with a couple of wires.
Simple enough arrangement, and all the heat produced by decay would be transmuted into energy, simply hook up the battery to the desired applience and
go
The sun is shining on a brand new day
Blackened corpses burn where they were slain
Self-flagellation prompts him to confess, Bless me father, for I made this mess.
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FrankRizzo
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Rev,
Actually, the report that I linked to talks about that very idea. Apparently, the effect doesn't scale down very efficiently. Due to the low
cross section of wire that would be exposed to the heat versus its surface area, the amount lost to radiance is too high to maintain the temperature.
[Edited on 2-10-2004 by FrankRizzo]
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JohnWW
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| Quote: | | (cut) One allotrope of boron monosulfide is apparently the strongest thermoelectric substance known to science, not sure what allotrope though,
how about a very simple arrangement of a shielded casing, with layers of the monosulfide, and a long-lived radioisotope, with a couple of wires. (cut)
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Boron monosulfide? BS? I know what that stands for!
Seriously, though, the heat from long-lived radioactive isotopes can be used to power thermopiles, consisting of several junctions of dissimilar
metals, "thermocouples". Plutonium-powered thermopiles are used in this way in NASA spacecraft that venture too far from the Sun or solar
cells to be used, e.g. the Voyager and Pioneer spacecraft which were sent to the remotest parts of the solar system.
John W.
[Edited on 2-10-2004 by JohnWW]
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Texium
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