The radioactive diamond battery that can last 28,000 years

[PhotonWrangler]

I have no sense of how large a usable battery will need to be but I thought it was an interesting read. Can anyone confirm or debunk this?

 

[parametrek]

Here is a debunking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDFlV0OEK5E

While not completely physically impossible it is completely impractical for cost and safety reasons.

 

[idleprocess]

The concept seems to be kept afloat by alarming amounts of handwavery, suspension of disbelief, and the promise of finally delivering some sweet sweet unobtanium to the masses.

However, the alarming lack of detail (i.e. how much energy does it produce, for how long, under what conditions) speaks volumes more than the various Z-grade sites all but rehashing the company's own press releases to scam that ad money. Anyone care to calculate average instantaneous net energy from the natural decay of a gram of C14? I'm guessing that it's hilariously small to the point that a coin cell is a vacuum zero point energy generator straight out of an Arthur C Clarke novel by compare.

Here is a debunking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDFlV0OEK5E

Thunderf00t is indeed fun when he's ragging on things.

 

[PhotonWrangler]

Thanks for the debunking guys. While looking through some videos about it I did find a betavoltaic battery that has actually been in existence for a few years that's based on tritium. It still has abysmally low output power and the half life is only a few years but you can actually buy one of these.

 

[Lynx_Arc]

The problem I see with more powerful batteries in the future is safety as the more power density a battery has the more volatile it could be. Imagine a battery 4-5 times more powerful than lithium ion and the fires/explosions of lithium ion batteries magnified by such power. If there was such a more powerful battery could it even be sold on the market without being embedded in a bullet proof container the size of a car battery and cost 10 times as much as to cover liability issues. A radioactive type battery that is a lot more powerful likely can be similarly more deadly and perhaps only available in the most extreme conditions like space craft and the military, the average person would likely not be allowed to possess such material as it may be made into a bomb and used as such.

 

[PhotonWrangler]

Good points Lynx Arc. One of the questions this raises is whether a betavoltaic battery like this is inherently resistant to thermal runaway.

 

[NiOOH]

Even if constructing such a battery is possible, I see no application for it outside of aerospace industry. Why would you need a battery lasting thousands of years in a consumer device that only lasts couple of years? The presence of radioactive isotopes is another obstacle.

 

[Lynx_Arc]

Even if constructing such a battery is possible, I see no application for it outside of aerospace industry. Why would you need a battery lasting thousands of years in a consumer device that only lasts couple of years? The presence of radioactive isotopes is another obstacle.

I think they could be useful in other ways depending on the performance of them. If the battery type has a lot batter performance than current batteries and the cost can be amortized over a few decades instead of eons the fact they never have to be replaced could be a huge advantage as replacing batteries costs money in labor and shipping and downtime when batteries fail or perform poorly. Imagine using these batteries in backup power supplies for cell towers and internet providers. Imagine buying a UPS for 3 times the price in your 20s and having it when you are 65 still working. Imagine having a large bank of these cells in a house instead of a power generator and being able to pay a fee to swap them out when there is a power outage for fresh ones. Imagine electric vehicles that you never have to worry about batteries, manufacturers that make interchangeable electric vehicle batteries you buy once and that is all. Tool batteries that never need replacing, a lot of batteries that go into landfills would vanish from use.
The huge thing is cost and likely this battery won't be cost effective regardless of performance the cost will likely be insane such that one would have to live 1000 years to make it worth the investment.