Live data from Hacker News

A tiny radioactive battery could keep your future phone running for 50 years

techradar.com

31–40 of 86 posts

Re: A tiny radioactive battery could keep your future phone running for 50 years

#31
post #6

90% of the people I know keep their near their head, near the genitals or near their heart when not actively using it. I read the part about them asserting that it's safe, but if they want this to actually sell without a major stigma, especially in the era of social media, they will need to go out of their way to prove it.

It took 50 years for people to realize fat is healthy and sugar loaded bread and grains is bad for you. Because of "science". iPhones straddling your genitalia is considered "safe"' today. Can't wait to hear from science towards the end of the century.

mad hatters and radium girls

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_as_a_hatter

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium_Girls

Re: A tiny radioactive battery could keep your future phone running for 50 years

#33
post #13

Why phones? I want nuclear powered electric vehicles . If you could even get an EV with the performance of a Prius that never needed gas or a charge for 250,000 miles, that would be a major accomplishment.

I've been on one. Aircraft carrier. Edit: commenter seems to be editing without noting their edits. This comment was written against a their comment in a different revision.

For extra clarity:

> Nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers are powered by onboard nuclear reactors. Atoms in the nuclear reactor split, which releases energy as heat. This heat is used to create high-pressured steam. The steam turns propulsion turbines that provide the power to turn the propeller. Additional turbines also make electricity for the ship. As the steam cools and condenses back into water, the water is directed back through the system, and the process starts again.

https://www.epa.gov/radtown/nuclear-submarines-and-aircraft-....

Re: A tiny radioactive battery could keep your future phone running for 50 years

#34
post #22

How to tell the author is completely clueless wrt nuclear physics: What the company is apparently saying: "To create the radioactive battery, Betavolt's scientist used nickel-63, which is a radiactive element, as the energy source... " The author describing this in his own words: "The compact battery uses 63 nuclear isotopes to generate..." "

There's another news article by a different author that makes the same bizarre mistake:

- "Beijing-based Betavolt said its nuclear battery is the first in the world to realise the miniaturisation of atomic energy, placing 63 nuclear isotopes into a module smaller than a coin."

https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/nuclear-battery-betavolt-...

Are they both copying this text from some other source?

Re: A tiny radioactive battery could keep your future phone running for 50 years

#35
post #13

Why phones? I want nuclear powered electric vehicles . If you could even get an EV with the performance of a Prius that never needed gas or a charge for 250,000 miles, that would be a major accomplishment.

I've been on one. Aircraft carrier. Edit: commenter seems to be editing without noting their edits. This comment was written against a their comment in a different revision.

It is a fucking shame politics, ideologies and greed for power makes the world so fucked up. It would be great if instead of nuclear powered air carriers we had nuclear powered cargo ships.

Re: A tiny radioactive battery could keep your future phone running for 50 years

#36

And most likely always hot. The nuclear process can most likely not be controlled, and will just provide energy the whole day long. A small sidecar battery may hold charge for peak usage, but still the nuclear battery have to churn atoms all the time to provide the mean power. And the conversion process usually is not very efficient either (but I don't see numbers for this particular device).

> will just provide energy the whole day long.

Dimension it for just a little more than the average consumption and use a super capacitor or battery to soak up the excess when the phone is idle. I imagine one would need the battery anyway to cope with short term high demand such as photography.

Re: A tiny radioactive battery could keep your future phone running for 50 years

#37
post #6

90% of the people I know keep their near their head, near the genitals or near their heart when not actively using it. I read the part about them asserting that it's safe, but if they want this to actually sell without a major stigma, especially in the era of social media, they will need to go out of their way to prove it.

100% of the people I know have a 1000W/square meter UV/VIS nuclear generator just hanging above them ...

Re: A tiny radioactive battery could keep your future phone running for 50 years

#38
post #7

>Betavolt says that after it has decayed the 63 nuclear isotopes become copper, which would be non-radioactive and not cause any environmental threat. Well, what happens when you throw the non-decayed thing in a firepit or run it through a wood chipper?

A new wilderness sanctuary is born

Re: A tiny radioactive battery could keep your future phone running for 50 years

#39
post #6

90% of the people I know keep their near their head, near the genitals or near their heart when not actively using it. I read the part about them asserting that it's safe, but if they want this to actually sell without a major stigma, especially in the era of social media, they will need to go out of their way to prove it.

100% of the people I know have a 1000W/square meter UV/VIS nuclear generator just hanging above them ...

Only half the time though.

Re: A tiny radioactive battery could keep your future phone running for 50 years

#40
"The compact battery uses 63 nuclear isotopes to generate 100 microwatts and a voltage of 3V of electricity through the process of radioactive decay"

So the battery produce 0.1 mW or 0.0001 W: what "phone or drone" works with this microscopic power ? It isn't sufficient to power a sigle LED.

IMHO this article is a sum of: clickbait + incompetence and, if the translation from Chinese is accurate, scam. The phrase "uses 63 nuclear isotopes" also make me ROFL.

Post reply on HN