According to the World Nuclear News, the American company Infinity Power has developed a new nuclear battery, also known as an isotope battery, capable of lasting over one hundred years.
This small, coin-like device could be utilized in various key industries to power smaller devices, with its greatest advantage being its immense efficiency. While standard isotope batteries of similar size achieve efficiencies below 10%, the new battery from Infinity Power boasts over 60% efficiency. This high efficiency allows it to provide several tens of milliwatts of power for over a century. Although the decay of radioactive isotopes is slow and enduring, it does not provide substantial power.
For many smaller devices, these parameters are sufficient and advantageous. New applications are expected in fields such as medicine, where they could be used in implantable devices. Theoretically, they could also be employed in brain chips, like those developed by Neuralink, though these currently require higher power and do not need such long-lasting energy sources.
Radioisotope batteries convert the energy from nuclear decay into electrical energy using semiconductor converters. Instead, the Infinity Power device utilizes an innovative electrochemical reaction. Due to its higher efficiency, this battery requires a smaller amount of radioactive isotope. Another benefit is its compatibility with a much wider range of materials that can be used as fuel.
Widely Used in Space
Nuclear batteries have been used in various forms in space, particularly in probes landing on other planets or moons. These are typically relatively large radioisotope thermoelectric generators that contain much more radioactive material, using its heat to generate electricity.
The advantages of these generators are their reliability and longevity, though their power output decreases over time and they are relatively heavy. There are several types of these batteries, and they are used in Martian robotic rovers, such as Perseverance.
They can also be found in the farthest-reaching probes, Voyager 1 and 2, and even on Earth. While the Soviet Union used them in unmanned coastal lighthouses, the United States employed them in monitoring devices in the Arctic.
