UAE BARQ برق الإمارات – نبضك
A California-based company NDB has made a self-charging battery by trapping carbon-14 (C14) nuclear waste in artificial diamond-case. The company claims the battery can run for 28,000 years on a single charge.
The US-based company says that the battery can be used in electric vehicles, mobile phones, laptops, tablets, drones, watches, cameras, health monitors and even sensors. It is also said to be extremely safe and tamper proof as it is coated with non-radioactive diamond which prevents radiation leaks.
The battery works by generating electricity on its own from a shower of electrons as result of radioactive decay scattered and deposited in the artificial diamond-case.
The company wants to further purify the nuclear waste to make the battery even more powerful, and use it to make computer chips and nano devices. With the purer C14 nuclear waste, NDB plans to make Nano Diamond Battery.
NDB estimates 33 million cubic metres of global nuclear waste will cost over $100 billion to manage and dispose. And a lot of this waste is graphite that is one of the higher risk radioactive waste and one of the most expensive and problematic waste to store.
The company says its battery can be used to power houses, and that any excess electricity generated can be sold to the grid. And, as the new battery need not be replaced, it can be installed in hard to reach places like pacemakers and implants, where regular change of battery is not possible.
Another area of use is space electronics. The battery is said to power space equipment in rockets. It can power the electrical needs of space crafts, like providing power to cockpits and assisting launch into the upper atmosphere. During this period NDB can be used to power communications, console controls as well as any other auxiliary electrical needs. Once it is no longer needed by the rocket, it can be used to power satellites and space stations.
The Hindu
