Time for Power Armor in real life, aw yeah

I'm afraid you need to pull this video and release an update. The power density calculation is WAY off.

No power armor probably, but a cool tech for satellites

the insanely low power density of nuclear battery is kind of difficult to overcome. Unless you have some intermediate energy storage with high power throughput per kg, it's kind of hard to use them in mobile vehicle application. Perhaps pairing a nuclear battery (high gravimetric energy density but low power density) with an electrolyticapacitor (high gravimetric power density but low energy density) can get the best of both worlds without suffering defect from both side. nickel-63 density is about 8.9 g/cm3, so power density would be around 1 w/kg. A tesla model 3 cruising at 65 mph draw roughly 15kw with existing battery weight around 500 kg. So in a betavoltaic/capacitor paired system, assume 80% beta/20% capacitor battery mix proportion of the same weight would have 400w power. A typical 1 hours at that speed commute would require about 37 hours to let the battery "self-charge". Maybe it work if you only drive once every two days. In adjacent technology side, solar cell is about 40 w/kg, you might as well just buy bunch of solar cell and pull them out to charge your car when it's parking, as oppose to use nuclear battery, which has far work power density. Unless the nuclear battery power density doubles via using short half life isotope, it's probably not going to work compare to alternative technology.

I'm pretty sure compared to Nickel 62/63, Eiffel 65 has proven to generate more energy in the last decades.

I love your videos but you've totally misunderstood the specs of the battery. At 1.56 you display 3.3 Watt hours per gram - this is the total energy produced over the entire lifetime of the battery. It does not equal 3.3 Watts per gram. This battery is many orders of magnitude less power dense than a lithium ion battery and could never be used to power a vehicle.

this could help people who need pacemaker on their bodies, by the way, given the fact their timespan is +50 years. And, considerating the average age of cardiac arrest's survivors as 40, that'll mean one surgery is needed for their entire lives.

I'm so happy you're uploading on this channel again. I know these vids are expensive to make, but thank u man.

In the minute 1:50, you say: 10^-6W/cm3 and 3.3W/g (let's consider 1 hour), that means the battery density is 3,03g/m3... 🤨

Currently betavolt battery only out puts 100micro watts, or 1/10000 of a watt.

I take huge issue with the claims of it being useful for things like EVs or really anything even remotely larger or energy demanding than a TV remote. As you said, beta voltaics aren't anything new, and their claimed capacities also look incredible, the issue is the energy capacity is has is all it will ever have. These aren't rechargeable batteries so while on the surface they look ten times as energy dense as normal batteries, in reality any rechargeable battery is far more useful. If I just recharge a normal battery 10 times I've already utilized it more than the beta voltaic can be in its entire lifespan. Plus that 50 years means that the energy it has must be released over the entire lifespan. While with a rechargeable batter we dream of the power of dumping the entire battery as fast as possible for more power, this one would only output barely a fraction the energy at any moment. It's fairly manipulative that people keep spreading this on beta voltaics as they're only effective for low power needs. The plutonium on the Mars rovers for example also lasts for 50 years, but it only outputs 110W of power. That's basically a single light bulb of power in a box the size of most car engines. Yes they last really long, but they don't make much power. I remember the last time the diamond batteries were paraded around 5 years back the company was advertising it at running 0.1W of power, yet they were talking about using it for smartphones. The battery alone would be twice the size of the phone just to generate enough power to run it.

Sorry but the calculation of 3,3wh/gram is very off. If 10 microwatts in 1cubic cm then we have a power output of 10watts per cubic metre or am I wrong here?

Imagine a car in which the batteries are 75% of the total cost. Still, the 1960s Batmobile is looking more an more realistic.

City Labs and a bunch of other American companies have been working on nuclear batteries for decades, it's strange how a China's nobody company got so much attention in the news.

*Warning: DO NOT SWALLOW!*

Nuclear drones would be realy scary. Imagine drones just flying around your city 24 7 watching everyting you do.

The world news sucks, but advances in renewables/clean energy and battery tech are a ray of sunshine peering through the clouds for me

Something you've missed out on here is that small nuclear batteries have an even longer history than you've mentioned in the video. There are nuclear powered pacemakers dating back to the 1970's though those were plutonium based rather than the more modern nickel 63 based you're talking about in this video. It even led to some rather interesting cases where the pacemakers not only outlasted their patients, but outlasted the companies that were supposed to deal with them afterwards. While i can see these used in more regulated areas such as aviation, I would be more concerned about their use in cars with the general public having access to nuclear batteries and doing dumb shit with them. Whereas in aviation i would trust trained pilots, technicians and such to actually treat these things with care and not smash them open with a rock to see whats inside or jerry rig it to something really stupid

Thanks for another new video. Welcome back...

I can see these powering future humanoid robots, TBH... A nuclear heart!

accidentally breaks the battery and throws into the office dustbin. 💀

These videos grow in quality. Keep up the amazing work subject zero science!

I think this is just hypothetical best case scenario. In reality, what betavolt made has a very low energy density and the battery for a phone is way bigger than the phone itself. See how their battery can output 1 micro W so you need 1 million of those for 1 W. And the phone needs closer to 10 W actually.

this better power my home.. I'm tired of paying bills. 👁️👁️👃👁️👁️🙏 give me a constant power output of 5kW * 60 years.

This is total bullcrap!!! Power Density: The 3.3Wh/g figure is total possible power output over 50 years, but the continuous power output is extremely low. According to Betavolt, the battery is 15mm X 15mm X 5mm or 1.125cm^3 and only outputs 100uW or 1/10000W. Assuming the battery weighs 2.5g, that means to achieve a 1W output, you need 25kg of this battery. For example, watching this video and writing this response, my chunky phone uses 5W. That means I will need 125kg worth of this battery for this simple task! Cost: You are correct to point out that Nickel-63 can only be manufactured in a nuclear reactor, as such 1g of Ni-63 costs around $4000USD!. Carbon-14, while it is a form of nuclear waste from reactor control rods and can be found in nature, is also extremely expensive at around thousands to tens of thousands per gram! Cooling: These betavoltaic cells can not be shut off or disconnected. They will run continuously, which means they also require constant cooling even if not in use. In fact, when assembled at scale, I'd wager the amount of heat generated by these cells will require more continuous power to cool than the power they can feasibly generate. Conclusion: Uness we can drastically increase output density by 500X~1000X, decrease cost of Ni-63 or C-14 by 500X~1000X and figure out a passive cooling solution that doesn't increase weight, these types of betavoltaic cells will never have any mainstream usage. It will only have niche applications and be the snake oil that draws in gullible and scientifically illiterate investors/news readers.

This is one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time!

so instead of charging a battery we'd incorporate a nuclear generator in every device. huh.

+50 years of energy, I think that we can make large nuclear bateries that can power houses, cars and planes.

I really love these types of videos, the first wall video was *so good* and helped me picture everything way better than my textbook! I hope you can keep doing them, even if only at a pace that your resources allow. (ITER diverter, NIF, or ReBCO would be amazing) Though for this video specifically, if you look at the specific activity of Ni63 and the beta particle energy it only comes out to roughly 22.2 W/kg and much, much lower for C14. So the maximum power released is unfortunately not enough for large battery uses.

The batteries do not provide 3w/g but rather 3milliwatts per gram. A battery roughly the size of a regular lithium cellphone battery would barely be able to run a wrist watch. These kinds of batteries have been in use for 60+ years and they're so weak that their only real useful application is providing emergency power for systems that have frangible memory. If those batteries were really outputting 3w/g of density they'd be so radioactive they'd be hot to the touch and require significant radiation shielding.

It baffles me how this channel is not in the million-subscriber class yet, a gem on youtube that should not be hidden!

Very cool for exploring nearby stars

It would be nice to see it on commercial use like planes and stuff like that which is way harder to get in to a crash or have an normal citizen just trying to obtain them to test out howmuch he can harm.

Betavolt aims for 100 milliwatt output for their first battery. A Tesla Plaid uses ~ 750 kilowatt during a pull. So you would need about 7500000 cells. If a cell weigths a gram, thats 7,5 tons worth of batteries.

Could be a great use for tiny interstellar probes!

Could you do video about Carbon-14 ? How it compares in numbers with Nickel-63 and other potential materials for diamond battery. Idea of not fueling/charging my car is very intriguing 😂

I have been talking about BetaVoltaics for years and I am so happy this finally is becoming a reality for mass markets... there are many other nuclear battery technologies.

I think there a severe miscalculation of optimism here.

You seem to have misplaced a few orders of magnitude there. These things output in the hundreds of micro amps. You need thousands to power things we would consider to be very low power devices. A car? Not a chance, not ever.

Zigbee devices? Smoke detectors?

I think I want one in my phone that eats up five watts watching KZfaq, and nearly nothing with the screen off. Heck, maybe even two batteries - you'd still save weight, and still have space for a small battery to act as a buffer.

Imagine each house having its own nuclear battery

great video! it's a fascinating subject. Oh there is an writing error @6:35 "long lastign"

Thanks

Just don't swallow the battery.

I would like to know about the scarcity of these isotopes? or is it more a matter of producing them from nickel and carbon? and if so is the production on a larger scale feasible?

Thank you!

Great video, thanks for your hard work

yay... power armor :)

Keep on going! You will surely reach the peak once again

I love this channel. Give this man a like and follow, such high quality content.

What happens to the electrons when the battery is not in use?

I think that you should look to power cars and stuff with HIGH power usage, this is mean to power phones that are never charged, low power laptops, watches and that kind of stuff, lights too

Don't forget the massive safety advantage for aircraft of not hauling around massive quantities of flammable liquid. Aircraft accidents would be only a kinetic hazard, the flames and explosive risk is gone.

If they can miniaturize the process like semiconductor manufacture, with masking/etching/deposit on substrate, thousands + of tiny cells per cm, and encapsulate in thermal conducting, fire and hazard resistant epoxy... or am I asking for too much?

"What's the year?" "Idk, 2,025?"

Well, it's hype marketing for old technology, after all: It's a betavoltaic battery with a radiation power (theoretical maximum power output) fresh from the factory 19.85 nW, yes that's 0.00000001985 W, you then have to subtract all losses and aging of the battery. Such batteries were used in the 1980s in commercial products: pacemakers, as they didn't need power, but just reliability. Such batteries are prohibitively expensive though, and they are already well beyond what would be allowed to be sold in many countries of an amount of Ni-63.

maybe the output can be varied? like a tiny reactor?

I like that futuristic UI.

bad trader noticed it was lastign instead of lasting good video though will still like lol

Can be used to powered missile system or underwater drones.

Some pace makers that have nuclear batteries in them. They last like 100 years or some crazy amount of time along that scale.

I’m not interested in a car battery, but I am interested in a laptop battery or portable power bank that can be used to power electronics when away from the grid.

Sounds really cool !

Now we discovered a new use of diamonds, this is so cool.

Even if they did put these in vehicles: they'd make sure you couldn't own them to potentially open the battery cases.

Output of 3V and nanoAmps going to revolutionize what exactly?

Revolutionary

Would it be possible to use nuclear power plant waste for this concept ?

To be honest, money hunger would end it if it gets popular, after all, those who invest in normal accumulators and fossil fuels wouldn't want to lose money. Like what happened to Tesla's "free" electricity (passively generated electricity which would've been transported wirelessly even, though this idea never was tested) thanks to the afore mentioned people's lack of support

If I’m not mistaken this kind of battery exists since the 70’ or the 80’…

Cheaper, lighter, and faster space probes.

Certainly an interesting challenge. This battery seems to act more like a photovoltaic RTG than an electrochemical cell. In my opinion, a few mm is still too long of a distance for inverse square to keep consumers safe. Enough keep their phones in their pockets or sleep with them that we really should have a cell which does not allow radiation past the cell walls beyond background. It would be interesting to see specific energy and capacity once safety concerns like that are considered. As well, a large concern with radioisotopes acting in smoke detectors is not that there is a radioactive source, but that some have ventured to take a number of them apart and do projects with the americium inside. My guess is that a reason the amount in each smoke detector is kept low so that the volume of devices one has to buy to do anything harmful will get noticed before anyone can do anything inappropriate. Something I'd like to see tried is miniaturization of these individual cells. Sure in this case we need massive lab grown diamonds, but continuous crystals the size of a cell are going to be extremely expensive and volatile. Perhaps the end goal is to see something like exists in Lithium Ion cells where at the microscopic scale, the reactive materials are actually beads surrounded by a graphite layer numerous enough to make a difference. Perhaps at a scale like that, we might be able to make this more cost effective. Tough to imagine connecting so many microscopic PV cells like that, however. Thanks for the awesome video and the interesting thought experiment. Excited to see where this goes.

3300 wh/kg that's astonishing it could be use event in airplane

Please consider the cost of these batteries when talking about automotive and aerospace industry. If we at least get them in our phones, headphones and laptops at a reasonable price that would be more than enough.

❤❤❤ I'm going too say solid slate hydrogen battery, same type of battery but solid no liquid just add water and hydrogen is created for all combustion engine conversion

I want this in my Steam deck!

Given the energy density it would be suitable for cars but the car would have to have sufficient crumple zones in case a crash comes from any side. It makes sense from an accident perspective since the car will be much lighter and nimble to control and avoid a crash. However these cars should have their own dedicated lane if they are road legal.

Battery companies will never allow it . And we know why just as why water is never thought to be fuel for vehicles. Interesting isn't ?

The Brotherhood of Steel would like to know your location

Though diamond filters are a little expensive to manufacture, it is a small battery that can last for a few thousand years, I believe the proposition for this battery was mentioned around 2019, and the process to manufacture it was a bit out of its time, at the time, our advancements in technology were not as advanced as we are now, it’s amazing how far the human race has advanced in the last 20 years

All of this hinges on two things really. 1: What is the cost of "charging" Nickel 62 with a neutron? and 2: Can we have it made outside of shoddy China?

What about instead of driving on it, or such, just cover the vampiric drain battery veichles have.

The only problem is that nuclear battery isn't a battery.

Nuclear photovoltaic battery pls

I dont think this would work for automotive. Imagine you got home and turned your car "off" The Carbon or Nickel would still be going through Radioactive decay meaning technically the batteries are still being used. Same with an airplane or anything that uses it really. You cant truly turn it off unless you can stop the decay somehow

About time.

🎶🎶 I got spurs that jingle, jangle, jingle 🎶🎶

Very good for robots too

I just ask the governments to put my money to good, proper use in the development of the neutron bombs. Consequence free atomic bombs that will drive the prices of land down really fast and be affordable again.

Even if they could make a car with practically infinite fuel/energy, they simply won't)

We really need at least ten western labs to sign off on this before I will accept that the Reds came up with this

imagine a 200kg (3000w) version

So how do you charge them? Make new izotope atoms? As always, energy in = energy out. You want to consume additional +50y of energy now and keep making more such batteries, keeping that -50y of energy debt? All that requires specialized facilities and huge manufacturing costs. It just does not make sense

6:53 - Long Lastign should be Long Lasting XD

LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOO, subject zero

Im geting blue led vibes from this

Remember when samsung had those explosive batteries?😂

If they can pull it off. If is a pretty big word.

I want it on my phone