Nuclear Batteries

by
Madhavan Prabath
B180058CH
Chemical Engineering Department
Introduction
• A nuclear battery is a device which uses energy from the decay of a radioactive isotope to
generate electricity. It differs from the regular nuclear reactors in one way. In nuclear batteries no
chain reaction takes place.
• They can’t be charged or recharged like electrochemical batteries.
• They extremely long life and high energy density but they are really expensive.
• Due to their long life they are used in places where regular and repeated maintenance of
equipments is difficult.
• Eg: Spacecrafts, Pacemakers, Underwater Systems etc.
What is the need of newer and efficient
source of energy?
• In Fossil Fuels and Nuclear, most of the loss happens because we use the energy for a single
purpose, such as producing electricity or thrust, rejecting the remaining two-thirds as waste heat.
•  Only Combined-Cycle or Combined Heat & Power Natural Gas technologies use more than 40%
of their heat. 
• Beyond that, in electrical storage, up to 30% of all kilowatt hours stored are lost. 
• Another 5% is lost during grid transmission from the plant to the end user.  
• And the population is steadily increasing and is expected to hit 8 billion shortly and 10 billion by
2040.
• Percapita consumption of electrical energy of a person in a year is approximately 3000 kWh.
• But still more than 12% of world population still doesn’t have electricity.
Worlds most electricity Consuming countries

• Note that even tough India’s production capacity is 3rd in the world the average consumption of a person
is well below the global consumption.
• Even till Oct 2020, 13% of Indian population still doesn’t have the access to the country’s grid.
History
• The Nuclear Battery technology was first discovered by Henry Moseley in 1913.
• Much research was done in 1950s to 1960s due to the rising applications to power space crafts
which don’t have constant source of energy.
• One such example is the NASA’s “The Voyager”.
• The Voyager
Launched in September 1977

“ Multi-Hundred Watt Radioisotope

Thermoelectric Generators”
(MHW-RTGs) – 158 watts
Nuclear-Powered Cardiac Pacemakers:
• RCA – Radio Corporation of America
• First used in 1973 it was used on 139 patients.
• In 2007, 9 out of 139 people were alive and the pace
makers were still in perfectly working. Most of them
have still outlived their owners.
• The fuel used is Plutonium-238 has a half life of 88
years and expected to work perfectly even past that.

present details unknown *

• Other examples involve nuclear batteries used in “Small Radio receivers” and “Hearing aids”.
Classification:
Classification is based on the type of conversion of energy.
a) Thermal Converters
b) Non-thermal converters
Thermal Conversion
These are of four types:
1. Thermionic conversion: Thermionic converter consists of a hot electrode which emits electrons
over a space-charge barrier to a cooler electrode producing useful power output.
2. Thermoelectric conversion: The Thermoelectric method was used in the nuclear pace makers
use in 1973. There is a thermocouple in the Pacemaker where the temperature gradient was
maintained by the heat produced from the nuclear battery.
3. Thermophotovoltaic conversion: The Thermophotovoltaic cells works similar to photovoltaic
cells except these convert Infra-Red Rays into electricity.
4. Stirling Generators: Stirling Radioisotope generator is a Stirling engine driven by the
temperature difference produced by a radioactive isotope.
• Radioactive thermoelectric generator
GPHS-RTG (General-purpose Heat
Source Radioisotope
Thermoelectric
Generator)

• Stirling radioisotope generator

 Non-thermal Conversion
a) Electrostatic conversion:
Energy can be extracted from emitted charged particles when their charge builds up in a conductor,
thus creating an electrostatic potential. Without a dissipation mode the voltage can increase up to
the energy of the radiated particles, which may range from several kilovolts in case beta radiation
up to megavolts in case of alpha radiation.
The built up Electrostatic energy is converted into usable electricity in 2 ways
1. Direct-Charging Generator: This has a capacitor which is constantly charged by a current of
charged particles from an electrode consisting of radioactive element.
2. Electrochemical Conversion: Electromechanical atomic batteries use the buildup of charge
between two plates to pull one bendable plate towards the other, until the two plates touch,
discharge, equalizing the electrostatic buildup, and spring back. The mechanical motion
produced can be used to produce electricity through flexing of a piezoelectric material or
through a linear generator. Milliwatts of power are produced in pulses depending on the charge
rate.
b) Radiovoltaic (RV) conversion:
Radiovoltaic (RV) devise convert the energy of ionization radiation directly into electricity using a
semiconductor junction (similar to conversion of energy from photons to electricity). Depending on
the radiations the devices are called Alphavoltaic, Betavoltaic, Gammavoltaic.
Beta voltaic are most preferred due to the less amount of radioactive damage.
c) Radiophotovoltaic (RPV) conversion:
The RPV device uses the emitted particles to convert them into light using radioluminescent
material. The light produced is then used to generate electricity. And based the emitted particles
they can be more precisely named as Alphaphotovoltaic, Betaphotovoltaic, Gammaphotovoltaic.
The efficiency can be increased when RPV conversion is combined with RV conversion.
• Direct Charging Generator

• RadiationVolatic Convertors
Modern Nuclear Batteries
• According to Advanced Nuclear and Production
Expert Group (ANPEG) the batteries can be
brought down to size of cars.
• Mass production in assembly lines like cars.
• The power supply can be from a minimum of
10 MW.
• This is large enough to powers 8000 homes.

• Such modules can be used to power desalination

plants for over 1.5 lakh persons or can be use to Concept Design*
powers high energy consuming places like Malls, Skyscrapers, etc.
• In the above picture is a Nuclear battery. It is being shipped to construction site of Panama Canal
in 1961.
• This is to state that at remote locations where we can access electricity we can install one of these
batteries. I can power all the necessary equipments.
• This can significantly reduce the wastages.
• Most electric generators can only utilize 1/3rd of the potential they have due to losses while
converting heat to electricity, grid transmission losses.
• These can power a small village. Act as an independent grid.
• Residual Heat can be used to warm houses or even power some appliances which need heat to
function on (some appliances in kitchens, water heaters).
• Significantly reduces amount of fuel pipelines and transmission losses.
• As the transmission lines can be buried they are resistant to weather conditions. Can prevent
burning up of lines.
• They can easily be installed, refuelled in days.
• Since they are very much transportable they can be used to power villages and towns in far
distances from general electric gird.

• Since they are not as big as full nuclear reactor

they need minimal space (as compared to solar
energy sites or wind farms) controlling of
radiations can be much easier.
• Low carbon footprint.

comparative figure*
Nano Diamond Battery (NDB)
• Latest application of the nuclear batteries concept.
• These batteries have estimated life of 28000 years.
• The fuel is spent nuclear fuel (Uranium and Plutonium).
• This idea proposed by the company “Arkenlight” lead by Professors Tom Scott and Neil Fox.
Arkenlight is the natural progression of the ASPIRE diamond group housed at the University of
Bristol.
• Their initial applications was to power a wrist watch.
• Initially applied this on wrist watches because wrist watches’ energy consumption and NDBs
output are nearly the same (around 2 micro watts).
• Their uses can be extended to pacemakers and multiple NDBs can be put together they can
power displays of most appliances, insulin pumps and appliances with similar energy
consumption.
• The battery consists of nuclear waste which is surrounded by multiple layers of synthetic
diamonds layers.
• Diamonds are the most conductive material of heat. They conduct the heat to the NDB’s
transducer which converts the heat into electricity.
• All these can be done and fit in a device as small as finger nails.
• But all the above mentioned properties and construction makes the battery expensive.
• With enough time and research the batteries can be made powerful enough to power
machineries and space probes.

Challenges Faced:
• Even though the Beta radiations are no harmful the batteries need to prevent the radioactive
emissions from the device.
• With these batteries in public use they might under constant wear and tear. So making them
resistant to such properties will additionally increase the cost of the battery.
14
C (Carbon-14) Beta batteries
• This is a Carbon-14 based Diamond Betavoltaic Battery (DBB).
• Betavoltaic devices are neither chemical batteries nor photovoltaic cells yet have characteristics of
the two.
• The Carbon-14 is a radioactive element with a half-life of 5700 years. The functioning is very similar
to NDBs.
• The occurrence of C14 is very rare in nature but are present in the use control rods of the nuclear
power plants. The C14 is formed when the graphite layer present in control rods is exposed to
immense radiations of the reactor.
• The Beta rays emitted from the isotope collides with the electrons of the encasing and pushes it to
excited state. The electrons release energy back while returning to the ground state and this
produces electricity. This is just like photovoltaic cells but instead of photons, the Beta rays excite
the electrons.
• One major application of the C14-DBB is the trickle-charge of capacitors, implying an increased
power output can be released intermittently to enable more power hungry applications.
• Can be mechanically stacked in series or parallel for greater power.
• Example of power output decrease with time of 3 betavoltaics devices with initial power outputs
of 0.1, 0.5 and 1 uW.

• Values for single layer battery cell (10mm3) composed of C13 and C14 layers with iridium
contacts.
MPP =maximum point power
Voc = Open circuit voltage
Isc= short circuit current
Tritium (3H) Beta Batteries
H3-DBB
• These are just like the C14-DBB batteries.
• Starting power output of 2 µW with a 12.3 year half-life.
• Can be mechanically stacked in series or parallel for greater power or lifetime.
• Pairs perfectly with capacitors for intermittent higher power applications.
• Widest cross section of market applications.
• Just like the C14-DBB the tritium batteries can be used as trickle charges capacitors.
• Betavoltaic devices have exceptional specific energy and energy density. This allows for small form
factors that are beyond the capabilities of current battery technology.
• Most of the beta voltaic batteries attain a maximum efficiency of 6-8%.
• Example of power output decrease with time of 3 betavoltaics devices with initial power outputs
of 0.1, 0.5 and 1 uW.

• The H3-DBV data presented in this document is based on simulations and the ongoing research
efforts on Betavoltaic cell prototype production.
MPP =maximum point power
Voc = Open circuit voltage
Isc= short circuit current
References
1. https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/energy-consumption-by-country
2. http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2015/ph241/degraw2/
3. https://www.reuters.com/article/health-heart-pacemaker-dc-idUKN1960427320071219
4. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2021/01/25/what-would-nuclear-batteries-do-for-u
s/?
sh=26a05804e9dd
5. https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/green-tech/a35970222/radioactive-diamond-batt
ery-will-run-for-28000-years
/
6. https://
www.indiatimes.com/technology/news/radioactive-diamond-battery-last-28000-years-537510.
html
7. https://www.arkenlight.co.uk/
Thankyou