I mean this sounds cool, I hope it doest get put in toys to be wasted in a landfill
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The company said the next-generation battery had already entered the pilot testing stage and will eventually be mass produced for commercial applications like phones and drones.
Scientists in the Soviet Union and United States were able to develop the technology for use in spacecraft, underwater systems and remote scientific stations, however the thermonuclear batteries were both costly and bulky.
The quest to miniaturise and commercialise nuclear batteries was taken up under China’s 14th Five-Year Plan designed to strengthen the country’s economy between 2021 and 2025, while research institutions in the US and Europe are also working on their development.
Their small size means they could be used in series to produce more power, with the company imagining mobile phones that never need to be charged and drones that can fly forever.
Its layered design also means it will not catch fire or explode in response to sudden force, Betavolt claims, while also being capable of working in temperatures ranging from -60C to 120C.
“The atomic energy battery developed by Betavolt is absolutely safe, has no external radiation, and is suitable for use in medical devices such as pacemakers, artificial hearts and cochleas in the human body,” the company said.
The original article contains 403 words, the summary contains 199 words. Saved 51%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Just what we need, radiation in our wast stream.
And when something goes wrong you and your family get to die from radiation exposure. But it’s OK because they told us it’s “perfectly safe”.
I agree. Just like pens are safe until someone stabs you with it.
And pillows are perfectly safe until you get suffocated by one.
And ~~water is perfectly...~~
What's your point?
These aren't nuclear reactors. This isn't a miniaturized Chernobyl in your pocket, a delicate balance between control rods and radioactive material maintaining the right proximity to critical mass. This is a rock that's (metaphorically) kinda warm and takes some decades to become noticably "cooler" and we can use that temperature differential to power tiny devices (and we have used these devices continuously since the 70s)
The thing that nuclear reactors (and weapons) use is the chain reaction of certain radioactive materials whereby the decay of atoms can be triggered by the decay of a previous atom. That is not the mechanism nuclear batteries use and they in fact are incapable of that chain reaction; the radioactive materials that nuclear batteries are made of don't work the same way as the special isotopes of uranium or plutonium.
I want to believe this is true but this reeks of Chinese State propaganda bullshit.
That government is so full of shit, their mouth and their asshole are the same thing.
Especially the part where they drop that they expect to reach 1 watt before the end of 2025 (4 orders of magnitude higher than current 100 microwatts)
This community serves to share top posts on Hacker News with the wider fediverse.
Rules
0. Keep it legal