By Anthony Henson, July 20, 2022
Long-lasting batteries made from the graphite waste materials of nuclear reactors are the next generation hype to replace current chemical batteries. The so-called nuclear diamond battery does actually use a lab-grown diamond to maximize the efficiency of the battery. Combined with the radioactive material, in theory, a nuclear diamond battery could last thousands of years.
The concept was first developed by scientists at the University of Bristol in 2017 and by 2020 this research formed into a business, Arkenlight. Arkenlight does not refer to its battery technology as nuclear or diamond, instead, the company has coined the phrase radiovoltaic. It’s much more palatable than using the term radioactive or nuclear.
Can the so-called Nuclear diamond batteries ever power electric vehicles? No is the answer because the size of the battery pack will have to be significantly larger than the vehicle. This is the view from Arkenlight themselves and you can read more detail in about nuclear diamond batteries by reading the following wired.com article.
The reason why we chose to feature the YouTube video from TechSpace is that it is an example of hype versus reality. The reality is, that so-called nuclear batteries will only ever be able to power low voltage devices such as wearables, smartphones, and possibly laptops.
And if you are worried, the actual radioactivity generated by nuclear diamond batteries is well within legal safety levels. But such technology faces regulatory barriers, as such, it could be decades before so-called nuclear diamond batteries enter the consumer market.
