New technology has been developed that uses nuclear waste to generate electricity in a nuclear-powered battery. A team of physicists and chemists from the University of Bristol have grown a man-made diamond that, when placed in a radioactive field, is able to generate a small electrical current.New technology has been developed that uses nuclear waste to generate electricity in a nuclear-powered battery. A team of physicists and chemists from the University of Bristol have grown a man-made diamond that, when placed in a radioactive field, is able to generate a small electrical current. The development could solve some of the problems of nuclear waste, clean electricity generation and battery life.This innovative method for radioactive energy was presented at the Cabot Institute's sold-out annual lecture - 'Ideas to change the world'- on Friday, 25 November.Unlike the majority of electricity-generation technologies, which use energy to move a magnet through a coil of wire to generate a current, the man-made diamond is able to produce a charge simply by being placed in close proximity to a radioactive source.Tom Scott, Professor in Materials in the University's Interface Analysis Centre and a member of the Cabot Institute, said: "There are no moving parts involved, no emissions generated and no maintenance required, just direct electricity generation. By encapsulating radioactive material inside diamonds, we turn a long-term problem of nuclear waste into a nuclear-powered battery and a long-term supply of clean energy."
The team have demonstrated a prototype 'diamond battery' using Nickel-63 as the radiation source. However, they are now working to significantly improve efficiency by utilising carbon-14, a radioactive version of carbon, which is generated in graphite blocks used to moderate the reaction in nuclear power plants. Research by academics at Bristol has shown that the radioactive carbon-14 is concentrated at the surface of these blocks, making it possible to process it to remove the majority of the radioactive material. The extracted carbon-14 is then incorporated into a diamond to produce a nuclear-powered battery.The UK currently holds almost 95,000 tonnes of graphite blocks and by extracting carbon-14 from them, their radioactivity decreases, reducing the cost and challenge of safely storing this nuclear waste.Dr Neil Fox from the School of Chemistry explained: "Carbon-14 was chosen as a source material because it emits a short-range radiation, which is quickly absorbed by any solid material. This would make it dangerous to ingest or touch with your naked skin, but safely held within diamond, no short-range radiation can escape. In fact, diamond is the hardest substance known to man, there is literally nothing we could use that could offer more protection."Despite their low-power, relative to current battery technologies, the life-time of these diamond batteries could revolutionise the powering of devices over long timescales. Using carbon-14 the battery would take 5,730 years to reach 50 per cent power, which is about as long as human civilization has existed.Professor Scott added: "We envision these batteries to be used in situations where it is not feasible to charge or replace conventional batteries. Obvious applications would be in low-power electrical devices where long life of the energy source is needed, such as pacemakers, satellites, high-altitude drones or even spacecraft."There are so many possible uses that we're asking the public to come up with suggestions of how they would utilise this technology by using #diamondbattery."
just shoot nuclear waste into space
University of Bristol
Quote just shoot nuclear waste into spaceThat would be a tremendous waste of expensive rocket fuel, and have the risk of blowing up and spreading radioactive debris over a large area.
Quote from: BaconShelf on November 27, 2016, 04:06:00 PMQuote just shoot nuclear waste into spaceThat would be a tremendous waste of expensive rocket fuel, and have the risk of blowing up and spreading radioactive debris over a large area.It was the only alternative solution I could come up to for "what do we do with all this radioactive waste material". Don't tell me nuclear rockets wouldn't be awesome.
Quote from: Azendac on November 27, 2016, 04:14:04 PMQuote from: BaconShelf on November 27, 2016, 04:06:00 PMQuote just shoot nuclear waste into spaceThat would be a tremendous waste of expensive rocket fuel, and have the risk of blowing up and spreading radioactive debris over a large area.It was the only alternative solution I could come up to for "what do we do with all this radioactive waste material". Don't tell me nuclear rockets wouldn't be awesome.Nuclear rockets along the lines of Project Orion would be cool.But shooting nuclear waste into the sun like so many people think we should do is dumb.
Quote from: BaconShelf on November 27, 2016, 04:15:53 PMQuote from: Azendac on November 27, 2016, 04:14:04 PMQuote from: BaconShelf on November 27, 2016, 04:06:00 PMQuote just shoot nuclear waste into spaceThat would be a tremendous waste of expensive rocket fuel, and have the risk of blowing up and spreading radioactive debris over a large area.It was the only alternative solution I could come up to for "what do we do with all this radioactive waste material". Don't tell me nuclear rockets wouldn't be awesome.Nuclear rockets along the lines of Project Orion would be cool.But shooting nuclear waste into the sun like so many people think we should do is dumb.If we had an orbital elevator to ship garbage up into low-g orbit and then gave the pile a gentle boost with a cheap rocket, then it might be a slightly more feasible line of thinking.
Quote from: Sαndtrap on November 28, 2016, 12:49:34 AMQuote from: BaconShelf on November 27, 2016, 04:15:53 PMQuote from: Azendac on November 27, 2016, 04:14:04 PMQuote from: BaconShelf on November 27, 2016, 04:06:00 PMQuote just shoot nuclear waste into spaceThat would be a tremendous waste of expensive rocket fuel, and have the risk of blowing up and spreading radioactive debris over a large area.It was the only alternative solution I could come up to for "what do we do with all this radioactive waste material". Don't tell me nuclear rockets wouldn't be awesome.Nuclear rockets along the lines of Project Orion would be cool.But shooting nuclear waste into the sun like so many people think we should do is dumb.If we had an orbital elevator to ship garbage up into low-g orbit and then gave the pile a gentle boost with a cheap rocket, then it might be a slightly more feasible line of thinking."If we had a near indestructible material that could withstand the forces required to build a space elevator, then we could do x y z"I get what you're saying, but it will always be a nerd's fantasy and nothing more, unless we have some breakthrough in materials science.
Quote from: Azendac on November 28, 2016, 02:09:40 AMQuote from: Sαndtrap on November 28, 2016, 12:49:34 AMQuote from: BaconShelf on November 27, 2016, 04:15:53 PMQuote from: Azendac on November 27, 2016, 04:14:04 PMQuote from: BaconShelf on November 27, 2016, 04:06:00 PMQuote just shoot nuclear waste into spaceThat would be a tremendous waste of expensive rocket fuel, and have the risk of blowing up and spreading radioactive debris over a large area.It was the only alternative solution I could come up to for "what do we do with all this radioactive waste material". Don't tell me nuclear rockets wouldn't be awesome.Nuclear rockets along the lines of Project Orion would be cool.But shooting nuclear waste into the sun like so many people think we should do is dumb.If we had an orbital elevator to ship garbage up into low-g orbit and then gave the pile a gentle boost with a cheap rocket, then it might be a slightly more feasible line of thinking."If we had a near indestructible material that could withstand the forces required to build a space elevator, then we could do x y z"I get what you're saying, but it will always be a nerd's fantasy and nothing more, unless we have some breakthrough in materials science.Give it some time.
Quote from: Sαndtrap on November 28, 2016, 02:10:57 AMQuote from: Azendac on November 28, 2016, 02:09:40 AMQuote from: Sαndtrap on November 28, 2016, 12:49:34 AMQuote from: BaconShelf on November 27, 2016, 04:15:53 PMQuote from: Azendac on November 27, 2016, 04:14:04 PMQuote from: BaconShelf on November 27, 2016, 04:06:00 PMQuote just shoot nuclear waste into spaceThat would be a tremendous waste of expensive rocket fuel, and have the risk of blowing up and spreading radioactive debris over a large area.It was the only alternative solution I could come up to for "what do we do with all this radioactive waste material". Don't tell me nuclear rockets wouldn't be awesome.Nuclear rockets along the lines of Project Orion would be cool.But shooting nuclear waste into the sun like so many people think we should do is dumb.If we had an orbital elevator to ship garbage up into low-g orbit and then gave the pile a gentle boost with a cheap rocket, then it might be a slightly more feasible line of thinking."If we had a near indestructible material that could withstand the forces required to build a space elevator, then we could do x y z"I get what you're saying, but it will always be a nerd's fantasy and nothing more, unless we have some breakthrough in materials science.Give it some time.I will give it until I die of medically extended old age, but I wont bet on it. I'm just saying it's funny that sandtrap's solution to nuclear dumping in space being unfeasible, is to answer with something even more impossible.
Quote from: Azendac on November 28, 2016, 02:13:43 AMQuote from: Sαndtrap on November 28, 2016, 02:10:57 AMQuote from: Azendac on November 28, 2016, 02:09:40 AMQuote from: Sαndtrap on November 28, 2016, 12:49:34 AMQuote from: BaconShelf on November 27, 2016, 04:15:53 PMQuote from: Azendac on November 27, 2016, 04:14:04 PMQuote from: BaconShelf on November 27, 2016, 04:06:00 PMQuote just shoot nuclear waste into spaceThat would be a tremendous waste of expensive rocket fuel, and have the risk of blowing up and spreading radioactive debris over a large area.It was the only alternative solution I could come up to for "what do we do with all this radioactive waste material". Don't tell me nuclear rockets wouldn't be awesome.Nuclear rockets along the lines of Project Orion would be cool.But shooting nuclear waste into the sun like so many people think we should do is dumb.If we had an orbital elevator to ship garbage up into low-g orbit and then gave the pile a gentle boost with a cheap rocket, then it might be a slightly more feasible line of thinking."If we had a near indestructible material that could withstand the forces required to build a space elevator, then we could do x y z"I get what you're saying, but it will always be a nerd's fantasy and nothing more, unless we have some breakthrough in materials science.Give it some time.I will give it until I die of medically extended old age, but I wont bet on it. I'm just saying it's funny that sandtrap's solution to nuclear dumping in space being unfeasible, is to answer with something even more impossible.Getting ahead of yourself there matey. I've no solution to nuclear dumping in space. Just the occassional thought or suggestion to consider. I'm aware of the difficulties associated with building a giant rope out to space.
Quote from: Sαndtrap on November 28, 2016, 02:16:32 AMQuote from: Azendac on November 28, 2016, 02:13:43 AMQuote from: Sαndtrap on November 28, 2016, 02:10:57 AMQuote from: Azendac on November 28, 2016, 02:09:40 AMQuote from: Sαndtrap on November 28, 2016, 12:49:34 AMQuote from: BaconShelf on November 27, 2016, 04:15:53 PMQuote from: Azendac on November 27, 2016, 04:14:04 PMQuote from: BaconShelf on November 27, 2016, 04:06:00 PMQuote just shoot nuclear waste into spaceThat would be a tremendous waste of expensive rocket fuel, and have the risk of blowing up and spreading radioactive debris over a large area.It was the only alternative solution I could come up to for "what do we do with all this radioactive waste material". Don't tell me nuclear rockets wouldn't be awesome.Nuclear rockets along the lines of Project Orion would be cool.But shooting nuclear waste into the sun like so many people think we should do is dumb.If we had an orbital elevator to ship garbage up into low-g orbit and then gave the pile a gentle boost with a cheap rocket, then it might be a slightly more feasible line of thinking."If we had a near indestructible material that could withstand the forces required to build a space elevator, then we could do x y z"I get what you're saying, but it will always be a nerd's fantasy and nothing more, unless we have some breakthrough in materials science.Give it some time.I will give it until I die of medically extended old age, but I wont bet on it. I'm just saying it's funny that sandtrap's solution to nuclear dumping in space being unfeasible, is to answer with something even more impossible.Getting ahead of yourself there matey. I've no solution to nuclear dumping in space. Just the occassional thought or suggestion to consider. I'm aware of the difficulties associated with building a giant rope out to space.It's just got me laughing at how silly the logic involved is, it's like saying"we can't make project orion work, because it's launch will end all life on earth. So the solution is to put all life on earth inside the orion spacecraft and go from there"Solving a difficult problem by using a much more difficult unsolved problem.
QuoteUniversity of Bristolayy
Quote from: Fedorekd on November 27, 2016, 04:09:22 PMQuoteUniversity of Bristolayyyou go there?
This is really neat. I do hope, however, that nuclear skeptics understand that nuclear waste isn't really much of a pressing issue. Its containment is already fairly simple, inexpensive, and safe.
Quote from: Simseoh on November 28, 2016, 05:01:22 PMQuote from: Fedorekd on November 27, 2016, 04:09:22 PMQuoteUniversity of Bristolayyyou go there?yeah
Scientists create nuclear waste powered energy generation method
