*Nuclear batteries generate electricity from radioactive decay and can last for decades, far outlasting lithium-ion cells.
*A new wave of startups and research teams across the U.S., Asia, and Europe are competing to commercialize the technology.
*Potential applications include powering remote environments like the Arctic, ocean floor, and lunar missions, as well as consumer devices.
Nuclear batteries are not a new invention, but they’ve fallen out of commercial favor since the 70s, when they were used in pacemakers. Nuclear batteries were an ideal solution for these medical devices due to their longevity, but were ultimately eliminated due to governmental unease about radioactive isotopes walking out into the world untracked and unreturned. Now, a new generation of scientists is working on the return of the nuclear battery, but this time with a much broader variety of applications. The science behind nuclear batteries is advancing faster than ever before, but it remains to be seen whether these innovations will ever hit the commercial market.
Despite the images the term evokes, nuclear batteries do not function like tiny nuclear reactors. Rather, they generate energy by capturing radiation from the decay of small amounts of nuclear fuel, such as plutonium or radioactive isotopes of nickel and hydrogen. This radiation can then be converted into electricity either through semiconductors or thermoelectric devices. And, critically, they last a long, long time before they need to be replaced.
Our world currently runs on lithium-ion batteries, which have enormous benefits due to their versatility, energy density, and ability to function in varying conditions. Their utility has made them nearly ubiquitous in the devices we use every day – lithium-ion batteries now power a whopping 70 percent of all rechargeable devices in the world. But there are also a lot of downsides to the technology – lithium extraction is environmentally damaging and water-intensive, supply chains are extremely consolidated under Chinese control and therefore vulnerable to market shocks and geopolitical volatility, and they just don’t last very long. They wear out quickly and need to be recharged extremely often.
Moreover, since they so rarely need to be swapped out, nuclear batteries could bring energy to some of the most far-flung frontiers imaginable. “With great power competition rising, the ocean floor, Arctic, and lunar surface are becoming the front lines of global security and economic progress — but they remain energy deserts,” says Tyler Bernstein, the Chief Executive Officer of a venture-backed nuclear battery startup called Zeno Power– which recently received $50 million in Series B funding. “With this round of funding, we’re on track to demonstrate full-scale systems in 2026 and deliver the first commercially built nuclear batteries to power frontier environments by 2027,” Bernstein went on to say.
For these reasons, nuclear batteries are now the recipient of a new wave of research and development. Rather than lasting weeks or months, a single nuclear battery can run for decades before it runs out of juice. This means that a commercially viable nuclear battery would disrupt untold numbers of manufacturing and tech sectors, rendering it as a sort of holy grail for battery developers.
As such, the nuclear battery war is heating up in laboratories around the globe. Japan and Korea have each developed nuclear battery prototypes, and China has recently reported major breakthroughs as well. There have also been breakthroughs in labs in the United Kingdom and the United States. Each of these research teams has taken a different approach to developing their nuclear batteries – some are thermoelectric, while others use semiconductors. Different models are alternatively using depleted uranium, carbon-14, and copper-63, among other isotopes.
While there are many promising models, the challenge will lie in bringing them to market. “The technology works, it has many advantages over chemical batteries, and it can be utilized safely,” reports IEEE Spectrum. “But what very few companies have been able to do is find a new market for these batteries and make a product that has an impact.”
The potential applications are enormous, from bringing electricity to outer space or the ocean floor, to a cell phone that never needs to be charged. But this doesn’t mean that their marketing will be easy. “What markets these batteries will find—if they can be commercialized—will depend largely on cost, safety, and licensing issues,” concludes IEEE Spectrum.
=== Oilprice.com ===
