BATTERY

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2. 1. Why Nuclear Battery?
2. Historical Developments
3. Understanding the terms used.
4. Direct charging generators.
5. Betavoltaics
6. Fuel considerations.
7. Nuclear accelerated generators.
8. Applications
9.Advantages
10.Conclusion
11.References
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3. 1. Chemical batteries require frequent replacements and
are bulky.
2. Fuel and Solar cells are expensive and requires sunlight
respectively.
3. Need for compact, reliable, light weight and long life
power supplies.
4. Nuclear Battery uses emissions from radioisotope to
generate electricity so there is no fear of hazardous
radiations.
5. Nuclear batteries have lifespan up to decades.
6. Can be used in easily inaccessible and extreme
conditions and reduce the rate of replacements.
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4. Radioisotopes
Radioisotopes are artificially
produced, unstable atoms of a chemical
element, which have a different number of
neutrons in the nucleus, but the same
number of protons and the same chemical
properties.
Radiations
•Alpha - These are fast moving helium
atoms. They have high energy, typically in the
MeV range. They also are magnetic in nature
•Beta - These are fast moving electrons. They
typically have energies in the range of a few
hundred keV to several MeV.
•Gamma - These are photons, just like
light, except of much higher energy.
Fig- Sources of radiation[1]
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5.  This form of nuclear-electric generator dates back to 1913.
This method makes use of kinetic energy as well as the
magnetic property of Alpha particles to generate current.
It consists of a core composed of radioactive elements.
Primary generator consists of a LC tank circuit.
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6. LC circuit produces the oscillations required for transformer
operation.
Few applications have been found in the past for the
extremely low currents and inconveniently high voltages.
Oscillator/transformer systems are employed to reduce the
voltages, then rectifiers are used to transform the AC power
back to direct current.
The Moseley model guided other efforts
experimental batteries generating electricity
to build
from the
emissions of radioactive elements.
Direct charging generators
(cont..)
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7. Schematic Diagram of an LC Resonant Circuit
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3
2
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Fig 1-Schematic OF LC Ckt
1 -- Capacitor
2 -- Inductor
3-- Core with radioactive elements
4-- Transformer T primary winding
5 -- Resistance
6 -- Secondary winding
7 -- Load
4 7
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8. 1 -- Capacitor
2 -- Inductor
3 -- Core with radioactive elements
4-- Transformer T primary winding
5 -- Secondary winding
6 -- Load
Fig 2-Equivalent ckt diagram of DCG[2]
Ref-Google Image
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9. 2. Betavoltaics
1. Betavoltaics is an alternative energy technology that promises
vastly extended battery life and power density over current
technologies.
2. Uses energy from beta particles.
3. Beta particles emitted by radioactive gas is captured in Silicon
wafer coated with diode material.
4. It is similar to the mechanism of converting sunlight into
electricity in a solar panel.
5. Absorbed radiation creates electron-hole pair which in turn
results in the generation of electric current.
Beta Voltaic cell (Google Image)
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10. Fig 3- Beta voltaic cell [2]
•Electrode A (P-region) has a positive potential
while electrode B (N-region) is negative.
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11. 1. The primary use for betavoltaics is for remote and long-
term use, such as spacecraft requiring electrical power for
a decade or two.
2. Recent progress has prompted some to suggest using
betavoltaics to trickle-charge conventional batteries in
consumer devices, such as cell phones and laptop
computers.
3. As early as 1973, betavoltaics were suggested for use in
long-term medical devices such as pacemakers
Google Image
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12. 1. As radioactive material emits, it slowly decreases in
activity . Thus, over time a betavoltaic device will
provide less power.
2. For practical devices, this decrease occurs over a period
of many years.
3. For tritium devices, the half-life is 12.32 years.
4. UK government's Health Protection Agency Advisory
Group on Ionizing Radiation declared the health risks of
tritium exposure.
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13. The major criterions considered in the selection of fuels are:
Avoidance of gamma in the decay chain
Half life( Should be more)
Cost should be less.
Any radioisotope in the form of a solid that gives off alpha
or beta particles can be utilized in the nuclear battery.
 The most powerful source of energy known is radium-226.
 However Strontium-90 may also be used in this Battery
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14. Fig-Promethium
Google Image
Promethium-147 is obtained as the oxide or chloride, in
milligram quantities.
This isotope does not emit gamma rays, and its radiation
has a relatively small penetration depth in matter and a
relatively long half-life.
In atomic batteries, the beta particles emitted by
promethium-147 are converted into electric current by
sandwiching a small Pm source between two semiconductor
plates. These batteries have a useful lifetime of about five
years.
The first promethium-based battery was assembled in 1964
and generated a few milliwatts of power.
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15. David Weber, owner and founder of Executive
Engineering, is developing a technology, the nuclear
accelerated generator (NAG).
The main breakthrough represented by the technology is
the direct conversion of nuclear energy into low-power
electrical energy.
NAG technology is intended for use with isotopes that
emit beta-minus radiation .
Isotopes that are theoretically compatible with the
technology include strontium-90 (Sr-90), nickle-63 (Ni-
63), and promethium-147.
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16. Google Image
This mechanism has the potential to extract between 60%
to 85% of the available energy from the electrons ejected
from a beta-radiation-emitting isotope in a large-scale NAG
system.
Weber calculated that a 0.2 mg sample of Pm-147 would
enable 0.25 W MEMS devices .
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17. FUEL SOURCE
Isotopes are the fuel of all Nuclear Accelerated
Generators.
Radioactive isotopes are continually being produced as
part of radioactive waste
Current estimates place the amount of such waste in the
United States at over 100 million gallons.
Isotope production at existing levels costs less than the
current cost of fuel even if only assuming a longevity of
one half life and no trade-in value.
Once placed as fuel into a NAG, these radioactive fuels
could theoretically last from approximately three years to
more than 400 years
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18. Application
 Nuclear isotopic power will bring to fruition such things
as particle beam weapons, ion-powered space
planes, nuclear powered jet aircraft, high-powered laser
canons, nuclear powered tanks, nuclear powered naval
ships and, even, cryogenic coolers.
 Nag devices could also be easily adapted to power large
metropolitan areas, forward military bases and any other
application where dependable power is needed in
remote areas for any reason.
 NAG devices do all these things, it can do it cheaper
and more efficiently than current technology.
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19. Advantages
 Since the Isotope supplies all the power the device requires
to operate no outside power source are needed.
Since the availability of the atomic isotopes is more than
ample, costs of this fuel should be considerably less than
either conventional atomic fuel or fossil fuel.
Further, since the casement of the NAG is not very
expensive, the cost of replacing damaged and/or broken parts
is quite small.
NAG is one of the safes devices on the planet. We cannot get
a meltdown situation, blow it up, or use the isotope to make a
bomb.
From an emission point of view, it is a safe device to handle.
The device is self-contained with little or no X-Rays .
No Beta particles are ever emitted outside the casing of the
device.
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20. APPLICATIONS
1. Space applications:
 Unaffected by long period of darkness and radiation
belts like Van-Allen belt.
 Compact and lighter in weight.
 Can avoid refrigeration/heating equipments required
for storage batteries.
 High power for long time independent of
atmospheric conditions.
 NASA is trying to harness this technology in space
applications.
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21. 2. Medical applications:
 In Cardiac pacemakers.
Batteries should have reliability and longevity to
avoid frequent replacements.
3. Mobile devices:
Nuclear powered laptop battery X cell-N has 7000-
8000 times more life than normal laptop batteries.
4. Automobiles
No need for frequent recharging as in case of present
electric vehicles.
5. Under-water sea probes and sea sensors
APPLICATIONS (cont..)
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22. Life span- minimum of 10 years.
Reliable electricity.
Amount of energy obtained is very high.
Lighter with high energy density.
Less waste generation.
Reduces green house and associated effects
Fuel used is the nuclear waste from nuclear fission.
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23. 8.CONCLUSION
require small
 Small compact devices of future
batteries.
 Nuclear batteries increase functionality, reliability and
longevity.
 Until final disposal all Radiation Protection Standards
must be met.
 Batteries of the near future.
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24. 1J. P. Blanchard "Stretching the boundaries of
nuclear technology", The Bridge, vol. 32, no.
4, pp.27 -32. 2002
2 H. Guo and A. Lal "Nano power beta voltaic
micro batteries", IEEE Proc. 12th Int. Conf. Solid
State Sens., Actuators Microsyst, pp.36 -39. 2003
3 H. Loferski, J.J Elleman, "Construction of a
promethium-147 atomic battery,". IEEE
Trans., on Electron Devices, vol. 3, pp. 738–
746, Dec. 1964
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