ATOMIC BATTERY

The terms atomic battery, nuclear battery, tritium battery and radioisotope battery are used to describe a device which uses the emissions from a radioactive isotope to generate electricity.

Devices for converting natural radioactive decay directly into electricity are nothing new. Nuclear battery technology began in 1913, when Henry Moseley first demonstrated the Beta Cell. The field received considerable research attention for applications requiring long-life power sources for space needs during the 50s and 60s. Over the years many types and methods have been developed. The scientific principles are well known, but modern nano-scale technology and new wide bandgap semiconductors have created new devices and interesting material properties not previously available.

Batteries using the energy of radioisotope decay to provide long-lived power (10-20 year) are being developed internationally. Conversion techniques can be grouped into two types: thermal and non-thermal. The thermal converters (whose output power is a function of a temperature differential) include thermoelectric and thermionic generators. The non-thermal converters (whose output power is not a function of a temperature difference) extract a fraction of the incident energy as it is being degraded into heat rather than using thermal energy to run electrons in a cycle. Atomic batteries usually have an efficiency of 0.1–5%.