105
Solid-state nuclear battery claims 100-year power for ultra-low energy devices
(interestingengineering.com)
this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2026
105 points (94.1% liked)
Technology
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Not this thing again. Nuclear batteries have been around for decades, it's nothing new although it makes the rounds in the media for some reason every now and again. Yes they last a long time in theory, in practice there isn't really an environment they can live for that long in. It just means the lifetime isn't limited by the amount of energy the battery can provide and the failure mode will be something else. The thing that always gets buried in the media is the kicker: These devices produce at maximum a couple of nanowatts. That's just about enough to lift an ants dick if you are lucky. These devices do have their own very niche and specific uses, however for the general public there are zero uses. And don't go shouting but what if they scale it up or they are going to make it much more powerful. They won't, that's not possible and they are frankly very shitty batteries in terms of just about any metric you can throw at them. Their only real upside is the extremely long lifespan.
Read all about these specific devices here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betavoltaic_device Or atomic batteries in general here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_battery
Yes these things are pretty neat and very interesting technology. No they do not serve any real purpose for the general public, so I have no idea why the media always wants to run with stories like these. It isn't really helpful tech startups like Betavolt for example shout out nonsense to get funding and the media just takes their word at face value, even when what they claim is physically impossible and not backed up by even their own numbers in any way. This article is about an US based startup that uses the exact same tech and tries to make the exact same sort of noise.
You dismiss this so easily but as an operator of an occasional ant dick lifting machine this is my dream come true.
Have you taken an OSHA-approved ant dick lift certification course?
could this become lemmy copypasta for ants?
It's perfect for my ant dick lifter!
Reframe your thoughts.
Instead of a continually powered device, this would be perfect for a periodic accumulation -> use device.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TGbtzlWb-Kc
Doesn't that sort of circuit involve a nontrivial amount of resistance in order for the charge to accumulate in the first place? Because the current from such a battery has very little amperage...