Imagine a cell phone that never needs to be recharged.
Oops- now the landfill is radioactive.
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Watch What You Say
Periodically, I get comments on this blog saying that this place is all talk, and complaining that I should take action, or at least advocate for it. This story is why I don’t do that. Read more…
3 Comments
it's just Boris · April 6, 2021 at 7:21 am
Of course, from the phone maker standpoint this would put a crimp in the yearly upgrade cycle… Which would make a small additional dose rate worth it, perhaps, just to see them trying to rationalize it.
I don’t see 28k year lifetimes, though. Apart from the half-life issue, most devices like this ultimately rely on a semiconductor junction between materials with different dopings to convert something – heat, ionization, light – to an electrical potential. Over time the dopants will diffuse across the boundary layer and the device will fail. This same phenomenon is why solar cells, for instance, have a limited lifespan.
SiG · April 6, 2021 at 9:41 am
There has been talk about the Radioactive Diamond Batteries on some of the trade magazine sites for a while, and I’ve leaned toward the approach of “show me a working prototype and some evidence” about the story. I obviously don’t expect them to show me evidence the battery actually worked for 28,000 years, but some good data to demonstrate why they think their particular approach can last that long.
There’s a long history of high tech startups trying to get people to invest in them when there really isn’t anything there that justifies it.
it's just Boris · April 6, 2021 at 9:45 pm
Agreed.
All I want for Christmas is a Shipstone…
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