The US Airforce is said to have invented a battery lasting 30 years(!). It is made from some very weak radioactive material (it’s still enough to power a laptop) for that time. The news has been spread by www.nextenergynews.com and I don’t know if to believe it or not. It has not yet been published by any major news source. It is still a gossip.
MSNBC.com has published some news in 2005 that researchers have made a battery lasting 10 years and the radioactive material would be tritium, a radioactive gas.
Anyway, I can’t imagine myself holding a laptop on my feet, browsing and blogging and at the same time knowing my feet are at a distance of a few inches from a radioactive source. 🙂 No matter how weak it is, how do I know it couldn’t provoke cancer or other disease, related to radioactive exposure. What are they going to cover the material in? Lead? What if I break that battery? What if I tear the lead? What if my kid does that, not knowing what’s inside? What if every house has such a battery, and what if the cumulated effects of all the batteries turned the world into a BIG Chernobyl?
I don’t know if such device will be released into the already-toxic battery market, or if I’m being too scared by nuclear activity. It would last longer, but what would be the effects? Would it be worth the sacrifice?
Thank you for the article.. I was unaware of the radiation issues before I read this. Can you tell me if there is any danger of radiation from something like a replacement laptop battery?
People are always so afraid of change. It’s sad, really
I don’t care if you can power a jet with that thing, and pay me a million dollars a day- no way is that abomination going anywhere near my lap!
You’re worrying too much. The type of radiation is alpha particles, which can be blocked even by a single sheet of unfolded paper. As for Chernobyl, it’s famous because a) the russian government did not propperly fund it b) the scientists maintaining were performing in internationaly illegal expiriments, and c) they took numerous shortcuts on the shielding process. And even then, more radiation was recieved from the sun that day then fron Chernobyl.
In short, don’t worry about your kids breaking/eating it. Worry about the people who automaticaly connect the word ‘Radiation’ with ‘Causing a Nuclear Holocost’.
Tritium radiation is so weak that it can’t even penetrate your skin.
And if you are concerned about your kid opening a battery, do you know that currently used Li-ion rechargeable batteries can explode?
They have had nuclear batteries for a long time now. Search plutonium pacemaker, there are people who still have them.
Are freaking kidding me, do you even know what radiation is? You can shield anything! it’s mostly a mater of weight is the problem. nuke subs shielding mass is 60% up to 99% water and up to 40% diesel fuel. Personally I received less radiation from the boat then I did from natural environmental radiation, i.e. the sun, so next time you go out side, cover up your nuts, it’s dangerous out there.