this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2024
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A tiny radioactive battery could keep your future phone running for 50 years::A glowing horizon for phones

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[–] Papanca@lemmy.world 78 points 9 months ago (5 children)

And now for 50 years worth of security updates for a phone like that. Not to mention what people might do with throwing a phone in the trash or something

[–] andrew@lemmy.stuart.fun 26 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (5 children)

I'd take it if it was a reasonable price, like 1k, and if I could just swap it into new phones every time I upgraded.

The problem is, power requirements tend to increase as computation power increases. And no doubt battery tech will improve in those 50 years.

[–] Toes@ani.social 9 points 9 months ago (1 children)

They already sell phones over 1k that are expected to last ~4 years. You'll need to tag another zero or two to that price to incentivize manufacturers.

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[–] obinice@lemmy.world 11 points 9 months ago (2 children)

The EU are going to mandate removable batteries in phones, so I don't see any reason you can't take a standardised battery that lasts decades and swap it into your next phone, if they're all designed properly with compatibility with this miracle battery in mind :-D

[–] shasta@lemm.ee 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Perfect. Then they'll sell the battery separately and it'll cost $5000

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[–] DemBoSain@midwest.social 63 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Nickel-63 is pretty safe as radioactive elements go. It's proposed as an energy source for pacemakers.

Standford says 0.1mm of plastic will absorb all emissions.

[–] pelya@lemmy.world 44 points 9 months ago

At this moment, 1 gram of radioactive Nickel-63 costs around 4,000 USD. Nickel-63 isotope does not occur in nature, it is obtained by irradiating Nickel-62 inside a nuclear reactor.

[–] LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net 19 points 9 months ago (2 children)

What happens when the casing get punctured? When you mass produce these devices these things will happen.

[–] jlh@lemmy.jlh.name 14 points 9 months ago (6 children)

Probably the same as with tritium lumes. Only dangerous if you swallow the unshielded nickel.

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[–] bitwolf@lemmy.one 5 points 9 months ago

Surely the battery itself would have sufficient protection on top of the devices chassis offering protection.

I can't say a Lithium Ion battery leaking in the body would bode very either.

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago (2 children)
[–] Kethal@lemmy.world 6 points 9 months ago

It's a a rival of Hardvard.

[–] akwd169@sh.itjust.works 3 points 9 months ago

Most prestigious school in all of milwalkee

[–] Professorozone@lemmy.world 45 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Like a phone would last 50 years.

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[–] ZetaLightning94@lemmy.world 23 points 9 months ago

Sounds like alot of infertility and ass cancer in the future... lets see how this plays out

[–] Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 22 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Ya know we keep these things in our pants right?

[–] GoodEye8@lemm.ee 47 points 9 months ago (5 children)

No offense but it's a "I wasn't paying attention in high school physics" comment. It being beta decay with a half-life of 100 years should already indicate it's relatively safe. In fact someone else in this thread already already added the references showing how safe it is. If it's safe enough to power a pacemaker it's safe enough to sit in your phone that sits your pocket.

Personally I think that battery would have much bigger issues than safety, such as power requirements which are much harder to control with nuclear decay. Also obviously the device itself deprecating before the battery because tech will definitely advance a lot in 50 years, I imagine after a decade the phone will be useless. And finally the pricing considering Ni-63 doesn't occur in nature which means you need a specific process to create the materials necessary for the batter.

[–] Isoprenoid@programming.dev 21 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I imagine after a decade the phone will be useless.

[–] GoodEye8@lemm.ee 10 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I'll concede, useless was a bit harsh. Let's say "no longer fit for the average user" considering the average lifespan of a mobile phone is 2-4 years and a company doing software and security updates for a decade is very rare.

You are very much the exception here.

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[–] terminhell@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Nuclear power at small scale is already in use in devices. Some medical devices, smoke detectors etc. As long as there is proper shielding, the enclosure is robust enough, and the overall device is made easily serviceable, I'm all for it. I can understand the fear sentiment of anything flagged as radioactive, but radiation is all around us already. Idk, but the less we can ditch super toxic and explosive lithium the better.

[–] Person264@lemmings.world 16 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The radioactive source isn't used for power in smoke detectors, it's used to detect smoke. What small scale devices use radioactivity actually for power?

[–] terminhell@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

My grampa had a pacemaker that was.

Edit: Source - https://osrp.lanl.gov/pacemakers.shtml

Edit2: For the smoke detectors, i know its not what powers it per se, as far as the electronics that sound the alarm and such. More pointing out it contains radioactive material, and is something in every (hopefully) house, and you likely walk by it often.

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[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Here's the real issue with the bs fluff title and complete fabrication of what these can be used for. It says in the article the battery makes 100 microwatts at 3v. Well that's an insanely small wattage. Your phone requires like 2 to 10 watts when youre on it. Regular watts.

One single watt is 1,000,000 microwatts. It would take 10,000 of these radioactive 50 year batteries ran together in parallel for just a watt of power. You'd need like 100,000 of them in your phone to cover all power requirements.

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[–] CucumberFetish@lemm.ee 6 points 9 months ago

The issue is not the radioactivity, it's the power density. Per the article, this is ~24x smaller than an average phone battery, but can supply only 100uW.

I have a relatively conservative phone use, and on average, my phone uses 450mW. That means that you'd need 4500 of those batteries in your phone. But the battery would also need to cover the power usage peaks, which are multiple times higher than the average power consumption.

[–] RagingRobot@lemmy.world 18 points 9 months ago

How long can it power a disposable vape? Lol jk

[–] mvirts@lemmy.world 17 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Finally, Asimov got it right

[–] Siegfried@lemmy.world 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

He got it right in a lot of aspects, partially because he didnt gave many details about certain stuff, but I remember a pretty good description of a nuclear powered e reader... if I remember it correctly, the nuclear part was a tiny nuclear reactor though

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[–] Boozilla@lemmy.world 14 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Remember when folks wore watches with radioactive paint on them? Good times.

[–] lolcatnip@reddthat.com 13 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It would've been great if they used reasonable safety precautions in making them.

[–] yuriy@lemmy.world 14 points 9 months ago

Yeah, unfortunately most of the danger fell on the (usually female) factory workers who painted the radium on. Fun fact, we do absolutely still use radioactive shit to make watches glow today, it’s just much less dangerous and sealed in tiny vials. Also it’s a gas that won’t eventually flake and turn into super fine particulate, like the radium paints of yore.

[–] grayman@lemmy.world 6 points 9 months ago

It was more a problem of licking the little brushes than wearing the teeny bit on the wrist.

[–] cooopsspace@infosec.pub 9 points 9 months ago

Flight safe, or nah?

What if it gets caught or crushed in the seat or luggage?

[–] indigomirage@lemmy.ca 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

What could possibly go wrong...?

(FWIW - I am referring to the potential for misuse at scale)

[–] aviationeast@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

AskSamsunga about phones in checked bags.... And now the whole airplane is getting cancer.

[–] Potatisen@lemmy.world 8 points 9 months ago

Is that their new virtual assistant, AskSamsunga?

[–] Mammal@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I see no downside whatsoever.

[–] Atelopus-zeteki@kbin.run 3 points 9 months ago

"A glowing horizon for phones", and their users.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 3 points 9 months ago

Battery scam #364256373

I'm seeing at least 5 of these per week now, can we PLEASE stop this bullshit?

Also, batteries from radioactive elements is one of the stupider ideas that has been floated around, sounds about at the same level as the thorium powered car.

It would be so nice if tech sites could write about actual tech and not CGI bullshit dreamed up by a guy who really isn't going to scam you, he just needs a little bit of start up capital for his Ferrari.

[–] YurkshireLad@lemmy.ca 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Can it be safely recycled or disposed of when finished? Or is it more landfill waste?

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[–] _sideffect@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago

Some of the people here don't realize that our smoke detectors have radioactive elements inside it

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