Persistent, Shmersistent. Give Me A 12 Year Personal Nuclear Battery

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/personalnuclearpowernewbatterylasts12years">http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/personalnuclearpowernewbatterylasts12years</a><br /><br />There has been a lot of <a href="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/index.php?action=expand,39977">talk this week about persistent storage</a> and Windows Mobile 5. Who needs that? Give me the 12 year personal nuclear battery! <i>"A new type of battery based on the radioactive decay of nuclear material is 10 times more powerful than similar prototypes and should last a decade or more without a charge, scientists announced this week. The longevity would make the battery ideal for use in pacemakers or other surgically implanted devices, developers say, or it might power spacecraft or deep-sea probes."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/hansberry/2005/20050514-nuclearbattery.gif" /><br /><br />Or, they could do something practical with it, like power our computing equipment. Dell, HP, HTC or whomever builds the device gives it a good charge of tritium before it leaves the factory and you never ever have to mess with it again. :mrgreen:

[griph]

Although Tritium is a weak emitting radioisotope - the lead radioactive shielding required for H&amp;S legislayion will be detrimental to the portability of the PDA ;-)

[ADBrown]

Hell, if it lasts 12 years, I might be able to pass my electronics down to my web-toed children.

[biglouis]

.... but the web site this story comes from, Live Science, is really cool. Thanks for the story and the link

LouisB

[Paul]

Just like how laptops shouldn't be kept on laps, pocket pc's will no longer be safe in your pockets...

[Phoenix]

"I lost two teeth today, but DANG, if this here pee-cee in ma pocket ain't been runnin' like a Timex!"

[hoodmeister]

Regardless of alpha emmission (or rather the lack of it) from the device, it would never get H&amp;S authorisation. Tampering with the device could be very dangerous.... Especially if you managed to get the power source intravenous of your body O.o

OK, so these risks still exist to a lesser extent with, say, a pacemaker, it's not hugely practical to use standard batteries with something as mission critical as that - where as it is with a PPC.

The only application I can see in the electronics world, for this, is as an emergency back up generator...

[Darius Wey]

Especially if you managed to get the power source intravenous of your body O.o

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&amp;click_id=31&amp;art_id=qw111596760144B215

"A Japanese research team has developed a fuel cell that runs on blood without using toxic substances, opening the way for use in artificial hearts and other organs."

;)

[Jon Westfall]

We all understand that this kind of technology would be great in a medical, life-saving, high ethical concerns environment, but Ed raises a good point. Why shouldn't things like this trickle down to consumer electronics. Heck, if we can implant it in someone's chest, I assume it must be safe enough to have in a pocket.

[pauljacks UK]

I have a Tracer wristwatch made by mb-microtec with luminous gasious Tritium vials on the hands and dial.
I also have eight fingers on my left hand....
http://www.mbmicrotec.com/

[Jason Lee]

I have a Tracer wristwatch made by mb-microtec with luminous gasious Tritium vials on the hands and dial.
I also have eight fingers on my left hand....
http://www.mbmicrotec.com/

hehe of that takes me back. i remember years ago, i think early 80's, my dad had one of those watches with radon or radium on the dial so you could see it in the dark! lol
of course in the mid to late 1800's we used lead paint to decorate the dinner plates...

the things we do to ourselves. :)

and you thought ppc phones caused cancer before they were radio active...
i can see the research studies now. no they don't, yes they do, no they don't... ;)

seriously though, sounds like an awsome technology.

[gibson042]

Ed, do you pick articles based on image/animation potential? Another winner! :mrgreen:

[AIO]

I think technology is moving in the right direction. Current battery technologies are VERY OLD when compared to other areas of technological development. Volta's electrochemical battery invented in 1800 is not much different than today's AA batteries. It was about time. :roll:

[Ed Hansberry]

Ed, do you pick articles based on image/animation potential? Another winner! :mrgreen:

Of course. Is there any other way? :lol:

[beq]

Forget about your PPC's LEDs glowing too brightly in the dark and keeping you awake. What if it's you that's glowing (green)?

[pivaska]

All I want is enough battery time for my pda to continously work while I am on a week long hunting trip while I am depending in it to wake me in the wee hours of the morning, gps me to my tree stand and provide reading material for me duing the bed down time of whitetails and maybe show me a picture or two of the family that I left for freezing my butt off in the winter weather. If you can make my Dell 50v do that then I will be willing to plug the thing in once a week or so. Say, can it show me where the big bucks are????

[Ikki]

Tritium emits beta particles which are easily sheilded. My watch has tritium oxide in the hands and numbers along with a phosphor to give illumination in the dark. I have even checked it with a beta particle sensitive Geiger Muller radiation detector and found no emissions.

If they can do it with watches, why should batteries be a problem.

[milo]

Regardless of alpha emmission (or rather the lack of it) from the device, it would never get H&amp;S authorisation. Tampering with the device could be very dangerous.... Especially if you managed to get the power source intravenous of your body O.o

OK, so these risks still exist to a lesser extent with, say, a pacemaker, it's not hugely practical to use standard batteries with something as mission critical as that - where as it is with a PPC.

The only application I can see in the electronics world, for this, is as an emergency back up generator...

I don't see why they wouldn't get authorisation. Your average smoke detector has a small amount of Americium 241 in it which releases more gamma rays than Tritium 3. Gamma rays being the penetrative radiation that requires shielding.

The largest source of exposure to radiation is that big unshielded nuclear reactor in the sky, the sun.

[Jason Dunn]

Discussions of "RTFA" moved to here:

http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=344625

[mr_Ray]

And I've got a Tritium-powered keyring. It's quite bright, but I think you'd be hard pushed to get enough power out of it to give a PDA enough power to write home about. Maybe if we moved to 1MB RAM, 10MHz CPU and a reflective display.

Then again, that might very well do for some purposes...

[dr_doak]

I assume these batteries are using exceedingly small amounts of tritium? A gram of the stuff costs like $20-25,000 dollars (US) I think, unless this has changed recently. I know a watch face can get away with tiny amounts, but would a battery of this sort need a bit more? I can see probes and whatnot having the budget for these, but PDAs might gat a tad more pricey ;).

Feel free to slap me if I'm wrong here :D.

[Arcane Heretic]

What good is a 12 year battery in todays disposable electronics world?

12 year battery 1 year product? I can see the marketing jerks swimming like sharks to sell their products with that claim.

Buy the new xxxx microcell phone with a 12 year nuclear battery.
(Caution cell phone is small enough to be a choking hazard)
Ofcourse after the device dies because it was thrown together quickly to meet demand, that means it will end up in a land fill somewhere. (Like my Axim x5, 2 years out of it though and the battery was still good)
Thats what we need land fills full of atomic batteries. :(

My point to my rant is. I like the idea of long life batteries. But I like the idea of long life products more. I want a Pocket PC that doesnt have to be replaced every year or so. With technology changing out of control there are tons of legacy devices that arent even useful. When does it stop?
We need stuff that works not stuff thats new.
$.02