A group of researchers from Ohio State University has created a battery capable of transforming nuclear waste into electricity by emitting light.
Nuclear plants, responsible for around 20% of the electricity generated in the United States, virtually do not emit greenhouse gases.
However, these systems produce radioactive waste that can be dangerous to health and the environment. The safe disposal of this waste is a significant challenge.
By using scintillating crystals, high-density materials that emit light when absorbing radiation, and solar cells, the team demonstrated that ambient gamma radiation can be collected to generate an electrical output strong enough to power microelectronic devices, such as microchips.
To test this battery, which is a prototype of approximately 4 cubic centimeters, the researchers used two different radioactive sources, cesium-137 and cobalt-60, some of the main fission products of spent nuclear fuel. The battery was evaluated at the Nuclear Reactor Laboratory (NRL) at Ohio State.
Results and applications of the battery created from nuclear waste
The results showed that when cesium-137 was used, the battery generated 288 nanowatts. However, with the much more powerful isotope, cobalt-60, the battery produced 1.5 micro watts of energy, enough to power a small sensor.
Although most outputs for household energy and electronic devices are measured in kilowatts, this suggests that with the right power source, such devices could be scaled up for specific applications at the watt level or higher, explained Raymond Cao, lead author of the study and professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Ohio State, in a statement.
The study was recently published in the journal Optical Materials: X.
The researchers stated that these batteries would be used near the sites where nuclear waste is generated, such as nuclear waste storage pools or nuclear systems for space exploration and deep-sea exploration; they are not intended for public use.
Fortunately, although the gamma radiation used in this work is approximately a hundred times more penetrating than a typical X-ray or CT scan, the battery itself does not contain radioactive materials, making it safe to touch.
According to the study, the battery could also have experienced a power increase due to the composition of the scintillating crystal prototype that the team chose to use.
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