Nuclear Batteries

Oh my giddy aunts god. Where on earth do you think you would ever find any nuclear battery out side of as space application. They are very specialised items and have to be hand/machine mader cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and you would very soon end up in jail. State the application you have in mind and how long your power source has to last and where it is to be located.

Thanks for your reply, I want to run an MP3 player, and am wondering if pacemaker batteries might do the trick?

It is unlikely because they have to only out put a small pulse with hardly any current. Your MP3 plater would be far too greedy. Try Nickel Metal Hydrides these are ideal and rechargeable. Available in AAA an AA sizes from most shops.

Do you know what power a pacemaker puts out?

Out of curiosity I gave Medtronics a call, they were willing to say that the average discharge is from 2.1V to 5V each time. When the pacemaker is first installed and has little scar tissue around the leads it will give a discharge of 5 volts but as scar tissue develops the doctor can adjust the voltage down to extend battery life. Batteries last on average between 5 to 10 years depending on the number of times it has to "Fire".

Since battery life in conjunction device capabilities such a remote monitoring is a major part of any design, Medtronics was rather tight lipped about the specifics of their battery.

after googling the history of pacemakers I found that the "Plutonium beta cell battery" was used around 1974 but was quickly dropped. Please note though that my research on this is somewhat limited so you may find more information .

It's not the voltage that counts here but the over all capacity and the instantaneous current you can draw. A pace maker has to maintain a very stable voltage at a very low current. They may well use a special type of mercury cell, I know you are going to say "what about the mercury?" It is in a paste form and will not leak out they are cased in titanium to sit in a pouch formed just under the skin. We are talking in milliamps when it comes to discharge, think of the cmos back up in you computer.

At least a couple of manufactures are using Lithium-Iodine batteries based on my quick web search.

I guess they are better just so long as they don't catch fire lithium batteries can be some what touchy. I purchase some not long ago and the paper work that came with them was insist ant I read it before doing any thing but look at them. I thought I must have got the wrong item but the codes lined up.

What happened to the "nuclear" part of the question? No one has told the questioner what "nuclear batteries" are. Did you ever read the story about the Russians, essentially peasants, who found a "nuclear battery", really a power source, apparently from an extended duration satellite, either in a dump site or a crash site? It gave off a nice, constant source of heat, and so they took it back to their tent or lean-to, to provide an excellent source of heat thru the cold winter months. They just didn't know about such hazardous things.

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There was also a requirement that when the patient died the battery was to be returned to the DOE. I understand that there may still be few people walking around with one of them.

You can buy an awful lot of rechargeable batteries for the cost of a solar panel; and you still need the electronics to make it all work.

Follow the link I posted, it's already been done....

MSI gives us the solar-powered MP3 Mega Player 540

http://www.mobilemag.com/content/100/337/C7107/

Yes, there are more sensible methods, I just thought a nuclear MP3 player might be fun, see technocraft on the web.

Well I believe the Sun is a nuclear source of power, therefore technically you could say the solar cell powered device is "nuclear powered".

Well ok, if you have your heart set on it, you'll have to talk these guys into allowing you access...

http://www.qynergy.com/index.htm

In EDN Magazine of March 29 2007 in page 94, there is an exerpt from March 1957 EDN about a Promethiun oxide battery: http://www.edn.com/article/CA6426894.html

Quite complicated and inefficient, it converted Beta emission to fluorescence, then to electricity using photocells.

'' Jointly developed by Walter Kidd Nuclear Labs Inc and the Elgin National Watch Co, the battery is said to be safe for extended use by humans if it is in a dense metal case.''

Times has even more:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,723820,00.html

Most use plutonium and or thorium oxide. They generate heat that is then converted into electricity.