Talk:Atomic battery

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Looks like there is a possibility of vastly improving the output of Atomic Batteries.

http://www.physorg.com/news4081.html

[edit] something new

Radio isotopic generator [1] Ni-63 beta radiation induces a harmonic oscilation in a piezo-element.Stone 09:58, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Nifty. I recall that a similar cantilever-based system was built about a year or two ago (listed under "reciprocating electromechanical atomic batteries" on this page), but this certainly deserves a citation. --Christopher Thomas 17:35, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Errors

Currently, the article reads: "In the French anime Code Lyoko, the supercomputer in the series uses a nuclear battery. This is often believed by some fans to be uranium-based, but the half-life of the battery (20 years or so, judging from the show's established timeline) makes this unlikely, as a uranium battery would last for hundreds if not thousands of years (and the radioactivity would have killed Peter Duncan and Jeremie very quickly). As of now, some fans currently theorize that the fuel for the battery is Lead-210 as its half life is 22.3 years."

The errors are in bold, and suggest that somebody confused nuclear batteries with nuclear reactors.
The first one would only be even close to true if they were using U232, as any other isotope of uranium would still provide well over >95% output after "hundreds if not thousands of years", and would continue to provide consistent power for "millions of years". Further, atomic batteries are non-critical in nature - their function is impeded by a chain reaction, not enhanced by it.
The second is a related issue. Gamma radiation is unsuitable for power, as it's difficult enough to stop, let alone capture as an energy source. If there's no benefit to it, and it presents a safety concern, then there is no sense in using a power source that emits gamma radiation. However, alpha and beta radiation are quite easy to stop, and present little health risk - alpha radiation (The kind produced by the decay of Uranium) can be stopped by almost anything (including the layer of dead skin cells that covers human beings), and beta radiation isn't much harder to contain. Gamma radiation would not be produced at hazardous levels unless the radioisotope used was put into a critical or near-critical state - something for which there is no reason to do in the first place.
Basically, the statement is poorly researched and doesn't fit with established fact.
On another note, I think that a half-life of 22.3 years would make lead unsuitable, as the claimed ~20-year lifespan of the power source would have it degrade to ~50% of it's initial power output in that time span. I could understand a life cycle where a power source is allowed to run down to 85%-80% of it's capacity for powering a discreet object like a computer, but running down to 50% of it's output is just unreasonable. Granted it wasn't supposed to go on so long, but the failure point would have likely been much sooner than that. I suppose over-engineering is the only real answer, although it does lead to questions about how the secret facility disposed of the unneeded power without raising suspicions. Fdgfds 18:13, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Why is this article called Atomic battery and not Nuclear battery?

I'm guessing that there has already been a long discussion of this that is archived somewhere. Could someone kindly provide me with a link to it? --arkuat (talk) 07:02, 5 June 2008 (UTC)