The Future of the Automobile: Diamond Nuclear Batteries #diamondbattery

I’m continuing my series on cars and technology that I started a while ago but never really caught on. In the series I’ll be talking about the latest technological developments and how they might affect/benefit cars in the future.

Here’s the first part of the series talking about algae fuel if you’re interested: https://www.carthrottle.com/post/n4zl6bp/

Now to talk about magical radioactive engagement rings that could one day, power your car…

How does it work?

One of the newest developments in the STEM field is the nuclear-powered diamond battery. Essentially, this is a diamond that produces an electric current due to its radioactive properties. Here’s how to make one:

1. Get radioactive carbon-14 and burn it to turn it into a gas
2. Collect the gas and encapsulate it into a man-made diamond
3. Coat the radioactive battery with a non radioactive diamond layer to make it safe to use.

The Pros and Cons

The pros of radioactive batteries are that:

1. It lasts a hella long time. The half life of carbon-14 is 5,730 years(!) What this means for us is that we will have batteries that will outlive us, our children, our grandchildren, and probably 50 more generations until the batteries are dead (Take that Energizer Bunny!)
2. It poses no radiation risks. Since the battery is covered by a layer of diamond, there is no radiation emitted. Diamond is the hardest substance known to man, there is literally no better protection than a diamond coating. Plus, the level of radiation is less than that of a single banana. So unless you are paranoid of developing cancer from eating bananas, you should be just fine.
3. It recycles radioactive waste. Carbon-14 is used in nuclear reactors to stabilize reactions so a large part of nuclear waste is Carbon-14. By reusing it at a large industrial scale, imagine how much nuclear waste can be removed and repurposed.

Now for the cons:

1. It does not produce much power….. yet. Though the batteries last for a long time, with our current technology we cannot produce much voltage with diamond batteries. So until we can find ways to catalyze (speed up) the breakdown of carbon-14 to increase the energy output, this will limit the tech to low powered electronics, for now.
2. It’s expensive. Diamonds, even artificial diamonds, are not very cheap. But I’m sure costs will drop as diamond making methods are refined and the long term benefits make it the best value for money technically speaking.
3. It’s potentially heavy. In small scale, such as pacemakers and watches, this wouldn’t be an issue but in the future if batteries become utilized in bigger applications such as machinery and cars this might pose an engineering issue.

Applications for the Near Future

With regards to cars there are immediate and future uses that such batteries could solve. In the immediate future, we can see nuclear batteries powering low energy electronics such as interior lighting and chimes and such. Powering small things like this can help reduce drain from the car battery and increase reliability. Plus, I bet the batteries would make for some neat interior bling if done right (apologies for my outdated vocabulary).
Also, these batteries can be used for powering low powered sensors such as security and proximity sensors for car alarms. These sensors would be powered by the batteries and when threat is detected, the sensors activate the alarms which are powered by the car battery. The batteries can also serve to monitor the car’s criticals such as engine fluids and temperature via low powered sensors while the car is off without drawing energy from the car battery.

Applications for the Far(ther) Future

In the future, when this technology is hopefully refined and perfected, we can possibly see more uses for the technology. For example, if scientists/engineers find ways to extract more energy from the batteries (perhaps finding ways to catalyze the breakdown of carbon-14 or any other radioactive isotope), we can use the batteries to power more energy-intensive applications such as sound systems and digital displays and the like. Perhaps diamond batteries can even be used to replace the old-fashioned lithium batteries in our electric cars. Even if the battery lifespan is reduced due to power generation, I’m sure we’ll be happy with even a 10 year battery lifespan. If anything, reducing the battery’s lifespan means a possible way for us to get rid of the nuclear waste that threatens to take over our living areas (A moment of silence for the awesome JDM cars of Fukushima).

Closing Thoughts

All in all, nuclear technology has great potential for the future and it is kind of sad that governments push it away because of the potential risks. It is the most modern and has the most energy density of all our current fuel sources. Diamond nuclear batteries solve the problem of dangerous nuclear radiation and short battery life. The technology has application for many things including cars and can help make the Earth a greener place while at the same time, benefiting us in the process.