Unlike combustion fossil fuels, nuclear power plants have little greenhouse gas. They are safer at any time and are now producing one fifth of US electricity. But nuclear power plants produce harmful waste, and scientists are still looking for an effective way to manage this dangerous by -products. What should we do if we can do more than we save? more energy?
Inspired by this idea, Ohio’s researchers have developed a small battery driven by nuclear waste. They exposed the neurator crystals, a substance that emits light when absorbing radiation to gamma radiation produced by nuclear waste. The light of the crystal has powered the solar battery. that studyPublished on Journal on January 29th Optical material: XThe background level of gamma radiation shows that it can supply power to small electronic devices such as microchips.
“We are trying to turn something into treasures with waste and essentially,” at Ohio State University. name. He is a director of the laboratory in Ohio.
The team tested the battery prototype with the CESIUM-137 and COBALT-60, the common radioactive by-products of the reactor. Using Cesium-137, the battery produced 288 NANOWATTS power, and the COBALT-60 created 1.5 microitters to power a small sensor.
The standard 10W LED bulb may seem like a small victory that requires 10 million microcats, but CAOs and his colleagues argue that their approach can be extended to an electronic scale (unlike microitte) or higher power technology. Such batteries can be used in an environment in which nuclear waste, such as nuclear waste storage pool, is produced. They are likely to last for a long time, and they are almost or at all at all.
Ibrahim Oksuz, co -author of this study and Ohio, and aerospace engineers, said, “The concept of nuclear battery is very promising. “There is still a lot of room for improvement, but this approach will continue to pioneer important spaces in both energy production and sensor industries.”
The researchers also pointed out the theory that the structure of the neurator crystals can affect the energy output of the battery, and that larger crystals absorb more radiation and release more light. Solar batteries with large surface area can also absorb more light and result in more energy.
OKSUZ said, “This two -stage process is still in the preliminary stage, but the next step is to create a larger watt with a scale up configuration.
Expanding this technology is expensive and more research is needed to improve the results. Nevertheless, this study proves that the waste of one person can actually be a treasure of another person, or in this case.
