Betavoltaic battery is going into production

https://www.techspot.com/news/107357-coin-sized-nuclear-3v-battery-50-year-lifespan.html

“The BV100 harnesses energy from the radioactive decay of its nickel-63 core.”

 

More technical analysis here

https://www.wired.com/story/is-this-50-year-battery-for-real/

“this new battery announced by BetaVolt uses a different technology called betavoltaic generation. Instead of tapping thermal energy, it captures the ejected electrons, known as beta particles, from a radioactive isotope of nickel to form an electric circuit. It's made up of several layers of nickel sandwiched between plates of diamond, which serve as a semiconductor.”

Ni-63 has a ~96 year half-life, and decays to Cu-63, which is stable. 3V generating 100 microwatts (at the beginning of life) so this version only generates 33 microamps of current. 

 

 

Just to give an idea what can be done with this ...

A typical 'circuit board' LED has a forward voltage of 1.2 to 3.6 volts and a forward current between 10 and 30 milliamps.
You would 1000 of these batteries to supply this simple LED ( for a century ), so I doubt you'll find packs of them at your local convenience store for typical battery applications.

Pacemakers draw ~10-20 microamps, so they'd be one potential application. 

Hadn't thought of that, but I'm not sure I'd want a Beta Radiation source implanted inside my body.

Just now, swansont said:

Betavoltaic battery is going into production

https://www.techspot.com/news/107357-coin-sized-nuclear-3v-battery-50-year-lifespan.html

“The BV100 harnesses energy from the radioactive decay of its nickel-63 core.”

 

Good article.  +1

 

Not sure how much current the battery in a 'smart meter' supplies but they are supposed to last many years and only use short bursts of current.

 

For interest here is a good dexcription of conventional thermal nuclear batteries, which also exploit the long life of the battery for example in spacecraft.

 

https://uknnl.com/customer-solutions/space-exploration/how-a-space-battery-works/