Chinese scientists have developed the country’s first nuclear battery based on carbon that they say could potentially last for a century without a charge.
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The ultra-long-lasting battery could be used to power pacemakers – which currently last for up to 15 years – as well as spacecraft and devices deployed in extreme environments such as polar regions and the deep sea, Northwest Normal University in Gansu province said in a statement on Thursday.
While it did not mention electric cars, the university said the battery’s green and low-carbon characteristics could “promote the upgrade of China’s new energy industrial chain”.
The nuclear battery is designed to last for 50 years, but the university statement said it could last for more than 100 years in extreme conditions.
And according to Zhang Guanghui, the university’s technical lead on the project, “theoretically, the battery could last for thousands of years thanks to the long half-life of carbon-14 at 5,730 years”.
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He was referring to the time it would take for a radioactive isotope to decay to half its original value.