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posted by CoolHand on Tuesday November 29 2016, @10:05PM   Printer-friendly
from the diamonds-are-our-best-friend dept.

[Converting] Carbon-14 from nuclear waste to long life battery.

From engadget

Nuclear waste is normally a major environmental headache, but it could soon be a source of clean energy. Scientists have developed a method of turning that waste into batteries using diamond.

From treehugger

"There are no moving parts involved, no emissions generated and no maintenance required, just direct electricity generation," said Professor of Materials Tom Scott. "By encapsulating radioactive material inside diamonds, we turn a long-term problem of nuclear waste into a nuclear-powered battery and a long-term supply of clean energy."

From newatlas

One unexpected example of this is the Bristol team's work on a major source of nuclear waste from Britain's aging Magnox reactors, which are now being decommissioned after over half a century of service. These first generation reactors used graphite blocks as moderators to slow down neutrons to keep the nuclear fission process running, but decades of exposure have left the UK with 95,000 tonnes (104,720 tons) of graphite blocks that are now classed as nuclear waste because the radiation in the reactors changes some of the inert carbon in the blocks into radioactive carbon-14.

Presumably other beta emitters could be wrapped in diamond shells creating a common class of Betavoltaic nuclear batteries. Although the diamond in a diamond seems an elegant technical solution.


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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by edIII on Wednesday November 30 2016, @01:05AM

    by edIII (791) on Wednesday November 30 2016, @01:05AM (#434759)

    Pretty much. At 7 billion people on this planet, with many of them having their faces ground into the dirt by Elite boot heels, all it takes is motivation, resources, and information to create massive catastrophes. When viewed at in percentages, it's too risky to have tech like that known or out in the open.

    Literal Diamond-age tech like this is reserved for societies straight out of science fiction, not the hellish existence we eek out here.

    There are just too many bad apples in our rotting pile to have any truly nice things.

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