Run Your Laptop On Nuclear Energy

Reader zymano points to this news.com artcle on innovations in portable power sources. Would you feel comfortable with a radioactive power source inside your laptop or cellphone?

Potential Risk?

[Remik]

"The Department of Transportation last month removed one hurdle to the commercial acceptance of fuel cells powered by methanol by ruling that they could be taken on airplanes. The issue was that these fuel cells contain methanol, which is a flammable liquid."

I don't see them being so quick to remove a similar hurdle for nuclear fuel.

But, hey, if they make nuclear powered cell phones, the radiation would treat the supposed cancer risk. Right?

-R

Even more danger?

[new_breed]

First we had that whole fuss about how prolonged use of a mobile phone could cause cancer..And now, you make your head glow as well! Great..can't they invent one that uses solar power instead?

Radio Waves and Radioactivity

[thefinite]

I would guess that there is simply too much irrational behavior relative to nuclear power to make these batteries all that popular. The irony is how quickly we ignore the supposed dangers from cell phone radio waves. The difference seems to be the emotional baggage that follows anything "nukyoolar". Too bad, too.

Not for me

[Rossalina W Sanchez]

I think the only real problem I would have with it is that there might be some problems later on when I get pregnant. There are still a lot of issues with radiation regarding females and felopian tubes that we don't know about yet and will take years for science to find out about.

Remember all the mutant freak babies that were born in some Nevada towns after the Army was performing nuclear tests back in the 40's?

Sure this thing sounds safe but are you going to risk giving birth to a retard or a one armed baby when they really don't have any conclusive studies yet? I'm not.

Re:More importantly....

[RealAlaskan]

Would you feel comfortable with the radioactive power source inside you? From the article:

Lal said that medical device makers and cell phone makers have shown interest in commercial applications of the atomic battery, adding that consumers may see the new batteries in cell phones in about three to four years.

So, when you get old, your pacemaker will probably have a radioactive battery, and that will probably seem very comforting indeed.

Batteries which capture the electrons given off during some sorts of radioactive decay are old hat. If the article is to be believed, this is something very different. Also from the article:

... a team from Cornell University last month unveiled a device that converts the energy stored in radioactive material directly into mechanical motion, which in turn moves the parts of a miniscule machine to generate electricity. This type of battery could supply power for decades, said Amit Lal, a professor at Cornell's electrical and computer engineering department and the lead researcher.

``Converts the energy ... directly into mechanical motion''? I guess this would be sort of like the little solar engines, that have paddles which are shiny on one side and black on the other and spin in sunlight? Sounds as if they might have oversimplified when they paraphrased, maybe.

Re:More importantly....

[anzha]

Obviously you want some boxers made of this stuff [yahoo.com].

It's a joke, people...The N word shouldn't automatically provoke FUD when it's mentioned...

Slight mistake in the article...

[Jack_Frost]

Of the three types of decay radiation alpha particles are the safest, then beta, and finally gamma. Alpha particles are bare helium nuclei while a beta particle is basically a free electron. Alpha cannot penetrate the skin, and will only travel about 1 inch in air before it snags a couple electrons and turns into regular helium. Beta particles are much lighter and tend to have higher energies. They can penetrate skin but will be shielded by thin layers of metal or plastic. Though in a battery casing this wouldn't matter much.

Re:More importantly....

[ivan256]

So, when you get old, your pacemaker will probably have a radioactive battery

Pacemakers already have radioactive batteries.

Re:why not?

[JesseL]

But do you spend hours with your fire alarm in your pocket or on your lap?

It seems to me this is a lot bigger than batteries

[Daniel Dvorkin]

Meanwhile, a team from Cornell University last month unveiled a device that converts the energy stored in radioactive material directly into mechanical motion, which in turn moves the parts of a miniscule machine to generate electricity.

Could this scale up? Could we make large-scale power generators that run on the energy from all the low-level radioactive waste we have lying around? People might not complain so much about plans like Yucca Mountain if the dump was acting as a free power plant ...

Bah

[Reality Master 101]

Small nuclear power plants? We had those back in the 1970s [scifi.com].

(best -- show -- ever, except for when they "jumped the aliens")

Re:alpha, beta, gamma

[DirtyJ]

Yep - somethin's screwy in the article. Not surprising, though - the press frequently garbles science/technology stories to the point of being flat-out wrong on small, but significant points.

As was pointed out above, beta particles (electrons) can be easily stopped with thin sheets of metal which introduce large electrical interaction cross-sections. Alpha particles are too large to penetrate the skin to a significant depth and are only dangerous if ingested.

When I was a physics TA in college, we worked with radioactive pellets for some labs, and I was told that I actually had to tell the students that they 'should not eat the radiation sources'. I'm sure several of them would have tried if I hadn't warned them...

Re:Flywheels

[matt-fu]

Seriously, wouldn't the gyroscopic effect seriously affect the portability of a small device with a flywheel? Imagine the struggle to turn your laptop vertically so you can slide it into your backpack.

You wouldn't just have one flywheel, you'd have several smaller flywheels that spin in opposing directions, thus canceling out the gyroscopic stuff. Sort of similar to how helicopters with multiple lift rotors get by without having tail rotors.

Re:Beta particles...

[JohnsonWax]

Or you could wrap it in this [cnn.com]

A few rads . . . so what?

[Anonymous Coward]

Look, the point of the article is that these are very small devices. The radiation source is only emitting ß particles, which is an electron (or positron)! They can't even pass through your skin. Not only that, but if these new batts are as small as the article implies, then you could waste a half-ounce and put a lead shield around the thing to prevent any leakage at all! And if the particle won't go through skin, think what a (very thin) lead sheet would do?

It's not that bad. Now if you actually had a fission plant going on, then you'd want to be concerned.

Re:Nuclear powered cellphone

[Idarubicin]

In all seriousness if the manufacturers can guarentee that its safe I'm all for portable power that lasts 200 years.

That's just great. Someone drops his pager in a movie theatre, and the damn thing beeps for two centuries before someone can find and kill it.

Also, who wants a laptop that has to be disposed of as nuclear waste? It's fine for pacemakers and that sort of thing--there don't need to be that many in circulation (pun not intended) and nobody is going to be trading in for a newer model every eighteen months.

Finally, have you seen some of the stupid things that people do to their consumer electronics? (Backing over a laptop in the driveway comes to mind.) This could lead to releases of potentially hazardous levels of radiation--perhaps inadvertant ingestion of radioactive material from a small leak in the casing.

Re:Atomic Batteries and Medical Physics 101

[Atzanteol]

"On space probes its easy because you can cool the cold junction in the vacuum of space and make it efficient"

I thought that since space was a near vacuum it was very difficult to cool things, as the cooling process needs to transfer the heat energy to something else. A vacuum is a near perfect insulator.

Re:Radiation in my laptop?

[spike hay]

Neither am I, microwave radiation (802.11b to be specific), however miniscule (100mw), has to be bad for you when your exposed to it for 9+ hours a day.

MICROWAVE RADIATION IS NON IONIZING!!!! The reason that gamma rays and x rays are harmful is because they have enough energy to mess up your dna and such, which can potentially cause cancer and other problems. Microwave radiation has none of these problems. Microwaves have far less energy than optical light. They can't ionize anything.

The only way RF can cause damage is by overheating. But 15 mw of power from a WAP or a card isn't going to make a damn bit of difference.