What the heck is a nuclear diamond battery?

"BTW - Elon Musk is all over this technology like white on rice. He has been waiting for something much better to come along so he could dump the lithium-ion batteries he currently uses at Tesla. As with most things, if Musk gets behind this technology and starts using it in Tesla cars (and robots), nuclear diamond batteries could become much more common than uncommon."

Don't look now, but one of the biggest and most impressive inventions of our age might have recently taken place in the United Kingdom. A team from the UK Atomic Energy Authority and a group of researchers from the University of Bristol have really stumbled across something very impressive. And it might solve two problems at once. 

This is very recent and very exciting. It is a battery made completely different than any battery in the past. It is called a nuclear diamond battery and has a shelf life of (drum roll on this one) - 5,000 years. I know, I know. This sounds like a combination of science fiction and fake news. But it is for real. And how they are made is even more impressive than their shelf life.

One of the ingredients used is spent nuclear fuel. Why spend nuclear fuel? Still has a shelf life from decaying radiation. Rather than burying these fuel canisters, why not harness them? Into something safe? It is the continued radiation which gives the battery such a long shelf life. But that is not all. These batteries also contained diamonds. Not real diamonds, but diamonds which are grown in the lab. The spent nuclear fuel is put together with the lab grown diamonds, encased in a properly shielded battery, and there you have it! A new fuel source! 

This is a new technology. It only goes back to 2016 when scientists from the University of Bristol Cabot Institute for the Environment were experimenting with betavoltaic technologies (that is using the decay of nuclear waste). The very idea of having a battery with a shelf life in the thousands of years has been unheard of in the past. In fact, using a certain type of decaying nuclear material could give a battery a shelf life of 25,000 years!

BTW - Elon Musk is all over this technology like white on rice. He has been waiting for something much better to come along so he could dump the lithium-ion batteries he currently uses at Tesla. As with most things, if Musk gets behind this technology and starts using it in Tesla cars (and robots), nuclear diamond batteries could become much more common than uncommon.

What do I say? Hats off to the Brits coming up with something truly revolutionary. This battery could be an absolute game changer. But I do have questions. Are they safe? Price? How much? And disposal? Where do these batteries go when you are done with them? But those are tomorrow's questions. Today we are relishing in the wonders of this brand new (and unexpected) technology.