Comment on Coin-sized nuclear 3V battery with 50-year lifespan enters mass production

• deegeese@sopuli.xyz ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Yeah, but it’s radioactive nickel-63 for many decades until it all decays.

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  • WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    There’s radioactive and then there’s radioactive. It beta decays with particles that would only penetrate 5 cm of air or .01 cm of tissue.

    You could get a thousand of these batteries, grind them up into a powder, explode them in a crowded place as an improvised dirty bomb…and you would still cause less harm than if you did the same with countless chemicals you can buy at the hardware store.

    There are many forms of radiation. Something like this going into a landfill is perfectly safe.

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  • floo@retrolemmy.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Yeah, that’s how the battery works.

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    • deegeese@sopuli.xyz ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Which is why your suggestion of simply recycling copper won’t work. You don’t have copper, you have a radioactive alloy.

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      • floo@retrolemmy.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Not after 50 or so years. Then it’s just non-radioactive copper.

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  • markinov@lemmygrad.ml ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    And that nickel-63 can be recycled to make new batteries.

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