Diese leichten Energiezellen werden mit Atommüll betrieben und könnten Drohnen der nächsten Generation antreiben
https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2026/07/these-light-weight-power-cells-run-nuclear-waste-and-could-power-next-gen-drones/414585/?oref=d1-featured-river-top
7 Kommentare
DARPA’s “Rads to Watts” program is funding a lightweight nuclear battery that runs on strontium-90 purified from existing nuclear waste, aiming to give drones and satellites decades-long power while chipping away at the 100,000+ metric tons of waste sitting at US reactor sites. Radioisotope power has a 60+ year safety record in space, but this program specifically targets battlefield drones, hardware that can be shot down or crash in ways satellites don’t, raising real questions about containment failure (see Cosmos 954) and Sr-90’s history as a security concern when sources aren’t well secured. The future discussion is whether battlefield-grade shielding can match space-grade crash survivability, and whether this is a genuine dent in the waste problem or mostly framing given how small the volumes involved actually are.
That would be a warcrime if it was used on enemy land and would be just utterly insane to do it on your own land. Like, dude, they used DRY CASK STORAGE to deadlock the Nuclear industry for decades, flying nuclear waste is so much a non-starter it’s not even funny.
That said, Russia has, apparently, mastered the nuclear flying powerplant.. but that is a totally different thing. This is like, „We made really cheap and effective dirty bombs“ versus „We made the greatest piece of military hardware of the generation, it can kill whole armies after loitering for 3 months.“
(they are probably talking about Plutonium or something, anyway, not ‚waste‘, it’s more like a refined by-product that is even 1000x more expensive than regular enriched Uranium [like for a naval power plant basically], they dance around it: >Project Omega will build the nuclear power generator based on a radioisotope found in nuclear waste, a)
Ask the Iraqis how they deal with the 2,000 tons of depleted uranium rounds in their country.
Strontium is highly toxic and will cause cancer, because our organisms treat it very similar to calcium enriching it in bones and teeth.
This is not to power the drones directly but to trickle charge a perched drone?
Oh cool, but what if *they didn’t?*
Fucking hell humanity.
Strontium-90?!? Really.
I’m very pro-nuclear in general. However, that’s based on the assumption of good stewardship of nuclear waste.
Placing highly bio-available strontium in drones presumably to be sent into a warzone is truly absurd behaviour. You **will** end up with a huge amount of orphaned sources along with any that gets damaged ending in the local water-cycle, to bio-accumulate in plants and animals, then get consumed by humans.
This is amazing research if it’s to be used for powering space-missions, or well-secured, well-tracked and well-managed key infrastructure that requires a small steady supply of power with **no** risk of loss. Using it in the defense asset class with the highest rates of attrition outside of munitions is fucking absurd.
Nope never happen. Too many idiots flying drones the authorities are dumb but their not reckless.