Chinas nuklearen Batteriebruch: Eine 50-jährige Stromquelle, die Kupfer wird?

In a world where battery life is a daily headache and recharging gadgets has become routine, a recent claim making waves is nothing short of science fiction turned science fact. *China has reportedly begun mass production of nuclear batteries with a declared lifespan of 50 years, zero need for recharging, no emitted radiation, and a transformation into ordinary copper at the end of its life*. These so-called Betavolt nuclear batteries could be a game-changer for the global energy landscape.

But how real is this?  Something for our future?

It’s not really a battery in the way people think about them (as in, be they rechargeable or not, they hold a certain amount of energy and then they discharge). These are more like solid state miniature reactors modeled after.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioisotope_thermoelectric_generator](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioisotope_thermoelectric_generator)

That said, instead of useful radioactive fuel, they generally use the waste from nuclear reactors. In some way it is an inventive way of getting rid of nuclear waste by selling it as a product.

At any rate, the use cases are multiple where you want a long operation time, space crafts/rovers, satellites in general. Some military weapons could use these as well. They can also be made to last much longer than centuries, some speculate thousands of years might be feasible. The problem is that the energy produced continuously is really small and the smart people among you might thing of making larger MW or GW size reactors that are basically meltdown immune, the issue is energy density and power density. While a reactors core might be rated to output enough heat that when transfered to making steam, then a steam turbine linked to a generator could be in the multiple hundred MW. Someone feel free to do the match how many of these tiny reactors would be needed to output 100MW to 1000MW continuously in terms of weight and volume.