Energy storage technology has reached a transformative milestone as the BV100, a miniature atomic energy battery, enters mass production. Popular Mechanics notes that the coin-sized cell from...
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22d

You mean like Microwaves? Or Smoke detectors? Granite countertops etc. Or watches, and Energy Efficient CFLs?

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In smoke detectors and tritium watches the quantity of radioactive material is minuscule compared to the beta emitter in the battery, as in multiple orders of magnitude less. None of the things you mentioned have radioactive material in any significant quantity. If you swallowed or inhaled this battery you’d be exposed to significant amounts of radiation.

A microwave is not an ionizing radiation source.

Xavienth
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21d

“If you swallowed or inhaled this battery you’d be exposed to significant amounts of radiation.” It’s beta radiation, which can be stopped by a later of tin foil, I think. So yeah if you ate the source itself that would be bad, but if you eat the battery with the casing, probably much less bad?

I think you’re in trouble if you swallow or inhale any batteries.

There is nothing nuclear about microwaves.

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222d

Sure, but they are radiation sources and beyond microwaves, “nuclear” material exists in several consumer products, so that isn’t really a reason we haven’t had consumer nuclear batteries.

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21d

“Drinking hot tea is safe so drinking boiling water, which is also hot, should also be safe”

The quantity of radioactive material and what form of radiation it emits is extremely relevant to this discussion.

We have seen nuclear batteries - it’s decades old technology at this point. They were used in pacemakers. They stopped in the 80s because it’s too expensive and dangerous. You have to track radiation sources like this.

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