NUCLEAR BATTERIES

NAME-SHAIKH SHADAB ANSAR

ROLL NO-331060

GUIDED BY - PROF. KUNURE BHUSHAN

Battery

Types of Batteries and Their

Applications
A battery is a source of electrical
energy, which is provided by one or
more electrochemical cells of the
battery after conversion of stored
chemical energy.
In todays life, batteries play an
important part as many household
and industrial appliances use
batteries as their power source.

Types of Batteries
Batteries can be divided into two major
categories,
primary batteries and
secondary batteries.A primary battery is a
disposal kind of battery.Once used it cannot

Secondary
batteries arerechargeable
be
recharged.
batteries. Once empty, it can be recharged
again. This charging and discharging can
happen many times depending on the
battery type.
Alkaline batteries, Mercury batteries,
Silver-Oxide batteries, and Zinc carbon
batteries are examples of primary batteries
whereas Lead-Acid batteries and Lithium

INTRODUCTION-:
With the advancement in Technology, there
exist a great need for small,compact, reliable
& light weight power supplies.
For very high power applications such as
RADAR, adv. Communication satellites & for
high Tech. weapons Nuclear Battery is used.
Nuclear Battery: Thermo-Electric generator
converts the radio active energy released
during decay of natural radio active element
into electrical energy.
A long-term energy source with life-span
measured in decades & 200 times efficient
than ordinary battery.

NUCLEAR BATTERIESNuclear batteries use the incredible

amount of energy released naturally by
tiny bits of radio active material without
any fission or fusion taking place inside the
battery.
These devices use thin radioactive films
that pack in energy at densities thousands
of times greater than those of lithium-ion
batteries. Because of the high energy
density nuclear batteries are extremely
small in size.
Considering the small size and shape of
the battery the scientists who developed
that battery fancifully call it as "DAINTIEST

Main function of micro-nuclear

battery:These micro-batteries are very light

and deliver enough energy to

function as power supply for use in
MEMS devices and further for supply
fornanodevice.

Types of nuclear
batteries :
Scientists have developed

two types of micro nuclear

batteries. One is junction type
battery and the other is selfreciprocating cantilever. The
operations of both are
explained below one by one.

1. JUNCTION TYPE BATTERY:

1. The kind of nuclear batteries
directly converts the highenergy particles emitted by a
radioactive source into an
electric current.
2. The device consists of a small
quantity of Ni-63 placed near
an ordinary silicon p-n junction
- a diode, basically.

WORKING:
As the Ni-63 decays it emits beta
particles, which are high-energy electrons
that spontaneously fly out of the
radioisotope's unstable nucleus.
The emitted beta particles ionized the
diode's atoms, exciting unpaired
electrons and holes that are separated at
the vicinity of the p-n interface.
These separated electrons and holes
streamed away form the junction,
producing current.
It has been found that beta particles
with energies below 250KeV do not cause
substantial damage in Si .

It has been found that beta

particles
with energies below
250KeV do not cause substantial
damage in Si .
The maximum and average
energies (66.9KeV and 17.4KeV
respectively) of the beta particles
emitted by Ni-63 are well below
the threshold energy, where
damage is observing silicon.
The long half-life period (100
years) makes Ni-63 very attractive
for remote long life applications
such as power of spacecraft
instrumentation.

In addition, the emitted

beta particles of Ni-63 travel
a maximum of 21
micrometer in silicon before
disintegrating; if the
particles were more
energetic they would travel
longer distances, thus
escaping.
These entire things make
Ni-63 ideally suitable in

SELF RECIPROCATING CANTILEVER-:

Consist of a cantilever which collects the
charged particles emitted from the
radioisotope .
The Electrostatic force between
radioisotope & the cantilever attracts the
cantilever towards the source.
When it reaches near the radioisotope,
the charge gets neutralized & electrostatic
force is removed as a result cantilever
retracts back to original position..This cycle
repeats.
The cantilever acts as a charge integrator
allowing energy to be stored & convert it

SELF-RECIPROCATING
CANTILEVER

SELF-RECIPROCATING
CANTILEVER
This concept involves a more direct use of the

charged particles produced by the decay of the

radio active source: the creation of a resonator
by inducing movement due to attraction or
repulsion resulting from the collection of charged
particles.
As the charge is collected, the deflection of a
cantilever beam increases until it contacts a
grounded element, thus discharging the beam
and causing it to return to its original position.
This process will repeat as long as the source is
active.

MAIN FUELSNickel-63 (Ni-63)

Strontium-90 (Sr-90)
Promitium-147 (Pm-147)
Uranium-238 (U-238)
Tin-121 (Sn-121)
Uranium-235 (U-235)

Better than other:(Mercury battery)

As Compared to otherbatteries say

mercury battery they are very costly,

but have extremely long life and high
energy density, and so they are
mainly used as power sources for
equipment that must operate
unattended for long periods of time,
such
asspacecraft,pacemakers,underwat
ersystems andautomated scientific
stationsin remote parts of the world.

Mercury Batteries:Mercury batteries are nonrechargeable batteries that contain

mercuric oxide with manganese
dioxide.
They are deep discharge batteries
and voltage level does not fall below
1.35V until 5% energy level is
reached.
These batteries are less popular
because of low output voltage.
Furthermore, mercury is toxic and can
causehazards for humans.

APPLICATIONSSpace Applications:
when satellite pass through radiation belts such

as Van-Allen belts around the earth there is

chance for the destruction of solar cells.
Operations on moon & mars require heavy
batteries where long periods of darkness . In
opaque atmosphere such as venus lack of light.
Medical Applications:
Due to increased longevity n better reliability it
is used in medical devices such as pacemakers,
implanted defibrillators etc. In cardiac
pacemakers.

Under Water Sea Probes & Sea

Sensors:

Use of sensors that works for a long time is

used to detect any natural calamities such as
earthquakes n Tsunami. Thus the underwater
sea probes & sea sensors makes use of
Nuclear Battery
for their functioning.

DRAWBACKSThe initial cost of production is very

high. Price will drop as product goes

operational.
For certain specific applications, size
of nuclear battery may cause
problem.
The existing laws may come as a
blow for usage & disposal of
radioactive materials.
Nuclear energy began to lose its

CONCLUSIONAs the Technology grows

need for power also grows.
Also we dont have much
abundant fuels present in
the earths crust to meet this
need. Thus the use of power
as heat &electricity from the
radioisotopes can be used to
meet this need which has
high longevity.

THANK YOU