FINALLY - A real use for diamonds!

[#1]

Now they can generate electricity AND take care of the nuclear waste problem!!!

This is the most exciting breakthrough I've read for a long time:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3993314/A-diamond-battery-nuclear-waste-5-000-YEARS.h...

[#2]

@7up

The first line tells me more than the rest of the article......eg

DAILY MAIL

[#3]

I'm getting fed up of people keep slating the DM.

Would you rather I start posting links to the sun? - I can do that... how about the daily star?

Or perhaps we can just stick to the topic...

7up

[#4]

Sounds very interesting.

From the horse's mouth

[#5]

The article says,' One battery containing 1g of carbon 14 would deliver 15 joules per day. This is less than a standard AA battery. If operated continuously this would run out in 24 hours.

I rest my case.

[#6]

My understanding of the article is that it will be the alkaline battery that would run out of charge in 24 hours and not the diamond battery.

[#7]

The Daily Mail is so foolish.

What's so special about diamonds?

It's just one of the allotropes of carbon, so you can easily burn it in a flame.

Diamonds aren't especially radiation-proof - although since Carbon-14 emits low energy radiation, it needn't be very effective.

[#8]

Would you say Bristol University is also foolish?

[#9]

It couldn't have more than a very limited use.

What would happen if it was crunched, all those radioactive bits.

[#10]

@Strat Yes I would quibble with Bristol University.

They issued a press release that starts off with:-

New technology has been developed that uses nuclear waste to generate electricity in a nuclear-powered battery. A team of physicists and chemists from the University of Bristol have grown a man-made diamond that, when placed in a radioactive field, is able to generate a small electrical current.

What is a "radioactive field"?

[#11]

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VileReynard wrote:

What is a "radioactive field"?

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Chernobyl?

[#12]

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@VileReynard wrote:
What is a "radioactive field"?

Not being a nuclear physicist I can't give a definitive answer, maybe the area around a radioactive source where radiation can be detected. A bit like a magnetic field.

I'll ask my son this weekend as he deals with radiation sources on a daily basis. 

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[#13]

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@Mav wrote:

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VileReynard wrote:

What is a "radioactive field"?

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Chernobyl?

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Er no, I believe that is many radioactive fields