"To provide enough power, we need certain methods with high energy density," said Jae Kwon, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at MU. "The radioisotope battery can provide power density that is six orders of magnitude higher than chemical batteries."
Kwon and his research team have been working on building a small nuclear battery, currently the size and thickness of a penny, intended to power various micro/nanoelectromechanical systems (M/NEMS).
Although nuclear batteries can pose concerns, Kwon said they are safe. "People hear the word 'nuclear' and think of something very dangerous," he said. "
However, nuclear power sources have already been safely powering a variety of devices, such as pace-makers, space satellites and underwater systems."
"The critical part of using a radioactive battery is that when you harvest the energy, part of the radiation energy can damage the lattice structure of the solid semiconductor," Kwon said. "By using a liquid semiconductor, we believe we can minimize that problem."
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