this post was submitted on 16 Nov 2024
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The race to commercialise nuclear-powered batteries (www.chemistryworld.com)
submitted 1 day ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

TIL:

In a classic classroom demonstration, alpha particles can be blocked with material as thin as a piece of paper. This means that shielding batteries based on alpha-decay is relatively easy. In the past this allowed plutonium-238 nuclear batteries to power pacemakers, until they were superseded by lithium-ion batteries.