• Diplomjodler@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Nickel 63 has a half life of 100 years. So that means you have safely store these things for 500 years after using them. Yeah, sounds totally fine.

    • Rotten_potato@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Sounds very similar to the old Soviet pacemakers with radioisotope batteries. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, records about them got lost and so a bunch of people have been buried with pretty radioactive stuff in their chest. I don’t think we (as developed societies) are going to take that risk for some phone batteries…

      • NounsAndWords@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        I don’t think we (as developed societies) are going to take that risk for some phone batteries…

        Not unless it’s profitable, at least…

        • Atelopus-zeteki@kbin.run
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          10 months ago

          Fortunately for us, Nickel 63 decays to plain old Copper 63, which is stable. Science! However too much copper in the diet can be deleterious.

    • Atelopus-zeteki@kbin.run
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      10 months ago

      I noticed, by reading the article, that Nickel 63 decays to Copper 63 which is stable.

      "Betavolt further states the battery is environmentally friendly. “After the decay period, the nickel 63 isotopes become a stable isotope of copper, which is non-radioactive and does not pose any threat or pollution to the environment,” the company explains. “Therefore, unlike existing chemical batteries, nuclear batteries do not require expensive recycling processes.” "

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotopes_of_nickel

      • SharkAttak@kbin.social
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        10 months ago

        Key word ‘after decay period’, which means after it’s lost all or most of its radioactivity… still a lot of time.

      • wikibot@lemmy.worldB
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        10 months ago

        Here’s the summary for the wikipedia article you mentioned in your comment:

        Naturally occurring nickel (28Ni) is composed of five stable isotopes; 58Ni, 60Ni, 61Ni, 62Ni and 64Ni, with 58Ni being the most abundant (68.077% natural abundance). 26 radioisotopes have been characterised with the most stable being 59Ni with a half-life of 76,000 years, 63Ni with a half-life of 100.1 years, and 56Ni with a half-life of 6.077 days. All of the remaining radioactive isotopes have half-lives that are less than 60 hours and the majority of these have half-lives that are less than 30 seconds. This element also has 8 meta states.

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