Stacked Thin-film Multi-nuclear Voltaic Batteries

Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) in collaboration with Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) will build a nuclear battery with enough power output to drive low-power sensor and communications equipment for at least 25 years without servicing or replacement. The PSI-LANL battery system employs thin-film junction technology to efficiently convert the energy released in weak nuclear decays to direct current and voltage. The primitive nuclear cell is designed to be easily stacked to produce total currents and voltages that can directly power small loads without interruption. This stack will be less than the volume of a typical laptop Li-ion battery form factor. The nuclear battery can also be configured to continuously charge a Li-ion buffer cell that can in turn periodically power larger loads for short durations. During this Phase II program, PSI and LANL will develop a battery prototypes as well as the technology and procedures for safely fueling, encapsulating and decontaminating them for later deployment. The team will design the systems for transitioning to the Navy for use in long life, low access roles such as powering remote sonobuoys and long-deployment, autonomous, unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs). The technology developed in this program will also have applications in providing fail-safe power to critical systems such as medical and first responder equipment. This nuclear battery technology will also find application in the exploration of deep space or chronically dark space alongside – or in some cases instead of – traditional solar and radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) systems.