Avalanche Energy is developing a radioisotope battery for the US military

Using a laptop for months without needing to charge it: The US company Avalanche Energy is reportedly developing a battery with a very long runtime on behalf of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa). This is intended for military operations, but also for space missions.

To achieve runtimes of several months or more, conventional systems cannot be used, especially since the possibility of charging the battery is not given. Avalanche Energy is therefore developing a radioisotope battery, the company announced. This generates electricity from the decay of radioactive substances. More precisely, the kinetic energy of alpha particles from radioisotopes is converted into electricity. For this, the company is receiving 5.2 million US dollars from the research agency of the US Department of Defense.

Such batteries are already in use: The Mars rovers Curiosity and Perseverance are powered by them. However, their performance is significantly lower than what Avalanche Energy envisions: The radioisotope batteries deliver about 2 to 2.5 watts per kilogram. Avalanche Energy assumes 10 watts per kilogram.

Such a battery would weigh only a few kilograms and could, for example, “continuously power a laptop-like system for months,” the company explains. It is to be designed in such a way that space radiation cannot harm it.

Darpa Program Rads to Watts

The project, which is scheduled to run for 30 months, is part of Darpa's Rads to Watts program. Its goal is to "is to enable radiovoltaics that convert high-power nuclear radiation into kilowatts of electrical energy”, the agency announced. The result should be “long-lived, unattended high-power sources for new operating domains” where there is no electricity or where they cannot be supplied with power sources through resupply.

Avalanche Energy is actually involved in nuclear fusion, not nuclear fission. However, the underlying physics is also relevant to Avalanche's fusion plans. Here, too, it is about converting charged particles into electricity. “As part of the project, degradation-resilient micro-structures (micro-chips) [will be developed] that will first be used for radioisotope-produced alpha particles, but ultimately support direct energy conversion from the same particles produced in their fusion machines.”

“The direct energy conversion technologies we're developing under Rads to Watts will be essential for extracting power from fusion reactions efficiently,” explained Robin Langtry, CEO and one of the founders of Avalanche Energy.

(wpl)