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Piggie

macrumors G3
Original poster
Feb 23, 2010
9,280
4,313
Well, reading the date, 7 years ago, and claims of this article, I think it's about time we started asking for a Nuclear iPad3.

Just imagine, running for 10 years without needing to charge it :D

http://www.physorg.com/news4081.html
 
Very cool research! Using tritium (3H) decay as a possible long term energy source is indeed an interesting concept. I did a quick search through the literature and it appears that a couple other groups have been looking at using radioactive nickel and sulfur under a similar principle.

If anyone is interested in the actual paper the authors have it freely posted.
 
I tried to make a "Betavoltaic" battery as my summer project but radioactive material costs too much :mad: The only way for a civilian/ebay user to get Tritium is by purchasing it in individual keychain cylinders of about 1 gram, and some tests I did showed that I would need a couple hundred dollars worth to generate any power.

The problem with an iPad powered by this is that a nuclear battery small enough to carry around with you would only generate a minute amount of electricity - barely even enough to power a wristwatch. The iPad would need a briefcase sized RTG weighing ~25 pounds to power it. (and it would also be *quite radioactive).

Just before the release of the last MBP I saw some people speculating that it might be powered by a fuel cell:rolleyes:
 
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