A thimbleful of some radioactive isotopes could theoretically run a cardiac pacemaker or a sensor on a space probe for decades. However, no one has ever come up with a practical nuclear battery (SN: 8/24/02, p. 125: Available to subscribers at Micromachine runs on nuclear power).
Now, a team of industry and university researchers has demonstrated a tritium-fueled battery with 10 times the efficiency of earlier designs.
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