According to a report on the website of the Russian "Labour Daily" on July 18, the Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation announced on the 18th that engineers and scientists from the Russian National Research Nuclear University-Moscow Engineering Physics Institute of Laser and Plasma Technology have developed a working 80's small nuclear battery prototype.

"Russian scientists have developed a prototype of a small nuclear battery based on plutonium isotopes. The device can safely and automatically provide electrical energy for decades without recharging," the announcement said.

Experts explained that nuclear batteries convert the decay energy of radioactive isotopes into electricity. An isotope of plutonium has a half-life of 87 years, so the battery would last that long.

The power of this nuclear battery is expected to be 500 watts, which can meet the power supply needs of facilities such as Arctic weather stations.

Although this kind of nuclear battery is not pocket-sized, it is quite compact and can be integrated into various instruments or mechanical devices without building storage buildings for it.

Andrei Kuznetsov, dean of the Institute of Laser and Plasma Technology of the Russian National Research Nuclear University-Moscow Institute of Engineering Physics, pointed out that this kind of battery may be put into mass production in the next five or six years, and it will be used in satellites, underwater instruments and various An irreplaceable source of power supply for polar equipment.

The news that Russian nuclear physicists were working in this direction came out about 4 years ago: at that time, Rosatom stated that experts from the Department of Semiconductor Electronics and Semiconductor Physics of the Moscow Institute of Iron and Steel and Alloys had introduced a nickel-63 A small nuclear battery prototype of the isotope, which has a half-life of 100 years.