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Westinghouse updates: Japan investment, competitors, and a new report
March has put Westinghouse front and center in multiple news stories, from its role in Japan’s investment in U.S. nuclear energy to the economic impact that 10 potential AP1000 reactors could bring to the United States.
Eric V. Steinfelds, James S. Tulenko
Nuclear Technology | Volume 174 | Number 1 | April 2011 | Pages 119-123
Technical Paper | Energy Conversion Systems Using Radioisotopes | doi.org/10.13182/NT11-A11685
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The paper describes a micronuclear battery that utilizes the conversion of beta particles into photons and back into electrons through a photoelectric cell to potentially deliver a nuclear battery of higher efficiency than other nuclear battery concepts and with much greater energy per gram and lifetime than chemical batteries. The Monte Carlo nuclear code MCNP has been used to analyze the performance of the proposed battery, and the photoelectric stage has been shown to be insensitive to the expected radiation for at least 1 yr of performance.