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2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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Amazon provides update on its Washington project with X-energy
A year ago this month, Amazon led a $500 million investment in X-energy, alongside Citadel founder Ken Griffin, the University of Michigan, and other investors. In addition to that financing, Amazon pledged to support the development of an initial four-unit, 320-MW project with Energy Northwest in Washington state.
A. Kavetskiy, G. Yakubova, S. M. Yousaf, K. Bower
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 168 | Number 2 | June 2011 | Pages 172-179
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE10-49
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A tritium battery with solid dielectric has been built utilizing a tritium beta source, an electron collector, and a separating layer of dielectric much thicker than the range of tritium beta particles. Electric current between the electrodes is due to an electric field that is created by direct charge accumulation of beta particles in the dielectric. A macroscopic model describing the behavior of current and voltage is proposed. Based on this model and experimental results with 37 GBq (1000 mCi) tritium sources, the electrical characteristics of a device with 37 TBq (1000 Ci) tritium are extrapolated. It is predicted that this battery will have open circuit voltage over 6 kV, short circuit current more than 1 A, and 1 mW of electric power on an optimal load with overall efficiency near 9%.