100 microwatts over 50 years. At $.10/kWh, that's less than half a penny worth of electricity.

More context about the technology at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betavoltaic_device which mentions "Betavoltaic nuclear batteries can be purchased commercially. Available devices include a 100 μW tritium-powered device weighing 20 grams[12]" linking to a press release at https://newatlas.com/city-labs-nanotritium-betavoltaic-batte... about a product from https://citylabs.net/ .

That's only 20 years, vs. the 50 from this article.

What isotope(s) are they using for 50 years? All I see is "After the decay period, the 63 isotopes turn into a stable isotope of copper", which sounds very odd. Why 63 different isotopes? What decay chain ends up with copper?

It's "Nickel 63". Someone mistranslated it to "63 isotopes" and all press articles are cut&pasting the error.

Thanks!

Article about Russian research into a ⁶³Ni battery at https://phys.org/news/2018-06-prototype-nuclear-battery-powe... with a link to the scientific publication at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S09259... .

those batteries have not produced 50 years of energy. they claim to but we have not yet seen if indeed they can last 50 years (hint : very, very probably not). and you will only reach those 50 years with very, very low power use..

Fake news: battery producing electricity using beta decay aren't a new technology, are arounds for decades, those devices produce electricity in order of micro ampere/h, 1 / 1'000'000 of ampere, currents, so small can only fit to niche application, like preserve the status of few bytes of RAM. A phone needs million of time that current not only to operate but even to have a detectable recharge level increase. So article stating they can power or recharge phones and drones are pseudo-science and fake news, I'm reporting this because I observed a proliferation of articles with the same topic, this "50 years miracle battery", without reference, scientific documentation, tests, any paper with scientific value :

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38966352 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38978085 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38970438 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38980963 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38943144 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38951104

maybe they are a scheme to deceive potential investors.

Sound like a dumb journo wrote this.

Is the battery a primary cell? Or it is a secondary cell?

One is a producer of energy and usually can't be recharged.

The other is merely a storage for energy and needs to be charged and recharged to be useful.