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Nuclear Batteries May Pack Inner Punch
Batteries with huge storage potential, you say?
It says that there are quantum jumps inside nuclei analogous to electron jumps in outer shell of atoms.
— Winchell Chung⚛🚀 (@nyrath) February 21, 2021
The energies of these quantum jumps are often six orders of magnitude greater than in the electron shell.
Could make batteries with huge storage.https://t.co/ChaZvvhw6S
Yes, please.
In the meantime, we science fiction fans make do with our dreams of Robert Heinlein's Shipstones. Fans who are old enough might be thinking of Edmond Hamilton's 1940 story Revolt on the Tenth World:
"...I'll tell you this - Vliet's fortune isn't in money. I learned that before I came here. It's in 'solid power'.""Solid power" was, he knew, the most super-valuable substance in the solar system. For it wasn't really a substance at all, but compressed energy "frozen" by temporary transformation into artificial atoms.
Trillions of units of power could be compressed thus into an inch-square cube of what looked like blue-white ice. And a suitable transformer would, when desired, turn it back into almost limitless power.
"... Vliet has at least ten cubes of it." Kruppa was saying.
"Whew!" Crane whistled softly. "The stuff's worth a million Earth dollars a cube."
(Read more about Edmond Hamilton's solid power)
And as fans of Isaac Asimov know, it would be handy to have a life-long Pocket Nucleo-Bulb Flashlight.
Thanks to @nyrath, the hard-science SF writer's tech support, aka Winchell Chung of Atomic Rockets.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 2/17/2021)
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