If your laptop dying mid-task is your villain origin story, DARPA might be cooking up your redemption arc.
Meet the future of batteries, where “low battery anxiety” could become a relic of the past. DARPA has awarded a $5.2 million contract to fusion startup Avalanche Energy to develop next-gen radioactive batteries that could power devices like laptops for months without a recharge.
Yeah. Months.
The project is part of DARPA’s delightfully sci-fi-sounding “Rads to Watts” program, which aims to convert nuclear radiation into usable electrical energy at much higher levels than ever before. Radioactive batteries aren’t new: they’ve powered things like pacemakers and deep-space probes for decades, but they’ve traditionally delivered tiny amounts of power. We’re talking microwatts to milliwatts.
DARPA wants to crank that up big time.
Their goal? Batteries that can deliver over 10 watts per kilogram, a massive leap compared to current nuclear battery tech. For context, even the power systems aboard Mars rovers like Curiosity and Perseverance are bulky and relatively low-output for their size.
Avalanche Energy plans to get there using alphavoltaic cells, which convert energy from alpha particle radiation into electricity. Alpha particles are more powerful (and more dangerous) than the beta particles used in today’s safer nuclear batteries, but since these systems are aimed at space and defense applications, human exposure isn’t a major concern.
Interestingly, this whole battery project is also feeding into Avalanche’s bigger goal: building a portable fusion reactor. Their prototype, called the Orbitron, is envisioned as a compact power system that could one day sit on a desk and generate usable fusion energy.
It’s still far from reality (think decades, not years), but the tech being developed for these batteries, such as radiation-hardened microchip, could help make that dream possible.
So while your phone still begs for a charger twice a day, somewhere out there scientists are working on a battery that might outlast your next three laptops.
The future is radioactive.
[Via The Register | Pic via Korben.info]
Enjoying the content? Please consider supporting Geeks are Sexy!
Click This Link for the Full Post > DARPA’s Radioactive Battery Could Rewrite Portable Power Forever
via [Geeks Are Sexy] Technology News https://ift.tt/HqlO3sS
April 9, 2026 at 09:38AM