A Coin for a Hundred Years: How China Is Building a Nuclear “Power Backbone” for Electronics and Robotics
Imagine a coin-sized battery that will outlive your smartphone, your laptop, and even a few generations of owners — requiring neither recharging nor maintenance. China is already getting close to that reality. The startup Betavolt has moved its BV100 module, based on the isotope nickel-63, into the pilot stage: a nuclear battery measuring 15×15×5 mm that delivers about 100 microwatts at 3 volts and is designed for 50 years of continuous operation. Inside it is an ultra-thin sheet of Ni-63 sandwiched between two diamond semiconductor layers; the electronics draw energy directly from beta decay, without a thermal cycle or the chemistry familiar from lithium-ion cells. As the isotope decays, nickel transforms into stable copper-63, making the radiation footprint closer to that of medical isotopes than to a nuclear reactor.
The BV100’s practical output is still far below the level required for a smartphone or laptop but perfectly suited for devices where peak power is less important than decades of reliable background operation: sensors in hard-to-reach places, microrobots, medical implants, autonomous beacons, and space or polar missions. Its modular architecture allows these “coins” to be combined into arrays to scale output power. Betavolt has already announced a 1-watt version in development and is positioning its technology as the world’s first mass-produced nuclear battery, rather than a handcrafted space RTG.
The next step is carbon-14. A joint project by Wuxi Beita Pharmatech and Northwest Normal University (Lanzhou) has created the prototype Zhulong-1 (“Torch Dragon-1”), based on C-14 embedded in a silicon carbide matrix. Carbon-14, with a half-life of about 5,730 years, offers a theoretical service life of millennia; in practice, the researchers are more cautious, speaking of a century-long battery lifespan. Zhulong-1 has already demonstrated its ability to power an LED and can operate across a temperature range from –100°C to +200°C, with an energy density ten times greater than that of commercial lithium-ion cells. The potential applications read like a chapter from a futurism textbook: implantable neurointerfaces and pacemakers, Internet of Things sensors, polar and deep-sea platforms, lunar and Martian exploration modules.
Crucially, China is not limiting itself to laboratory prototypes but is simultaneously building a full isotope infrastructure — from a reactor producing C-14 to Wuxi Beita’s specialized facilities working with radiolabeled carbon compounds. The logic mirrors that of solar energy a decade ago: first establish a complete domestic supply chain, and only then start the global price war.
The futuristic conclusion is fairly clear. In the coming years, these batteries won’t free us from charging our phones, but they will quietly transform the world of “invisible electronics” — from sensors embedded in bridges and spacecraft to microdrones and autonomous inspection robots. Where engineers today plan for battery replacements every few years or complex energy-harvesting systems, a new option will emerge: “one nuclear coin for half a century” or even “for a century.” And if Betavolt with its BV100 and the Zhulong-1 team maintain their promised parameters and pass regulatory barriers, we may gain a new foundational layer of energy — low-power, yet virtually “eternal” — on which the next generation of robotics and distributed systems can be built.
Betavolt website: https://www.betavolt.tech
Wuxi Beita Pharmatech website (partner in the C-14 Zhulong-1 battery project): https://en.beitalab.com
