Feynman,

You misread me on this. I am not saying the effect is not real. I am saying there might a better of using the energy. Instead trying to use output energy directly from the terminal, it might be a better idea to store the energy in battery or capacitor first. It is well known it's not recommended to close the loop on the output of these devices.

Discourage? No my friend, I am currently doing long period test on my system  and charging a battery at a rate that is leaving me breathless. I am actually solving the other end of the puzzle. I am already past the first step. The next step is to find the best way to use the output of the device and I predict one will have to store the energy first instead of using directly from the device terminal.

Thanks,

Miki.

Ah f*** that last one, here is what we want:


Resonant Nuclear Battery May Aid In Mitigating The Greenhouse Effect

by Paul M. Brown
(Presentation to the American Nuclear Society, November 17, 1989)

A new process for the direct conversion of radioactive decay energy directly into electricity of usable form is currently being developed by peripheral Systems, Inc. United States Patent # 4,835,433 was issued May 30, 1989 to protect this Resonant Nuclear Power Supply. When developed, this system promises cheap, reliable power from a package small and light enough to be mobile with an energy density great enough for use as a space-based power supply. One of the potential domestic applications could be to power electric automobiles. Such use in highly populated areas would have a tremendous beneficial effect on the ecology.

We call the device a Nuclear Powered Oscillator and several variations of the device have been built and tested (Figure 1). Basically, the device is an LCR tank circuit oscillating at its self-resonant frequency. The oscillator is driven by radioisotope decay energy utilizing a phenomenon known as the Beta Voltaic Effect. Energy in excess of the oscillator's requirements is delivered to a load through an impedance matched transformer.

Figure 1
(http://www.rexresearch.com/nucell/0a1.jpg)

Figure 1

Consider a charged particle with a radius a, carrying a charge of electricity e, first at rest and then moving with velocity v. The stationary charged particle has an electrostatic field with lines of force directed radially outwards (Figure 2A); in consequence of its motion the moving charged particle has, in addition, a magnetic field with circular lines of force around the axis of motion, which is carried with it (Figure 2B), all in accordance with the Laws of Maxwell.

(http://www.rexresearch.com/nucell/0a2.jpg)

The presence of a magnetic field around the moving body implies that magnetic energy is stored up in the medium surrounding it. In a magnetic field of strength H the magnetic energy stored up in a unit of volume of the medium of unit permeability is given by H2/8pi. Integrating the value of this expression over the region  exterior to a sphere of radius a, the total magnetic energy due to the motion of the charged body is given by:

E2v2/3a

(http://www.rexresearch.com/nucell/0a3.jpg)

Figure 3

This means that the moving charged particle has an amount of energy equal to its kinetic energy plus the energy of the magnetic field. The absorption of the charged particle is such that the velocity goes to zero causing the magnetic field to collapse. This in turn produces an emf which may be utilized by means of induction. The entire process is the reverse of a particle accelerator. In a particle accelerator, a great deal of energy is pumped into a slow moving charge to accelerate it to high velocities and a portion of this energy goes to increase the magnetic field strength. However, our device is a particle decelerator, utilizing high speed particles emitted from natural radioactive decay which we bring to a stop, releasing the stored energy. With this in mind, the Nuclear Powered Oscillator is more precisely an oscillating particle decelerator.

Devices for converting natural radioactive decay directly into electricity are nothing new. The Beta Cell was first demonstrated by Mosely in 1913 (Ref. 1) and over the years many types and methods have been developed (Ref. 2). This technology has been made possible due to the electrical nature of alpha and beta disintegrations.

Figure 4
(http://www.rexresearch.com/nucell/0a4.jpg)
(http://www.rexresearch.com/nucell/0a5.jpg)

The simplest form of nuclear battery is the Burke Cell (US Patent # 3,939,366, Ref. 4). This method consists of a conventional battery and a conventional load connected by means of a radioactive conductor. If we inspect this arrangement we find that all of the power dissipated in the load is not drawn from the battery. And upon closer examination we find that a current amplification occurs within the radioactive conductor (Ref. 3).

(http://www.rexresearch.com/nucell/0a6.jpg)

Figure 6

This phenomenon is known as the Beta Voltaic Effect, and it may be explained by referring to Figure 6. For the simple case of this example, we will set the radioactive source (any alpha or beta emitter) external and separate from a silver wire. Now the battery from Figure 5 provides an electromotive force (emf) across the wire and consequently, conduction electrons within the wire are set in uniform motion. By definition, electricity is measured in terms of the number of charged particles (electrons) moving past a point in a unit of time and we call this amperes.

The process by which a beta p[article is absorbed, is such that the beta particle collides with the molecular structure of the copper, knocking electrons free. This electron avalanche occurs until the beta particle (electron) effectively comes to rest. A single beta particle emitted from strontium-90 that is absorbed in copper will generate 80,000 ions in a distance of 0.030 inches. Now, as soon as these electrons are knocked loose, they effectively become free electrons in the wire, and as such these additional electrons are acted upon by the emf applied across the wire to give the avalanche electrons a uniform direction of flow, regardless of their incident angle. This increase in the number of moving charged carriers is measured in the real world as increased current. We also measure a reduction in the resistance of the wire (Ref. 6), an increase in its conductivity (Ref. 7), while the current is directly proportional to the voltage (Ref. . In other words, the current goes up with an increase in voltage (Ref. 5). This is basically attributed to the increased emf acting on a greater number of avalanche electrons.

Additionally, flux cutting also occurs as the beta particle approaches the current carrying wire which yields an emf to help drive electrons (Ref. 9).

Figure 7
(http://www.rexresearch.com/nucell/0a7.jpg)



Now we will look at how we apply this phenomenon to our device. Figure 7 depicts a basic LC tank circuit comprised of an inductor and a capacitor. Theoretically, if this LC circuit were superconductive, then an externally applied electric impulse would yield an LC oscillation that would continue to oscillate forever due to no losses in the system.

However, our LC circuit is not superconductive, and the oscillation damps out due to the losses inherent to the LC tank. To minimize these inherent losses, we tune the circuit into resonance at the self-resonant frequency of the inductor. This causes the inductive and capacitive reactances to cancel, leaving only ohmic losses (resistance).

Figure 8
(http://www.rexresearch.com/nucell/0a8.jpg)

Figure 8

If we apply a radioactive source as part of the LC tank, then through every cycle of the oscillation of which current is flowing, that current gets amplified by an amount proportional to the activity of the source. All we need is an input of an amount of energy equal to the system losses to achieve a sustained oscillation. At this point, we have a self-driven oscillator that we call a Nuclear Powered Oscillator.

(http://www.rexresearch.com/nucell/0a9.jpg)
Figure 9

Any energy contributed to this oscillating LC tank must be removed and we accomplish this by simply impedance-matching a transformer which yields high-frequency AC current to drive a load. In a nutshell, that is the principle of operation for the Resonant Nuclear Power Supply: an LC tank circuit oscillating at its self-resonant frequency, driven by natural radioactive decay energy. Energy in excess of the operational requirements is removed through a transformer to yield electrical energy in usable form to drive a load.

(http://www.rexresearch.com/nucell/0a10.jpg)

source: http://www.rexresearch.com/nucell/nucell.htm

My power unit is a 'micro' size... I will test both toroidal and cylindrical collectors, possibly biased with strong current.  You can see the rubber spacers, a couple of N45 neos,  a carbon rod out of a 'heavy duty' battery  (not alkaline!) , a small ferrite toroid with some magnet wire, and a nice cap I pulled out of a computer power supply.  I also have a zinc cylinder for collecting beta electrons but it is not pictured because I am soaking it to remove the potassium permanganate electrolyte.

I might also add insulator wrap to the carbon rod so I can also try using the neos as beta collectors.  OR I might wind a coil directly on the carbon and bias that with current and see if I can pick up the emitted beta using that method.   

(http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/3789/p1000834ey9.jpg)

This is really exciting. I'll start gathering parts tomorrow.

A couple thoughts: The device creates AC at 250ma and 1k plus volts? Sounds like you could use a step down transformer to get the amount of current you want, and then a diode bridge to make DC if you need that... of course, transformers only work for AC, so it goes before the bridge.

It sounds like this device could be simplified down to a carbon rod encased in aluminum (with insulation between?), each part having a wire on each end, surrounded by a permanent magnet (I'm excluding the signal driver and output circuit). Does that sound about right? This is probably the design I will try.

I might also add insulator wrap to the carbon rod so I can also try using the neos as beta collectors.  OR I might wind a coil directly on the carbon and bias that with current and see if I can pick up the emitted beta using that method.   

If you do insulate the carbon, try to keep the insulation as thin as possible, so you don't block the betas.
Wrapping the coil directly on the rod seems like a good idea, since it will maximize the cross-section of beta flux, but you may run into problems when you run current through it, since it will generate its own magnetic field -- possibly disrupting the magnetic alignment within the carbon which seems to be so crucial.

Hi All,

Here is a link for Civil Defense Cold War Radiation Detectors for $49.95.

http://www.hosfelt.com/

Scroll down to Radiation Detectors on the left.  I used to buy from this company when I was making things.
Description says will detect Beta.  Cheap if it will work?

Good luck to all,
Tishatang

where can i find a carbon rod say the size of a tooth pick,and one around the size of a pen/cil ?.