New Nuclear Battery Could Last A Lifetime While Others Enhance Energy Efficiency & Assembly Lines

Earlier in the month, leading EV (electric vehicle) company BYD introduced its new “super e-platform,” which improves charging speeds for vehicles in a way that could actually rival internal combustion engine vehicles.

The platform can deliver a range of about 400 kilometers with just five minutes of charging!

Building on this impressive feat, BYD is relieving charging anxieties a step further by developing an ecosystem of ultra-fast charging stations throughout China.

Now, a team from South Korea's Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology is looking to top that achievement by building a safe nuclear battery that could last a lifetime.

Forget about charging five minutes to travel 400 kilometers, this innovation will cut out the need for charging vehicles—ever!

The team, led by Su-Il In, a professor at the institute, is turning to radiocarbon to develop safe, small, and affordable nuclear batteries that could last decades without needing a recharge.

Professor Su-Il In will present the teams’ results at the ACS Spring 2025—the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS)—being held March 23—27, 2025. The event features about 12,000 presentations on a range of science topics.

While nuclear batteries generate power by harnessing high-energy particles emitted by radioactive materials, not all radioactive materials emit harmful radiation. Furthermore, some radiation can even be blocked by certain materials. As such, beta particles AKA beta rays can be blocked using aluminum, making betavoltaic nuclear batteries safe to use.

Keeping to this thought, the researchers built a prototype betavoltaic battery using carbon-14, which is an unstable and radioactive form of carbon called radiocarbon. Radiocarbon is also inexpensive, readily available, and easy to recycle, and because it degenerates extremely slowly, they could theoretically last for millennia.

“I decided to use a radioactive isotope of carbon because it generates only beta rays,” said In, adding, “The performance of Li-ion batteries is almost saturated.”

Not only do Li-ion batteries require frequent recharging, but they’re also tough to mine and dispose of.

In’s design builds on previous ones that used radiocarbon only on the cathode to also include the anode, driving energy conversion efficiency from 0.48% to 2.86%. These batteries could be used in more than just EVs, they could power smartphones, pacemakers, data centers, and a wide range of devices that currently utilize Li-ion batteries.


While it might take time to reach a world that doesn’t need batteries to be replaced or recharged, leading battery energy storage solution and energy management software provider FlexGen Power Systems is looking to maximize battery energy storage efficiency.

Through a news release published on its website, the company announced an update to the State of Health (SOH) feature in its HybridOS—a platform that offers cutting-edge features for advanced energy management analytics—that gives customers a clearer, more reliable view of battery degradation and enables long-term site planning.

SOH measures a battery’s remaining capacity by comparing its current capacity to its originally expected capacity, allowing users a better understanding of how much energy it can store and deliver and when it needs to be replaced.

“Our proprietary battery state-of-health algorithm delivers precise, site-level diagnostics, providing customers with deeper insights into their battery’s performance and health,” said Hugh Scott, Chief Technology Officer at FlexGen. “FlexGen remains dedicated to providing advanced, actionable data analytics that help our customers optimize their asset’s performance.”

On the other side of the planet, leaders from the Guangdong Provincial Government, Zhuhai Municipal Government, and Guangdong Energy Group, alongside energy sector experts, clients, and industry partners, got together to witness the launch of the semi-solid-state battery production line built in collaboration between Guangdong Highstar and WeLion New Energy.

The production line is the world’s first mass production of 314Ah high-capacity semi-solid-state batteries, in addition to being Guangdong’s first dedicated production line for the same.

“This achievement propels the Greater Bay Area into a new phase of technological innovation and industrialization in energy storage, serving as a model for China’s “dual-carbon” strategy and the cultivation of next-gen productive forces,” reads Highstar’s announcement.

What do you think about these innovations? Do you think we could soon see EVs that don’t need charging at all?

Let us know in the comments below!