A diamond battery for Valentine’s Day?

February 14, 2025, 12:00PMANS Nuclear Cafe
Weak radio luminescence captured by a low light intensity camera from a synthetic diamond carbon film made from beta-emitting carbon-14 atoms. (Image: University of Bristol)

The world’s first carbon-14 diamond battery became a reality in a United Kingdom laboratory this past December when it was created by scientists from University of Bristol and the U.K. Atomic Energy Authority.

Radiation-mapping robots deployed at Chernobyl

October 13, 2021, 7:01AMANS Nuclear Cafe
Inside the New Safe Confinement covering the sarcophagus of Chernobyl’s Unit 4. (Photo: SSE Chornobyl NPP)

A team of scientists from the United Kingdom’s University of Bristol were given access to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, advancing a project to train robots and artificial intelligence systems to measure radiation and create 3D maps.

A slideshow of the team’s visit to Chernobyl’s Unit 4 control room and New Safe Confinement structure, where they deployed radiation mapping and scanning sensors, including a LIDAR-equipped robot call Rooster, appears on Gizmodo.