Production of nuclear sources and nuclear batteries by proton irradiation

TL;DR

This paper explores using proton irradiation in accelerators to produce nuclear power sources, offering a flexible and less wasteful alternative to traditional fission-based batteries, with specific focus on isotopes like Po-208.

Contribution

It presents a formalism and practical considerations for producing isotope-based nuclear batteries via proton irradiation, emphasizing alternative methods to classical fission technology.

Findings

Proton irradiation can produce alpha-emitting polonium isotopes from bismuth.

A 20 MeV proton beam can generate Po-208 with a half-life of 2.9 years.

The method offers a flexible and waste-reducing alternative for nuclear power sources.

Abstract

The decay of instable nuclei is being used in a broad range of applications from detector calibration to power sources. As the public acceptance of classical fission nuclear technology is decaying and its integral costs are enormous, alternative production routes are required. The mathematical formalism and fundamental considerations are presented for the use of ion accelerators for isotope production. A focus is put on the production of nuclear power sources to substitute Pu-238 based batteries. 20 MeV protons are found to produce {\alpha} emitting polonium isotopes from bismuth with an energy efficiency of up to 0.031%. Some hours are required to produce a 1Wth power source of the 2.9 year half-life {\alpha} emitter Po-208 with a suitable accelerator. The accelerator approach offers more flexibility for tailoring of nuclear products and less waste. The technical requirements are close to and compatible with the planned International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility accelerator