Nation's first C-14 nuclear battery developed in Gansu

Chinese researchers have developed the country's first carbon-14 nuclear battery, marking a milestone in the research and development of micro-nuclear battery technologies.

According to a news release from Northwest Normal University in Gansu province's capital of Lanzhou, researchers from the university and Wuxi Beita Pharmatech, a private nuclear medicine company in Jiangsu province, have jointly made the world's first model of silicon-carbide semiconductor-based C-14 nuclear battery.

Named "Zhulong" after a mythical creature symbolizing light in Chinese classic Shan Hai Jing, this nuclear battery uses energy from the decay of high-specific-activity C-14, a radioactive isotope with a half-life of 5,730 years, to generate electricity.