Radioisotope-Powered Photovoltaic Generator

Abstract

Disposing of radioactive wastes from nuclear power plants has become one of the most important issues facing the nuclear industry. In a new concept, called a radioisotope photovoltaic generator, a portion of this waste would be used in conjunction with a scintillation material to produce light, with subsequent conversion into electricity via photovoltaic cells. Three types of scintillators and two types of silicon cells were tested in six combinations using 32P as the radioisotope. The highest system efficiency, determined to be 0.5% when the light intensity was normalized to 100 mW/cm2, was obtained using a CsI crystal scintillator and a “Helios” photovoltaic cell