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A team of physicists and engineers affiliated with several institutions in China has developed an extremely small nuclear battery that they claim is up to 8,000 times more efficient than its predecessors. Their paper is published in the journal Nature.

Scientists have been looking for a way to create tiny nuclear power packs for decades. These could power virtually any device, from phones to robots and cars, for many years. Unfortunately, the development of such power packs has been stymied by the dangerous nature of nuclear power plants, regardless of size.

One approach is the development of devices powered by batteries that are charged by nuclear material. Such devices have tended to be small to reduce the amount of nuclear material needed, which has reduced the potential amount of power they could produce. They are also extremely inefficient.

In this new study, the research team found a way to create such a device that is far more efficient.

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