DIY Nuclear Generator

by IanCharnas

25K6424

Intro: DIY Nuclear Generator

Hello, and welcome to your personal guide for making a DIY Nuclear Generator! This bespoke tutorial will guide you through the steps to make your own safe and fun device to convert nuclear energy into electricity.

Watch the video above to see how your nuclear generator can power a portable video game system! Are you excited yet?!

For a limited time, enter the raffle to win my Nuclear Powered "Gameboy" system! This raffle benefits kids living near the Chernobyl disaster.

Get started making your own by ordering your supplies:

STEP 1: What Is Nuclear Power?

Before we can get started, we need to remind ourselves what nuclear power is. When an element is radioactive, it emits particles, energy waves, and/or heat. In a nuclear reactor, radioactive Uranium decays in a self-sustaining chain reaction that releases lots of heat (and lots of dangerous particles and energy waves). That heat is used to boil water, which turns a steam turbine, which makes electricity the old-fashioned way. Simple, right?

But this isn't an Instructable about refining Uranium. We want something much, much safer. So, we're going to use tiny glass vials full of Tritium. This is a slightly radioactive Hydrogen gas that emits electrons (beta particles), which hit the phosphors on the inside of the glass vials, causing them to glow. We're going to convert that light into electricity using special solar cells that are very good at collecting energy in low-light situations.

I tested out every color of Tritium vial, and tested multiple types of solar cells to find the combination that generated the most power. Use the links in the "Supplies" section to see exactly which products I used.

SAFETY INFORMATION: These tritium vials are inherently safe because the electrons (beta particles) can't escape the glass tubes. These vials are used commonly in wrist-watches, keychains, and pendants, so you can rest assured that you aren't putting yourself in any danger.

STEP 2: Build Your Nuclear Generator!

Use a laser-cutter or 3D printer to make a frame that will hold your tritium vials and solar cells together. The inner dimensions of the frame should fit your vials, and the outer dimensions of the frame should match your solar cells. Your frame dimensions will vary depending on what dimensions your vials are, how many you buy, and which solar cells you buy, so I will leave that design to you. I recommend laser-cutting the frame out of acrylic, to get slightly more energy, but it's not necessary and 3D printing in plastic will work just fine.

Next, solder wires to your solar cells. If you buy the ones I recommended, the leads are covered in a thin film of plastic to protect them, so you will need to scrape this off carefully with a knife or use your soldering iron to melt it off (be sure to clean your soldering tip afterwards!).

Finally, assemble your nuclear generator. Tape one of the solar cells to the frame, and turn it upside down. Place the tritium vials into the frame, and then tape the other solar cell to the open face of the frame. Use black electrical tape to cover all of the seams so you can be absolutely sure there's no light leaking into your nuclear generator.

That's it - you're done! You can wire your solar cells in series or parallel depending on your application. I wired mine in series. At peak power I was able to get about 1.5 microwatts of nuclear power. Not much, eh? There's more power in a mouse fart!

STEP 3: Using Your Nuclear Generator

Now, with only 1.5 microwatts of power, it's going to be difficult to find something that's low-power enough to use this nuclear generator for.

I used a special type of battery called a thin-film solid state battery to store that power for several weeks, so that I would have enough power saved up to play a portable video game system. I found mine on the surplus electronics market and soldered them to a custom printed circuit board (PCB) I designed that connects them all in parallel, but you don't need to go to all that trouble of designing your own PCB. If you can find some of those batteries, and you're good with soldering small parts, you can just solder them together with wires.

Have fun!

17 Comments

shanep1 4 months ago

do i need a permt to use this?

Neeebler 5 months ago

How many would you need to power a laptop? Can I use a briefcase size one for a laptop?

Salamyman 2 years ago

What's the smallest thing that could be powered?
E.g. an LED or some small light that is not that bright but that can be seen in the dark.

Harpo 2 years ago

Are there complete enclosed nuclear power units that can be buried next to your new house, then fueled and activated for 20 years of electrical power for heating and cooling, and all appliances including well water pump?

IanCharnas 2 years ago

Hi Harpo, not to my knowledge, no.
Ian

3dninja 2 years ago

also, could you use any different chemicals to make the generator work?

IanCharnas 2 years ago

Another great question! Yes, any gas isotope that undergoes beta decay should work.

3dninja 2 years ago

ok, thanks again

3dninja 2 years ago

could you build the cell with a bigger solar panel, and like, charge a phone with it

IanCharnas 2 years ago

Cool question! Yes I suppose that's possible. It would have to be pretty big! The Tritium vials are a little expensive, but it's definitely possible :-)

3dninja 2 years ago

really it was for a 5v project, but thats nice

The Big H 2 years ago

Hello is this amount of Titrium safe and will have no long lasting effects from the radiation?

IanCharnas 2 years ago

Great question! Yes the Tritium is only dangerous if you break the tubes and breathe in the gas. While it's inside the tubes it's super safe. The beta particles (electrons) can't escape the glass. In the video I used a Geiger counter to show that it's the same extremely low level of radiation that you'd get from regular granite that you'd have on a park bench or kitchen counter, so you can see that it's super safe. People use Tritium tubes for wristwatches and pendants. So, no health risk to speak of. Good question!

IanCharnas 2 years ago

Hey thank you Bryan! That's super nice of you :-)