
Interview: The NDB team on its revolutionary nano-diamond batteries - astronautelvis
https://newatlas.com/energy/nano-diamond-battery-interview-ndb/
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merricksb
Earlier discussions:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24332054](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24332054)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24324684](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24324684)

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virgilp
> So if you're talking about electric vehicles, our battery could run for
> around 90 years without the requirement of recharging.

> Take the battery for a Tesla car, it costs somewhere in the region of
> US$9-10K. Our battery will cost something in the region of US$7-8K

> battery into the market in less than two years' time.

This is too good to be true. Something's amiss.

How do they stop the decay/ what do they do with the power while the car is
not in use?

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moltar
What would happen if a car gets into a massive accident? Will we have a
nuclear spill? I know they say it’s covered in a diamond, and I’m not
intimately familiar with it’s properties. But can it crack under certain
conditions? Impact? High temperatures?

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jerome-jh
I like the part "trying to get some of these devices out to places where kids
don't have electricity to do their homework". What basically means: we're open
to any kind of investor, greedy or philanthropic, if he is gullible enough.

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me_me_me
hehe, Its too good to be true so lets market it as a feel good save the world
solution. Do they have a kickstarter page yet?

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newyankee
It will be very hard to convince people who oppose Nuclear reactors even
though their overall impact on humanity is much better, that something
radioactive in a small packet will be safe too. Just a psychological issue but
also the fear of it being misused even though Physics might suggest that is
not possible.

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astronautelvis
I believe the convenience of not having to charge your phones will beat
everything, plus if the commercial prototype is deemed to be safe when tested
with early adopters (military, space use cases), then the laggards will have
no option but fall in line, esp if the economics mentioned in the interview
hold true at scaled production. Psychological issues exist only until a
critical mass adopts it :)

Also, the comparison with nuclear plants is a little inaccurate I feel. Power
supply (as we know it) has always been centralised and hence comparisons are
made with other centralised solutions such as thermal power plants. With this
technology, we could be able to decentralise it - much cleaner and free from
central grid fluctuations/failures.

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me_me_me
What about harvesting phone batteries to get nuclear material which can be
used to produce dirty bomb?

IF those bateries are even real. They would be part of a electrical grid only.

Also have a look at this [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zT-
kUcQb844](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zT-kUcQb844)

Imagine battery that holds what 900x more energy.

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jerome-jh
Do diamonds burn? I never found a definitive answer. However if they do
radioactive C14 could be released this way.

