Nuclear powered micro-batteries? Zowie!

‘THE FUTURE OF NUCLEAR MICROBATTERIES depends on several factors, such as safety, efficiency, and cost. If we keep the amount of radioactive material in the devices small, they emit so little radiation that they can be safe with only simple packaging…with 10 milligrams of polonium-210 (contained in about 1 cubic millimeter), a nuclear microbattery could produce 50 milliwatts of electric power for more than four months (the half-life of polonium-210 is 138 days). With that level of power, it would be possible to run a simple microprocessor and a handful of sensors for all those months.’