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Great, we can use them to store all that energy we'll get from our fusion reactors!
Actually, it can use some waste from our nuclear reactors.
Excellent for all those applications where you need... Almost no power at all.
It is easy to imagine a future where tiny nano-electronics are embedded into pretty much everything everywhere. The plants in the field that call for treatment at the first sign of insects or infection, for example.
So what's the maximum voltage and current that you can pull from one?
This reminds me of those break-through articles about using Scotch tape as mass storage medium.
Not comparable to a real battery any time soon based on the paper https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2025/cc/d4cc0...

> The perovskite betavoltaic cell achieved impressive parameters, including a short-circuit current density of 15.01 nA cm−2, an open-circuit voltage of 2.75 mV, and an energy conversion efficiency of 1.83%, all of which represent significant improvements over previous works.

These batteries provide milliwatt level power. Enough to power, maybe a clock circuit without display.
This nuclear battery tech is wild. Tiny devices that could run for decades without a recharge changes the game for things like sensors, medical implants or space gear. Still early but if they improve the efficiency, it could seriously shift how we think about power.
I feel like I've been reading news like this for over years, yet these breakthroughs never make it to market.
Ctrl+F "nuclear"

Nope. I'm fine with recharging my batteries every day, thank you very much.

The least the society needs is nuclear waste thrown all over the place. People still didn't learn how to recycle regular batteries.

i don't think you can 'recharge' a nuclear battery.
The Thing that the heading missed,

"which could power small devices for decades"

How does a cell like this work? Is it directly turning the flux of electrons from beta decay into usable current?
Unless you want to power a device with Microsoft Teams running on it
Dear battery technology claimant,

Thank you for your submission of proposed new revolutionary battery technology. Your new technology claims to be superior to existing lithium-ion technology and is just around the corner from taking over the world. Unfortunately your technology will likely fail, because:

[ ] it is impractical to manufacture at scale.

[ ] it will be too expensive for users.

[ ] it suffers from too few recharge cycles.

[ ] it is incapable of delivering current at sufficient levels.

[ ] it lacks thermal stability at low or high temperatures.

[ ] it lacks the energy density to make it sufficiently portable.

[ ] it has too short of a lifetime.

[ ] its charge rate is too slow.

[ ] its materials are too toxic.

[ ] it is too likely to catch fire or explode.

[ ] it is too minimal of a step forward for anybody to care.

[ ] this was already done 20 years ago and didn't work then.

[ ] by this time it ships li-ion advances will match it.

[ ] your claims are lies

Your comment applies to most of these articles. However, this one is a bit different. It is actually a niche product for specific devices, especially those that require decades of operation without recharging.
My guess is these could have biomedical applications. Other than that, I doubt they would become widespread. The radioactive nature makes it unlikely to be used on the consumer market outside of maybe a few niches due to disposal concerns and the low power output limits it's possible applications.