Self-reliant carbon-14 nuclear battery

"Millennium Source" series carbon-14 nuclear battery by China

The "Millennium Source, Nuclear Energy Innovation" independent and controllable carbon-14 nuclear battery full-chain technology achievement release conference was held in Lanzhou, co-hosted by Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou Municipal Science and Technology Bureau, and Lanzhou Anning District People's Government, and organized by Gansu Zhulong Technology Co., Ltd. and Lanzhou Anning District Science and Technology Bureau. The conference officially unveiled two core scientific research achievements: the new independent brand "Millennium Source Tianshu" carbon-14 nuclear battery and the "Millennium Source Nengshu" silicon carbide energy converter. Cross-sector team says device, which marks significant step in long-life power sources, was developed without foreign tech or parts. 

Chinese researchers have developed a new-generation nuclear battery that far surpasses its predecessor and marks a major step in long-life power sources. The Qianjiyuan Tianshu battery is a major upgrade from the team’s earlier Candle Dragon‑I, or Zhulong-1, prototype unveiled in November 2024. Compared with its predecessor, the new battery cuts radioactive material use to just 22%, boosting short‑circuit current to 2.5 times and maximum power to 2.6 times, all while maintaining the same voltage and stability. Among performance gains, the effective volume of the device shrank to just 17% of the original, resulting in a dramatic 15.5‑fold increase in volumetric power density. Su Maogen, who leads the project team at Northwest Normal University, said carbon‑14 had a half‑life of 5,730 years, giving the battery a theoretical lifespan of thousands of years. Su said the device operated reliably between minus 100 degrees and 200 degrees Celsius (-148 to 392 Fahrenheit), making it suitable for medical implants, use in deep‑sea and polar regions, and defence and aerospace applications.

The "Millennium Source" series carbon-14 nuclear battery results released this time represent a benchmark practice by Northwest Normal University in the full chain of national strategic scientific research, deep industry-university-research collaboration, and achievement transformation. Leveraging the profound disciplinary foundation, talent pool and research platform advantages of Northwest Normal University, Gansu Zhulong Technology Co., Ltd. undertakes the transformation of scientific research achievements, promoting engineering application and industrial implementation, achieving a key leap from the laboratory to engineering, marketization, and industrialization. “Nuclear batteries are vital for space exploration, polar missions, specialised equipment and unmanned operations, and are also a key part of China’s new-energy strategy,” China’s official Science and Technology Daily reported. “Earlier versions suffered from low power, poor integration and high costs, so the team focused on making the device compact, powerful, affordable and fully domestically produced.” Nuclear batteries differ fundamentally from nuclear power plant reactors. Instead of relying on chain-reaction fission, they harness energy from the natural radioactive decay of isotopes such as carbon‑14 or plutonium‑238.

Nuclear batteries are indispensable long-life energy sources for scenarios such as space exploration, polar scientific research, special equipment and unattended operations, and are also a crucial component of the national new energy system and strategic scientific and technological strength. For a long time, industry applications have commonly faced issues such as low output power, low structural integration, and high application costs. To address this, the project team focused on developing carbon-14 nuclear batteries with high output power, small size, and low cost, promoting independent and controllable technology and process innovation. One conventional approach uses thermoelectric materials to turn decay heat into power, but those systems tend to be bulky and operate at high temperatures. The new carbon-14 battery works differently: it directs beta particles (high-speed electrons) from decay into a silicon carbide semiconductor where they excite electrons to produce current. It is essentially a solar panel powered by radiation instead of light. 

Compared to the "Zhulong-1" carbon-14 nuclear battery engineering prototype released in March 2025, the "Millennium Source" series results released this time have achieved five major technological breakthroughs, covering radiation source adaptation technology, silicon carbide energy conversion technology, three-dimensional stacked packaging technology, intelligent power management technology, and wireless self-powered sensing technology, establishing a domestically produced independent and controllable technology system. This series of indicators breaks through the limitations of low efficiency, high cost, large size and low power density of carbon-14 nuclear batteries, achieving a systematic upgrade in miniaturization, high power, low cost and high integration. The current products have high industrial value. The battery, measuring just 16.8 cubic cm and using 129 millicuries (a measure of radioactivity) of carbon‑14, delivers a short‑circuit current of 0.713 microampere (µA), an open‑circuit voltage of 2.06V, a fill factor of 0.77 and a maximum output of 1.13 µW. Importantly, the critical energy‑conversion component, the silicon carbide transducer, is fully domestically made.

The developers’ breakthroughs enabled smaller, more powerful, cheaper and more integrated designs, offering great industrial value. Nuclear batteries are currently used mainly in deep‑space missions. Notable examples include NASA’s Voyager probes launched in 1977, the Curiosity Mars rover in 2012 and China’s Chang’e‑3 and Chang’e‑4 lunar mission rovers. At the conference site, Gansu Zhulong Technology Co., Ltd. signed strategic cooperation agreements with five enterprises: China Isotope & Radiation Corporation, CNNC Qinshan Isotope Co., Ltd., China United Engineering Corporation Limited, CCTEG Digital Innovation Technology (Chongqing) Co., Ltd., and Zhejiang Isotope Labeling Medical Technology Co., Ltd. The parties will engage in long-term cooperation in areas such as technology achievement transformation of carbon-14 nuclear batteries, multi-scenario engineering applications, supply of carbon-14 isotope raw materials and industry standard formulation, jointly building a complete industrial closed loop of "scientific research, product finalization, scenario testing, compliant use, standard formulation, mass production and waste recycling."

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Black hole information paradox

 Black hole information paradox may have been finally solved by researchers

Researchers propose that extra-dimensional spacetime torsion prevents black holes from fully evaporating, leaving remnants that preserve quantum information. In the 1970s, Stephen Hawking showed through semi-classical calculations that black holes are not completely black. Instead, they emit a faint form of radiation which slowly drains their energy until they eventually disappear. This creates a serious conflict with quantum mechanics because it appears to destroy information permanently, violating the principle of unitarity. According to quantum physics, information cannot be erased, yet black hole evaporation seems to do exactly that. A new theoretical study suggests that black holes may never completely disappear, potentially offering a way to resolve the long-standing black hole information paradox.

One of the biggest unsolved problems in modern physics, known as the “black hole information paradox,” may finally have a compelling solution. The proposed answer could also help explain where the mass of fundamental particles comes from. Researchers have proposed that black holes stop evaporating at the last moment, leaving behind tiny remnants which preserve all the information they contain. The same seven-dimensional geometry behind this idea could also help explain why elementary particles have mass. A new study, led by Richard Pinčák’s team, introduces a possible solution based on the geometry of extra-dimensional space. In the study, the researchers examined the effects of a gravity model called Einstein-Cartan theory in a seven-dimensional framework built on a mathematical structure known as a G2-manifold with torsion. Unlike standard general relativity, this theory allows spacetime not only to bend but also to “twist” through a property called spacetime torsion. Theory suggests black holes may secretly preserve information, and could even reveal the origin of mass itself. 

For decades, physicists have wrestled with one of the deepest puzzles in modern science: the "black hole information paradox." The model produces an intriguing result. At the extreme densities associated with the Planck scale, this torsion creates a repulsive force which opposes gravitational collapse and stops the final stage of Hawking evaporation. Instead of disappearing completely, the black hole leaves behind a stable “remnant” with a predicted mass of about 9*10-41 kg. The paradox traces back to work by Stephen Hawking in the 1970s. Using semi-classical calculations, Hawking showed that black holes are not completely black. Instead, they emit a faint form of radiation that slowly drains their energy, causing them to shrink and eventually disappear. The result created a serious problem. According to quantum mechanics, information cannot be destroyed. Yet if a black hole evaporates completely, all information about the matter that fell into it appears to vanish as well. This apparent contradiction became known as the black hole information paradox. Study led by Richard Pinčák and published in General Relativity and Gravitation proposes a different outcome. The researchers suggest that the answer may lie in the geometry of a higher dimensional universe.

Unifying black hole stability and elementary particle mass via 7D geometry. Geometric torsion generates a repulsive force at Planck densities (central inset), stabilizing a black hole remnant. Through dimensional reduction, the torsion vacuum expectation value is identified with the electroweak scale (≈246 GeV), naturally providing the Higgs field vacuum expectation value (VEV) and enabling elementary particles to acquire mass in 4D spacetime. The team investigated a version of gravity known as Einstein-Cartan theory, formulated in 7 dimensions on a mathematical structure called a G2-manifold with torsion. Unlike Einstein's General Relativity, which describes spacetime as something which can bend or curve, Einstein-Cartan theory also allows spacetime to twist. This twisting is known as spacetime torsion. According to the model, torsion becomes especially important at the extreme densities associated with the Planck scale. Under those conditions, it generates a repulsive force which works against gravitational collapse. The researchers found that this repulsive effect can stop the final stage of Hawking evaporation. Rather than disappearing completely, a black hole would leave behind a stable "remnant" with a predicted mass of about 9*10-41 kg.

If a black hole never fully vanishes, the question becomes, what happens to the information carried by everything that fell into it? The researchers suggest that the stable remnant functions as a kind of memory archive. Its structure provides a physical mechanism for preserving information through a spectrum of “quasi-normal modes.”  More specifically, quantum information becomes encoded within long lived "vibrations" of the torsion field that exist inside the remnant's geometry. Their calculations suggest that a remnant left behind by a black hole with the mass of the Sun could store approximately 1.515*1077 qubits of information. According to the researchers, this capacity is exactly sufficient to preserve the information needed to resolve the paradox. The study also has major implications for particle physics. The researchers found that reducing the geometry from seven dimensions to four dimensions, which corresponds to observable spacetime, naturally produces the electroweak scale (~246 GeV). This scale is closely tied to the Higgs field, which gives elementary particles their mass.

Within this framework, the vacuum expectation value (VEV) of the torsion field is dynamically linked to the electroweak scale (about 246 GeV). In other words, the same geometric effect that prevents black holes from fully evaporating and preserves information could also provide a geometric explanation for the mass hierarchy problem in particle physics. The study also reaches beyond black holes and into particle physics. As a result, the same geometric mechanism that prevents black holes from completely evaporating and preserves quantum information could also provide a geometric explanation for the mass hierarchy problem, one of the long standing challenges in particle physics. If extra dimensions play such a fundamental role, why have scientists not observed them directly? According to the study, the particles linked to these dimensions (Kaluza-Klein excitations) would have masses of roughly 8.6*1015 GeV. This energy scale is about seven orders of magnitude beyond what the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) can reach. However, the authors emphasize that being beyond the reach of current particle accelerators does not make the theory impossible to test. Because the framework is built on specific geometric relationships, it produces concrete predictions that could potentially be investigated through astronomical observations. One possibility involves the stable black hole remnants themselves. The predicted remnants (9*10-41 kg) could contribute to Dark Matter. Detecting the gravitational effects of these proposed "Planckian relics" would provide direct support for the theory.

The model also stands out because of the mathematical structure behind the information stored in the remnants’ “vibrations” (quasi-normal modes). In addition, the enormous energy scales involved are associated with the very early universe. This means traces of this seven-dimensional geometry could potentially appear in the cosmic microwave background or in primordial gravitational waves. By linking black holes to the Higgs field, the research suggests that solving the information paradox may not require rewriting quantum mechanics. Instead, it points toward a deeper seven-dimensional picture of the structure of reality. In addition, the extremely high energy scales involved are characteristic of the early universe. By connecting black holes, quantum information, extra dimensions, and the Higgs field within a single framework, the study offers an ambitious attempt to address multiple outstanding problems in physics. If the idea proves correct, the black hole information paradox may not require a revision of quantum mechanics after all. Instead, it could point toward a deeper understanding of reality rooted in a 7-dimensional structure of space time.

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