Science

You too can build a nuclear battery from junk you have lying around the house

It won't provide much juice, but its creator calls it a 'nanowatt nuclear power plant'

It's illegal and impractical to construct a nuclear power plant in your backyard. But a DIY tritium nuclear battery is far less dramatic - just don't expect any appreciable amount of energy from it.

You don't even need any specialized supplies, as YouTuber and electrical engineering enthusiast Double M Innovations demonstrated in a recent video . Don't expect to get much energy out of the whole mess, but all it takes for aspiring nuclear electricians to whip up, in the YouTuber's words, a "nanowatt nuclear power plant" is a couple of old solar-powered calculators, some tritium gas vials, and tin foil.

The idea is a relatively simple one: Tritium vials glow because beta decay excites a phosphor coating, and that emitted light can generate a small current in solar cells, albeit far less efficiently than natural light.…