DARPA plans 30-year endurance nuclear waste batteries to power next-gen drones, says report

DARPA's 'Rads to Watts' initiative aims to develop radiovoltaic devices powered by nuclear waste, potentially enabling next-generation drones with up to 30 years of continuous operation. Led by Morgan... Read original →

DARPA’s 'Rads to Watts' initiative reframes nuclear waste as a strategic power asset, with strontium-90-based radiovoltaics forcing semiconductor materials toward radiation-hardened, high-efficiency microarchitectures. Upstream isotope processors face steeper NRC compliance costs—potentially +30%—while defense integrators like Northrop Grumman will likely decouple from lithium-based propulsion chains. Suppliers in Taiwan, China and South Korea risk exclusion if they fail U.S. export controls. Within 18 months, the EU may impose divergent safety standards for persistent micro-power systems, fragmenting global specs. Beyond defense, this could catalyze a ‘waste-as-resource’ market model, accelerating commercial reuse of spent reactor isotopes and redefining autonomy in extreme environments.