MIT's conceptualization of a nuclear battery (NB) with integrated gas turbine; (b) LANL's Megapower; (c) NASA and LANL's KRUSTY/Kilopower reactor using Stirling engine technology for space applications; (d) Westinghouse's eVinci heat pipe micro-reactor; (e) Radiant Nuclear's high-temperature gas-cooled micro-reactor.)

China made a mass producible coin sized nickel-63 nuclear battery that produces 0.1 milliwatts for 50 years. There are other isotope materials which could produce far more power. Russia, NASA and other space agencies have used plutonium and uranium for nuclear thermal generators to make up to a few hundred watts of power for multi-year and even multi-decade space missions.

Shell Global and Southern electric looked at the use case of nuclear battery as a standardized, factory-fabricated, road transportable, plug-and-play micro-reactor. Nuclear batteries have the potential to provide on-demand, carbon-free, economic, resilient, and safe energy for distributed heat and electricity applications in every sector of the economy. The cost targets for nuclear batteries in these markets are 20–50 USD/MWht (6–15 USD/MMBTU) and 70–115 USD/MWhe for heat and electricity, respectively.

A single 10 MW Nuclear Batteryy can power some 7000–8000 homes or a large shopping mall or a mid-size data center, or produce enough desalinated fresh water for over 150,000 people. It could also power electric car and truck charging stations.