In today’s episode of “weird shit I stumbled onto on the internet”, I bring you: nuclear-powered pacemakers.

Some of the earlier pacemakers made in the US, around the 70’s, were powered by a very small amount of plutonium. If you’ve ever heard of the term radioisotope thermoelectric generator or RTG in relation to eg. satellites, that’s what the pacemakers used. The upside of using an RTG was that the device could run for decades without needing to get its power source replaced. The downside is that you now have plutonium sown in to your chest cavity – which actually isn’t as bad as it sounds considering the amounts used, but it’s still a highly radioactive element and presents some fun challenges, some of which are discussed in the article.

Here’s an article on the technical details on how they, and thermoelectric kajiggers in general, work https://blog.plover.com/tech/seebeck-effect.html

  • Plibbert
    29·
    1 年前

    I wonder why no new companies have picked up this technology. Some patients surviving 30 years, with no surgical intervention required is a pretty bold claim for any pacemaker. Regulations be damned.

    • interolivary@beehaw.orgOP
      15·
      1 年前

      Regulations be damned.

      I guess when it comes to plutonium the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission doesn’t want to take any chances – it’s still frickin’ plutonium after all. But yeah, having a pacemaker that’ll essentially work the rest of the patient’s life sounds pretty damn impressive, although I really don’t know what the state of the art is.

      But if we do want to sew radionuclides into people (because why not), maybe the same could be done with one that’s a bit less spicy? I’d imagine that with modern technology you could get away with using something that wouldn’t give you the same amount of power, but that also wouldn’t be… well, plutonium.

      • cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
        13·
        1 年前

        Other fuels would either require much more shielding or have a much shorter life. Plutonium-238 lasts for decades and barely produces any gamma radiation.

        • interolivary@beehaw.orgOP
          8·
          1 年前

          Yeah that makes sense, and I guess it figures that they didn’t originally pick plutonium just for shits and giggles

          • qupada@kbin.social
            6·
            1 年前

            This video about ex-Soviet RTGs of questionable radioactive source choice is quite a good watch

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NT8-b5YEyjo

            NASA apparently used RTGs for deep space missions only, while in the same timeframe the Soviets scattered them all across the countryside, then promptly forgot about them.

            • interolivary@beehaw.orgOP
              3·
              1 年前

              Ha yeah I’ve read about the stray Soviet RTGs. Great power source for some godsforsaken lighthouse etc. in Siberia, but much to the surprise of exactly nobody, of course they just left them lying around when the Union collapsed. I have a vague memory of there having been some, err… incidents related to those, something along the lines of some poor Siberian schmuck finding one and going “ahh, this metallic doodad is nice and warm, I think I’ll camp next to it”

          • Plibbert
            6·
            1 年前

            Lol, let’s just be glad this didn’t become wide spread enough to tempt a certain boy scout to turn serial killer.

            • interolivary@beehaw.orgOP
              6·
              1 年前

              Would have made for a pretty crazy story though 😅

              I got to wondering what happened to David Hahn, and it turns out he died of an OD in 2016. He was apparently doing a lot of coke and was ‘paranoid about people who he claimed “had the ability to ‘shock’ his genitals with their minds”’, and around 2007 he decided it’d be a great idea to steal a bunch of smoke detectors for, well, something.

              So his real story didn’t end nearly as happily as I’d hoped

              • Thisfox@sopuli.xyz
                1·
                1 年前

                and was ‘paranoid about people who he claimed “had the ability to ‘shock’ his genitals with their minds”’

                Some people really need to gjve their kids more sex education instead of leaving them in the dark to work it all out for themselves.

                • interolivary@beehaw.orgOP
                  1·
                  1 年前

                  But he likely had paranoia or something like that, education won’t much help you there 😁 even the smartest person can suddenly start believing pretty weird things

              • interolivary@beehaw.orgOP
                1·
                1 年前

                I’m not sure Hahn would have cared about that, considering he was paranoid about people being able to shock his dick with their minds, and he stole a bunch of smoke detectors to get at the americium because reasons 😅

      • Plibbert
        2·
        1 年前

        Oh now these are cool. That’s how you recycle lol. Thank you sir for providing my next wiki hole.