Diamond Are More Than a Girl’s Best Friend Scientists at the Cabot Institute of the University of Bristol in the UK have discovered that they can turn nuclear waste into small batteries that last for thousands of years. Graphite blocks used to “moderate” nuclear reactors become themselves radioactive and must eventually be disposed of, at considerable expense. But this radioactive graphite can be transformed into small black diamonds that naturally give off a small electrical current. The outer layer of the radioactive graphite is just carbon 14, a trace isotope of carbon used to determine the age of items made … Continue reading →