Circlip, that is very true. There was a company in Canada called 'Radium Dial, who used to produce all kinds of luminous dials using this material. Because of the practice you outlined, many of the workers became ill and keeled over with radioative poisoning. The factory was eventually closed but because the building fabric and grounds on which it stood were so contaminated, nothing has been built there since. There were law suits flying everywhere at the time.
The radioactive isotope battery is certainly a very interesting concept, there are millions of tons of radioactive waste around the world, imagine if one could extract the last remnants of energy from decaying waste using a large scale version of this technology, it could certainly impact our power consumption requirements if we did not have to re-charge batteries anymore. When you think of the millions of phone chargers alone, which are not only charging normally, but get left plugged in even when they are not in use, that probably amounts to a fair chunk of power being sapped from the grids.
It would certainlybe interesting to come back in a hundred years just to see how all the present knowledge and technology has impacted the world in general. I guess politics may hold back the march forward though.
Now if only they can devise a mini wind turbine which fits in a politicians windpipe...... I think I have already decided where the mains plug should be located!:o