Tag: safety risk

OM in the News: The Lithium Battery Dilemma

 

To the makers of smartphones, power grids and electric vehicles, lithium—the lightest metal—allows batteries to become supercharged, underpinning hopes for a greener economy and longer-lasting devices. But the very traits that make lithium game-changing for energy storage can pose overpowering challenges should the batteries ever catch fire, reports The Wall Street Journal (June 28, 2024). Incidents involving lithium-battery fires are becoming more common around the world, raising safety concerns.

A Tesla lithium-ion battery catches fire in Washington state

The world recently saw the risks of lithium-battery fires in South Korea, where at least 23 workers died. Video footage of the fire showed occasional flashes that produced thunderous booms like a detonated bomb.

Water isn’t always an effective combatant for certain types of lithium-battery fires, leaving little option other than waiting things out or using costly suppressants. The lithium produces searing temperatures. The fire’s ignition is more intense than an oxy-acetylene torch, which can be roughly 5,000 degrees, or about five times hotter than house fires. It will literally cut through a firefighters’ protective clothing and their leg if it’s coming out from underneath their vehicle. Battery fires are a growing concern for firefighters worldwide.

So-called “lithium-ion” batteries are rechargeable and widely used in smartphones, PCs and EVs—and are the subject of the bulk of such fires, often due to overheating. Extinguishing a lithium-ion battery fire for an EV takes longer and about three times as much water than a regular vehicle, on top of the exposure to carcinogenic chemicals.

Sometimes the safest option is to let a battery fire burn. That was the case in 2021, when a Tesla battery caught fire while being installed at an Australian power storage facility. Responders allowed the blaze to burn out over six hours, while keeping nearby units cool.

Lithium is widely viewed as a key future energy source, given its outstanding ability to retain high amounts of energy compared with other metals. The properties of lithium that make it suitable for energy storage also pose risks, but the metal in its various forms has been harnessed to operate safely for a variety of uses.

 

Classroom discussion questions:

  1. How many lithium-ion batteries have actually exploded in the past few years?
  2. How does this impact the growth of EVs? Is it a design issue?

OM in the News: One Job the Robots Can Have–Cleaning Nuclear Waste

A robot designed to gather data and monitor radiation
A robot designed to gather data and monitor radiation

To enter Europe’s largest nuclear site, 300 miles north of London, a visitor must wear a device that rings if radiation levels get too high. Contamination enters the body through open wounds, so any cuts must be bandaged. On the way out, after removing protective gear, a security guard sweeps each person to make sure nothing latched on.

In England’s haste to build a nuclear bomb during the Cold War little thought was given to disposing of the waste, reports Businessweek (Feb. 20-March 5, 2017). In 1957, a reactor fire contaminated the local countryside and a devastating meltdown was narrowly avoided.

Generations later, the government is still grappling with the leftover waste. Hundreds of tons of radioactive material are in the structures, risking leaks into the soil or a fire. The area has been classified an “intolerable risk” for falling short of modern safety standards. This urgency is leading England to seek help from robots. Advances in software and hardware are allowing machines to reach contaminated areas that humans could never survive. The cleanup will cost over $100 billion.

One $600,000 six-legged robot is packed with cameras and sensors to see its environment. A giant pincher on the front grabs contaminated material and breaks it up. Other robots scoop up sludge and drop it into steel containers later placed in silos. Even as robots work to scrub the most dangerous areas, more waste continues to arrive from other plants. Nuclear waste remains radioactive for thousands of years. And governments (including the U.S., Japan, Germany, and France) still don’t have places to store it, even if robots can clean it up effectively. (A 6 minute video on the cleanup process can be linked from the article).

Classroom discussion questions:

1.Why are robots so important here?

2.Is this an operations management issue?