Three large Lithium-Ion batteries from the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), near Carlsbad, N.M., are being shipped to Pittsburgh where government researchers will study potential mine-fire risks.
DOE and WIPP prime Salado Isolation Mining Contractors have reached an Inter-Agency Agreement with the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). The batteries will be sent to the NIOSH Pittsburgh Mine Research Division. There the batteries will be studied for “large-scale battery fire dynamics,” DOE and WIPP officials said in a Monday news release.
“Previous research has been limited to testing medium-sized battery packs where the results were then used to estimate the performance and fire risk of larger batteries,” DOE said in the release. “While that research provided valuable information, the true nature of large-scale battery fires remains difficult to predict and understand.”
The research is important to repositories, mines and underground tunnels that make use of equipment powered by large batteries, DOE said in the release. Worries over worker health effects of emissions generated by diesel-powered equipment underground has spurred increased interest over the years in battery-powered equipment.
NIOSH is part of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, which falls under the Department of Health and Human Services.
