QUOTE: In short: Waste management trucks and facilities are seeing more than 10,000 fires per year, caused by lithium-ion batteries.

Waste chiefs will call for a management plan to be implemented.

What's next? Tanya Plibersek will meet with state and territory environment ministers on the issue

Just wait: Based on actual provenance for a change; The insurance industry stands to make a motser from placing a surcharge on anything that has a lithium battery in it, or building where there is any in it.

If something can be taxed, the current governmental regime across the mainland will find a way.

After more than 30 years of yellow and blue bins, many councils still throw everything in landfill. Recycling is an unregulated fraud in this country.

The thing that is really getting on my nerves at the moment is the disgraceful behaviour of members of the Commonwealth Government with regard to their hyperventilating over Peter Dutton's nuclear power proposal. The cartoons with three-eyed koalas and deformed fish with fuel rods floating up Port Jackson are just juvenile rubbish and ignore the basic premise that nuclear power is a form of baseload generation whilst wind and solar are clearly intermittent at best.

I have no faith in government at the moment. Those bastards are about to give themselves a pay rise (Albo will be on $587,000) and what are we getting for it? The site rules don't permit me to use the language that fits the description. The lot of them are just disgusting. Democracy gives people the right to agree or disagree but it is how that is done that concerns me.

With regard to batteries, it is the lithium-cobalt chemistry that is causing the issues and they are fitted to many things, from phones to bikes to cars. The advantage over other types such as lithium-iron-phosphate (LIFEPO4) is better energy density. The disadvantages is that they can explode without any warning and start a fire that cannot be put out with water.

It didn't take long for Simpsons-era 3-eyed fish and so on to appear in memes.

We don't have blue bins - just dark green with yellow, red, and bright-green lids.

I have no issue with the concept of nuclear power stations, but I don't know the technical stuff behind it or whatever problems there might be. From what I've seen of overseas nuclear stations the technology (control switches etc) looks quite dated. Maybe something more modern might be better? But what would I know.

Of course the chinese don't want us to have nuclear power - they made enough racket about nuclear-powered submarines (even though they have them). So they are possibly behind this stupid anti-campaign.

Of course the chinese don't want us to have ...

Meh. I cannot think of anything that I care less about than Communist China's view on any topic.

I'm cannot think of anything that I care less about than Communist China's view on any topic.

As I always say, if the commos disapprove, it must be the right thing to do.

Cheap bargains down under---.

Mega tons of high grade coal and iron, and today's special, uranium. All global orders welcomed.
Plenty for everyone, email Australia now and place your order. Cheapest and best.

Conditions: Australians need not apply, they are busy saving the planet.

Probably safer working in a fireworks factory!

QUOTE: A fire at a lithium battery factory in South Korea has claimed the lives of at least 16 people, with five others still missing, according to local fire officials.

The fire, which has largely been extinguished, occurred at about 10:30am on Monday, local time, at the factory run by battery manufacturer Aricell in Hwaseong, south of the capital Seoul.

The blaze began after a series of battery cells exploded inside a warehouse with some 35,000 units, said Kim Jin-young, a local fire official.

QUOTE: A 15-year-old boy avoided serious injury after the e-bike he was riding to school in Alexandria burst into flames.

A passing firefighter extinguished the blaze with assistance from a Fire and Rescue NSW crew. (photo)

. . .

The number of battery-related fires in the state has grown year-on-year.

In NSW, there have been 185 lithium-ion battery-related fires in the first seven months of 2024, according to FRNSW data.

By comparison, there were 163 fires within that same time frame in 2023, and 109 fires in 2022.

FRNSW Commissioner Jeremy Fewtrell told ABC News last week that battery fires have become a top issue for firefighters.

The most mysterious battery explosion I have noted recently was actually a sealed Lead Acid one: Viz 70ZZ. In the Ute.

The Generator & Voltage regulator had been checked prior to the incident and there was nothing on the Ammeter nor Voltmeter that were abnormal. However, as it rounded a corner (in town) there was a sharp "Bang" from the engine bay & everything proceeded as normal.

Inspection revealed two large holes in the battery ends? Naturally acid all over the RH side of the engine bay. Being British, damage was confined to what was left of the paint that side: The rest was protected by the usual coating of oil. This however, did require a bit of dismantling and neutralisation and a DIY respray of the engine bay, which gave it quite a visual lift.

The thing is, that whilst moving and the engine running, there is no way the LEL (Lowest Explosive Limit) could have been involved, outside of the battery.

The Fire Commissioner was on 2GB tonight - explaining to people the need to supervise the charging of any appliance with a lithium battery. I don't own that much that has them and I think it may be that my mobile phones, satellite phone and drone are the only things I own with them. All are reputable brands however I still have little faith in them. I charge the drone batteries in the garage which is double brick and the fire cannot spread to the house if a battery goes up. The phones get charged inside but the chargers are on a timer and the timer turns the chargers off well before bed time and are in a location with a networked smoke detector above them.

Our lives are too short as it is. I refuse have mine cut shorter still by a badly made time bomb. Things like bikes and scooters should be charged outdoors, and again, only under supervision, simply because the only thing ever made in China that was built to last was the Coronavirus.

Principally made for unregulated chargers years ago. Here I have an Omron timer which can be set for seconds or hours. On power fail it is not wired to restart.

I will often use it to ensure that a charger albeit regulated will be timed out. I did note that the phone placed in the charging nacelle of my KIA gets seriously hot. Not ideal methinks for a seriously hot day.