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Are We Ready for Electric Car, Safety & Environmental Aspect


Carbon82
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CoolPower seems like a popular brand... hope others are not similarly affected... the line below is especially worrying... 

 

“Why such cases still happen is because there is insufficient care taken in certification and verification of design...it could be possible that the device did not go through all the safety checks or that there was a manufacturing defect,” he said.

 

 

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One day, we will have electric car sharing stations all over the island. you swipe your credit card then drive. the charges ends upon you park at the next station. maybe 50 years time? 

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Although modern EVs have many safety features in-place to minimize occurrence of fire, the risk with Li-ion batteries are REAL, and should not be taken lightly... Again, "Not If But When"! I personally felt that there should be more awareness program for the general public, right from NOW.

 

E-scooters go up in flames in Pasir Ris and Yishun

 

scooter1.jpg

 

An electric scooter went up in flames at a Pasir Ris block on Wednesday (Nov 8), just one day after a similar fire landed a family in the hospital, with one member still in the intensive care unit with second-degree burns.
 
Wednesday’s incident occurred at about 6.30am in Block 548, Pasir Ris Street 51. It involved the contents of a balcony, and there were no injuries, said the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF).
 
In Tuesday’s incident, however, Mr Ridwan Ithnin, 23, suffered burns to 45 per cent of his body, and had to be saved by his neighbour from the window ledge of his 10th-floor Yishun flat when the e-scooter exploded in his room. The flames blocked the door, leading him to break open his window and climb out in a panic.
 
The two latest incidents bring the tally of fires caused by personal mobility devices this year to at least 33.
 
The SCDF said there were 31 fires involving personal mobility devices – now widely used – from January to September this year, compared to 19 cases over the same period last year.
 
Mr Ridwan had bought the e-scooter just two weeks ago for his part-time job as a deliveryman for Deliveroo, his brother, shipping engineer Kamil Ithnin, 31, told The Straits Times.
 
Mr Kamil said that his brother had charged the e-scooter for about six hours before it exploded.
 
Last month (Four, including baby, taken to hospital after e-bike catches fire outside Bukit Batok flat), a family had to escape through their bedroom window with a five-day-old baby after an electric bicycle charging overnight in the common corridor of a Bukit Batok block caught fire.
 
Nanyang Technological University’s Energy Research Institute executive director, Professor Subodh Mhaisalkar, said getting to the root cause of battery fires is a complicated process.
 
But he noted that the industry is well able to produce safe batteries.
 
“Why such cases still happen is because there is insufficient care taken in certification and verification of design...it could be possible that the device did not go through all the safety checks or that there was a manufacturing defect,” he said.

 

 

Please do buy a ticket to Europe and speak to the expert there regard to EV charging or battery safety. This is very very new to ASEAN obviously judging by this thread.

 

Please don't mingle BMW/Merc/Renualt/Nissan EV with made in China e-scooter, hoover board, laptop or even Chinese EV. Even the Samsung explosive batteries are using completely different BMS.

 

Please don't think about risk of drowning before you even put your toe into the water. I hope you don't live your life thinking about danger lurking around the corner all the time. Let it go.

 

Or are you try to sell something here.

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Cannot find a list of EN15194 certified e-scooters in LTA or Onemotoring website, only a non-exhaustive list of e-scooters that failed in one or more of the 3 criteria of max speed, unladen weight and dimensions. Very likely, many older e-scooters are without certification.

 

The e-scooters and electric cars both have lithium batteries but the process from design, manufacture, register and get the car is so much more stringent than e-scooters. So those e-scooters explosions should not be any indication of electric car safety. Those explosions let us know the dangers of badly design electrical system or potential dangers of modifications of existing electrical system without full understanding.

 

 

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As I have mentioned in my very first post in this thread, we need a full supply chain to deal with batteries alone... Business opportunity for some?

 

Rise of electric cars poses battery recycling challenge

 

As electric cars roll towards the motoring mainstream, companies are gearing up to address one big environmental question: what to do with the lithium-ion batteries used to power them once they run out?
 
The millions of small lithium-ion batteries that are already used in everything from smartphones to electronic toothbrushes consume a lot of resources as it is — about $2bn of metals and minerals in 2015 alone, according to consultancy Roskill. Almost all of them end up in waste dumps or remain in unused gadgets in people’s homes.
 
The batteries used in electric cars are much bigger, last eight to 10 years, and will account for 90 per cent of the lithium-ion battery market by 2025, Roskill forecasts, increasing lithium demand fourfold and more than doubling demand for cobalt — two of their essential elements. The price of cobalt has already risen by more than 80 per cent this year.
 
However, while recycling small lithium-ion batteries is not widespread, a number of companies are hoping it will be different for electric cars and are working on ways to profit from a used car battery bonanza.
 
Since 2006, Umicore of Belgium has been one of the few companies recycling lithium-ion batteries, through a process of smelting and leaching with chemicals to recover metals. It is now operating a pilot process for recycling electric car batteries, it says, in preparation for the “sizeable” numbers that are likely to come to the market in 2025.
 
One problem is that lithium ion batteries in electric cars use a variety of chemical processes, making it difficult to develop standardised recycling.
 
“Everyone is using their own formulation,” said Linda Gaines, an analyst for the Center for Transportation Research at the Argonne National Laboratory in the US. “Lead acid batteries are way simpler.”
 
Oregon-based OnTo Technology aims to circumvent that by producing manufacturing quality battery electrode materials directly from spent batteries, rather than breaking down the individual components.
 
“By 2025 it’s certainly going to be a robust industry,” said founder Steve Sloop. “Between now and 2020, it’s learning how to practise this and getting these materials back into manufacturing that’s really important.”
 
Canadian recycling start-up Li-Cycle says to make it profitable you need to recycle all of the battery materials. It claims it can recycle all types of lithium-ion batteries recovering up to 90 per cent of materials including lithium, cobalt, copper, and graphite.
 
“You get the full economic value . . . that’s what will enable it to be profitable,” said Ajay Kochhar, the company’s chief executive and co-founder. “You need to look at it [in terms of] all the other valuable components contained to really understand what is going to enable this market.”
 
Mr Kochhar estimates over 11m tonnes of spent lithium-ion batteries will be discarded by 2030. The company is looking to process 5,000 tonnes a year to start with and eventually 250,000 tonnes — a similar amount to a processing plant for mined lithium, he said.
 
Car makers are also looking at battery recycling.
 
In a tweet last July, Tesla Motors founder Elon Musk said the company’s battery Gigafactory in Nevada “will be fully powered by clean energy when complete & include battery recycling”.
 
In May, a corporate filing linked two top Tesla Motors executives, JB Straubel and Andrew Stevenson, with a company, Redwood Materials, that says on its website it is developing advanced technology for “materials recycling, remanufacturing, and reuse”.
 
“Governments will do something, they are not going to permit [electric car batteries] to end up in landfills,” said Jim Greenberger, executive director of NAATBatt International, a US battery trade association. “As more and more vehicles get put into the market and more and more come to the end of life the danger of that happening rises.”
 
China and the EU have already introduced rules that make car makers responsible for recycling their batteries.
 
Still, there is the question of whether the industry will be willing to use recycled materials, Ms Gaines said. Tyremakers are still reluctant to use recycled rubber, she pointed out.
 
“Historically there has been reluctance to use recycled materials partly for liability issues.” Lead-acid batteries, over 90 per cent of which are recycled, are “the poster child of managing to get it all to work,” she said.

 

 

They already think about the future.

 

https://blog.caranddriver.com/bmw-i3-batteries-to-be-recycled-for-home-use/

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Please do buy a ticket to Europe and speak to the expert there regard to EV charging or battery safety. This is very very new to ASEAN obviously judging by this thread.

 

Please don't mingle BMW/Merc/Renualt/Nissan EV with made in China e-scooter, hoover board, laptop or even Chinese EV. Even the Samsung explosive batteries are using completely different BMS.

 

Please don't think about risk of drowning before you even put your toe into the water. I hope you don't live your life thinking about danger lurking around the corner all the time. Let it go.

 

Or are you try to sell something here.

 

Morning pal. I guessed that you have miss my point completely. My main concerns, beside batteries safety, is the level of safety awareness as well as emergency preparedness of potential EV users (including you and me, whom might be taking an electric public bus, or trying out the EV sharing scheme) and government agencies.

 

The assumption that Li-ion batteries deployed in EVs are safe simply because manufacturers put in-place a lot of safety features / measures are giving users and general public a false sense of security. Many years ago, when we were reminded not to charged our phone overnight as it might explore and catch fire during charging, how many of us take it seriously? Not until the Samsung Note 8 fire case. Is Samsung not a reputable / reliable electronic devices manufacturer?

 

The key to a battery fire, as I have emphasized numerous time, is the natural characteristics of Li-ion, thermal run away to be precise. Once it hit the thermal run away temperature (due to over charge/discharge, heat accumulation, impact/penetration, etc.), it will explode and burn by itself, and it might re-ignite many hours after the fire has been put off. It doesn't matter where the batteries are manufactured or by which manufacturer (of course not from those fly by night "jokers"). And the risk will get much higher with larger batteries (in PMDs and EVs for example). Just to add, EU have already started studying the safety of batteries after been put to service for a certain period of time (say after 3 - 5 years), as with natural degrading of the batteries, stability of the Li-ion element might be impacted.

 

And back to emergency preparedness of our government agencies, the official reply from SCDF on my queries is indeed worrying... (please do read my post about the reply, above). The least our agencies can do is to educate the general public (just like SCDF have started issuing safety advisories for charging and usage of PMDs recently), to heighten the safety awareness (communication part of a risk management program) of stakeholders.

 

BTW, I am a safety professional and engineer by training, and have dealt with Li-ion batteries in my course of work, so I basically eat, sleep and sh*t thinking of safety. I am not selling anything here, but just to share what I know or have came across (during my research), hoping that readers can be better aware of the hazard and risk associating with batteries technology, and adopt the appropriate practices in the unfortunate event of an incident.

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My friends in Redhill have alerted me that their MSCP now have EV charging points already. Installed liao but not open yet.

 

I trusted that those charging stations installed are safe enough (from reputable source and with proper certification, e.g. UL, ETL), but can't say the same once it become a mass market product (EV), as I would not be surprised if some uninformed owner would get the non-certified one from "grey market". [dead] Example, having CE mark is not good enough, according to US regulations.

 

ul-listed.pngintertek.jpgNO-CE-LABEL-300x217.jpg

 

So beside EV batteries, law and regulations shall also cover charger / charging station safety, before rushing to implement EV trial here. Code of practice and guidelines have been put up in Europe, US, ANZ, etc. and are readily available online for easy reference, but unfortunately, nothing here, yet. [shakehead]

 

Honestly, after posting so much here, I am wondering what are the objectives of the evaluation conducted by LTA and relevant authorities inn the past few years? I sincerely hope it is not just about infrastructure and commercial viability... [sweatdrop]  [sweatdrop]

Edited by Carbon82
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A good news finally!  [nod]  [thumbsup]  [thumbsup]

 

Batteries made safer with fire-extinguishing electrolytes

 

Non-flammable salts form a stabilising layer over anodes of lithium-ion batteries. Fire-resistant battery electrolytes that perform just as well as – and sometimes better than – those currently in use, have been developed by researchers in Japan.

 

134323_CW291117_Non-flammable-battery-el

 

Lithium-ion batteries are at the heart of modern consumer electronics owing to their high voltage and charge density. But the flammable organic electrolytes they contain make them a safety hazard. And the development of sodium-ion batteries for grid storage of renewable energy has been held up over fears that runaway exothermic reactions might propagate through large banks of cells.
 
Normally the electrolyte in an alkali-ion battery comprises a dilute solution of the alkali metal hexafluorophosphate in a highly flammable mixture of ethylene carbonate and diethyl carbonate. During the first charging cycle, electrolyte decomposes on the anode, forming a thin ‘passivation’ layer that stabilises the battery during subsequent use. Researchers have previously tried adding flame-retardant chemicals such as trimethyl phosphate to the electrolyte, but they found that the resulting electrolyte did not properly passivate the anode. ‘If there is no passivation film,’ explains Atsuo Yamada from the University of Tokyo. ‘then, upon charging, the electrolyte is continuously decomposed to generate gas’.
 
Yamada and colleagues produced completely flame-retardant lithium and sodium ion batteries by making alternative electrolytes containing the bis(fluorosulfuryl) imide salt of the appropriate metal dissolved in pure trimethyl phosphate. Crucially, they used much higher salt concentrations than are used in today’s commercial batteries, or in previous experiments. When tested, their electrolyte formed a stable passivation layer on the anode despite the absence of any carbonate electrolyte: chemical analysis showed that this passivation layer had been caused by decomposition not of the electrolyte, but of the salt itself.
 
The sodium-ion battery they made retained 95% capacity after 1,200 cycles, which was far superior to the conventional carbonate electrolyte version, whose capacity decayed significantly after 200 cycles. Their lithium-ion battery performed comparably to test cells using the same chemistry as commercial mobile phone batteries. Yamada cautions that real tests would need to be applied to optimised commercial products, and his university team do not have the capacity to produce these themselves. He concludes, however, that developing such cells is ‘worth trying’.
 
Rosa Palacín of the Institute of Materials Sciences (ICMAB) in Barcelona, Sapin, says that high-concentration electrolytes are being explored for other possible advantages such as voltage stability. ‘It is a concept that has, for the past few years, been attracting the attention of the scientific community in battery research,’ she tells Chemistry World, ’Now this concept appears to have an additional advantage that was not generally identified.’
 
‘More research will have to be done to determine whether this approach can be implemented in commercial batteries in the longer term,’ she adds. ‘But I think it is an interesting pathway to follow.’

 

 

 

 
You really don't want your smartphone or smart car going up in flames due to an overheating battery. Now scientists have figured out how to embed a flame-extinguishing chemical into standard batteries to stop this from happening.
 
As safe as modern-day batteries are built to be, there's always a small fire risk if the device isn't handled properly or hasn't been comprehensively tested. But this new technology is hoping to remove that risk completely.
 
The research should enable us to build bigger and more powerful batteries for the phones, cars, and houses of the future, according to the team from the University of Tokyo in Japan that worked on its development.
 
The lithium-ion batteries most commonly used everywhere from phones to electric cars, and the up-and-coming sodium-ion battery technology, both make use of organic electrolytes to enable the flow of electrical charge through the battery.
 
These types of electrolytes are picked for their support of high voltages, but they also come with the fire risk we just mentioned, using a choice of lithium salts and solvents.
 
The new research, like so much research into battery technology, involves tweaking the chemical mix of that electrolyte inside the battery.
 
"An ultimate solution to battery fires and explosions is to use a nonflammable electrolyte," explain the researchers in their paper. "However, non-flammable electrolyte design has always been accompanied by an undesirable compromise in battery performance."
 
The team focussed on using a flame-retardant solvent called trimethyl phosphate (TMP) as part of the electrolyte to cut out the fire risk, finding that stable discharges could be achieved for 1,000 cycles or more than a year, without any noticeable degradation.
 
That's at least as good, if not better, than the lithium-ion batteries in use today.
 
At the same time, they upped the concentration of salt in the electrolyte, reducing the overall volatility of the mixture, and ensuring that high voltage levels could be maintained at the battery anodes, which usually isn't the case with non-flammable solvents like TMP.
 
"By applying [the electrolytes] to sodium-ion and lithium-ion batteries, we demonstrate a highly stable charge–discharge reaction at both hard-carbon and graphite anodes for over one year, validating our strategy to develop safe and long-lasting rechargeable batteries," explain the researchers.
 
Based on their tests, the new solutions showed "negligible volatility" up to 150°C (302°F), which is good news if you don't want your phone catching fire in your pocket no matter how hot it might get.
 
What's more, when flames were eventually ignited at even higher temperatures, the TMP solution put them out instantly, stifling the combustion reaction at source.
 
The scientists say this approach to designing battery electrolytes can be extended to other flame-retardant and non-flammable solvents besides TMP, so there's a lot of potential here for taking the next step up in battery size and power.
 
As with any kind of innovative battery technology, it's going to take a while for this research to make its way from the lab all the way to the phones we carry around in our pockets, but it's a promising step in the right direction.
 
And it's all thanks to simply tweaking the chemical mix of the electrolyte.
 
"The electrolyte is no longer a fuel but serves as an efficient extinguisher of a fire that might be supported by other flammable materials in a battery," conclude the researchers.
 
The findings have been published in Nature Energy.
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https://www.engadget.com/2017/11/29/samsung-graphene-ball-battery-fast-charging/

Samsung's 'graphene ball' battery could lead to fast-charging EVs
The tech could also boost capacities by up to 45 percent.

 

 

 

Batteries that can fully charge in 12 minutes would make EVs a hell of a lot more practical, even if capacities remain unchanged. It's hard not to believe that our hopes won't be dashed again, but maybe, just maybe, Samsung's manufacturing expertise could actually turn the research into something useful.
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Please don't mingle BMW/Merc/Renualt/Nissan EV with made in China e-scooter, hoover board, laptop or even Chinese EV. Even the Samsung explosive batteries are using completely different BMS.

 

Please don't think about risk of drowning before you even put your toe into the water. I hope you don't live your life thinking about danger lurking around the corner all the time. Let it go.

 

I trusted that those charging stations installed are safe enough (from reputable source and with proper certification, e.g. UL, ETL), but can't say the same once it become a mass market product (EV), as I would not be surprised if some uninformed owner would get the non-certified one from "grey market". [dead] Example, having CE mark is not good enough, according to US regulations.

 

ul-listed.pngintertek.jpgNO-CE-LABEL-300x217.jpg

 

So beside EV batteries, law and regulations shall also cover charger / charging station safety, before rushing to implement EV trial here. Code of practice and guidelines have been put up in Europe, US, ANZ, etc. and are readily available online for easy reference, but unfortunately, nothing here, yet. [shakehead]

 

Honestly, after posting so much here, I am wondering what are the objectives of the evaluation conducted by LTA and relevant authorities inn the past few years? I sincerely hope it is not just about infrastructure and commercial viability... [sweatdrop]  [sweatdrop]

 

$422k Porsche up in flames as battery charging goes wrong

The electrical cords, sockets and other equipment of the charging system of vehicles imported by independent firms may not match the specifications for use.

 

This is a close to $0.5 mil Porsche PHEV, NOT a cheap Samsung phone, laptop or made in China e-scooter / hoover board, etc.

 

Well, I did mentioned about charger / electrical setup... So am I worrying too much? Since MOM has been advocating Risk Assessment (RA) and Risk Management (RM), shouldn't them walk the talk, and come up with suitable guidelines or regulations, before rushing into EV implementation? Take a leaf from UK,

 

RC59 - RISK CONTROL - FIRE SAFETY WHEN CHARGING ELECTRIC VEHICLES

This document aims to provide practical guidance to insurers and their clients on fire hazards and appropriate control measures associated with the charging of electric vehicles in public places, on commercial and industrial premises and within or in the vicinity of residential premises (such as blocks of flats, care homes and sheltered accommodation). The vehicles concerned include the new generation of electric cars, vans and electric buggies of the type that are now frequently used at sports events and seen on the roads around commercial and industrial sites;

 

None of the reported incidents overseas happened in multi-storey or basement carpark, which we have plenty here, so additional risks to be considered and mitigation plan might involved suitable building structure to withstand fire for extended duration... ...

 

Electric car gutted by flames after it set fire while charging 

"The cause of the fire has been recorded as accidental, and was due to an electrical fault."

 

Tesla will update the Model S software for safer charging following a Supercharger fire

Tesla revealed that it concluded its own investigation and confirms that the cause of the fire was a short-circuit in the car.

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 .... been advocating Risk Assessment (RA) and Risk Management (RM), shouldn't them walk the talk, and come up with suitable guidelines or regulations, before rushing into EV implementation? Take a leaf from UK,

 

 

Haha, usually is they talk we walk.

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$422k Porsche up in flames as battery charging goes wrong

The electrical cords, sockets and other equipment of the charging system of vehicles imported by independent firms may not match the specifications for use.

 

This is a close to $0.5 mil Porsche PHEV, NOT a cheap Samsung phone, laptop or made in China e-scooter / hoover board, etc.

 

Well, I did mentioned about charger / electrical setup... So am I worrying too much? Since MOM has been advocating Risk Assessment (RA) and Risk Management (RM), shouldn't them walk the talk, and come up with suitable guidelines or regulations, before rushing into EV implementation? Take a leaf from UK,

 

RC59 - RISK CONTROL - FIRE SAFETY WHEN CHARGING ELECTRIC VEHICLES

This document aims to provide practical guidance to insurers and their clients on fire hazards and appropriate control measures associated with the charging of electric vehicles in public places, on commercial and industrial premises and within or in the vicinity of residential premises (such as blocks of flats, care homes and sheltered accommodation). The vehicles concerned include the new generation of electric cars, vans and electric buggies of the type that are now frequently used at sports events and seen on the roads around commercial and industrial sites;

 

None of the reported incidents overseas happened in multi-storey or basement carpark, which we have plenty here, so additional risks to be considered and mitigation plan might involved suitable building structure to withstand fire for extended duration... ...

 

"The cause of the fire has been recorded as accidental, and was due to an electrical fault."

<a data-ipb="nomediaparse" data-cke-saved-href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/07/10/electric-car-gutted-flames-set-fire-charging/" href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/07/10/electric-car-gutted-flames-set-fire-charging/" "="">

Tesla will update the Model S software for safer charging following a Supercharger fire

Tesla revealed that it concluded its own investigation and confirms that the cause of the fire was a short-circuit in the car.

 

Still nothing to worry about. Again you have more fire cause by other material than an Electric Vehicle's battery. That doesn't mean that the relevant authorities shouldn't ignore the risk. But its a very very low risk. Only Singapore don't see EV very often. Thats tons of them on Europe streets.

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(edited)

Still nothing to worry about. Again you have more fire cause by other material than an Electric Vehicle's battery. That doesn't mean that the relevant authorities shouldn't ignore the risk. But its a very very low risk. Only Singapore don't see EV very often. Thats tons of them on Europe streets.

 

risk-assessment-matrix.jpg

 

Going by the above Risk Assessment (RA) matrix, even if the likelihood is rated at Remote or Unlikely, the overall risk will still be Medium - High, since the severity of a Fire is rated Major in a typical case (I ever got a nasty comment from a MOM inspector, for stating the severity of electrical fire on PCBA testing, under a controlled environement, as minor), and was reminded that any Fire should be treated as Major, if not Catastrophic (more in hazardous environment, such as chemical plant, large storage area, etc.). Talking about hazardous environment, we have electric truck deployed at PSA wharves and warehouse for example, so should the relevant authorities NOT review the additional rsik as well?

 

Back to the topic, any risk that is rated Medium - higher, reasonably and practicable control measures / mitigation plans has to be mapped out to reduce the risk level to Low, if possible. And in the case of EV safety, what I have been emphaszing so far are to set out guidelines (NOT to be confused with law / legal requirement) on the installation (of charging points), usage (dos and don'ts), emergency response (fire fighting and rescue), as well as post handling (dealing with batteries), which can be done easily with reference to available resources in other part of the world.

 

Brushing away the need for it low risk is somewhat not acceptable, from a safety stand point, as we are always reminded that EVERY ACCIDENT CAN BE PREVENTED. Just look at what happened to accidents with PMD? The topic was brought up to our parliment on more than 1 occasion, and response from Ministers were that accident rate was very low (by the usage / population), but with more cases of serious fire, injuries and lost of lives (traffic related) reported lately, the government then setup panel to review the safety, risk and control, a case of too little and too late? [shakehead] [shakehead]

Edited by Carbon82
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As long as if it is more expensive and no tax break from govt, no one is ready. 

 

So the big questions is how ready our govt is.

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Supersonic

As long as if it is more expensive and no tax break from govt, no one is ready.

 

So the big questions is how ready our govt is.

Are our power stations carbon free yet?
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