The US has issued a call for experts to join a new committee being set up to advise the federal government on lithium-ion battery transportation safety.
Transportation secretary Elaine Chao (pictured) said the government is looking to recruit “experts from diverse technical and transportation backgrounds to evaluate safety improvements”.
The move follows President Donald Trump’s signing into law last year of battery safety-related initiatives under the 2018 Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act.
Chao said the new Lithium Battery Safety Advisory Committee would provide a forum for her department’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration to work with industry and others to “continually strengthen the safety of multimodal lithium battery transportation”.
Chao said previously the committee would assess additional ways to decrease the risk of fires and explosions from lithium batteries and cells— and consider additional ways “to ensure uniform transportation requirements for both bulk and individual batteries and new or existing technologies that may reduce the fire and explosion risk of lithium batteries and cells”.
The committee will also be able to make recommendations to Congress.
