Mine Researchers at NIOSH Get Large Lithium-Ion Batteries to Study Fire Risks
Earlier research tested only medium-sized battery packs, and DOE said the study's findings could help inform emergency planning and occupational safety and health underground.
- By Danielle Naidu
- Nov 04, 2026
Mines, tunnels and other underground facilities could become safer through a first-of-its-kind study of large-scale battery fires, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) said.
DOE's Carlsbad Field Office sent three large-platform lithium-ion batteries to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Pittsburgh Mine Research Division under an interagency agreement. The batteries came from the office's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. The study is meant to build practical understanding of how such fires behave and what risks they pose, the department said.
Past studies looked only at medium-sized battery packs, DOE said. Those results served as the basis for estimating how larger batteries perform and what fire risk they pose. That work produced valuable information, but how large-scale battery fires truly behave remains hard to understand or predict, the agency said.
DOE called the research vital to safety at underground repositories and research facilities as well. The underground sites it named also include ones under DOE jurisdiction where heavy-duty battery-electric vehicles are seeing wider use, such as the New Mexico plant that supplied the batteries.
Findings from the study could support the development of protocols for targeted evacuation and emergency response underground, DOE said. They could also aid occupational safety and health in those spaces, the agency said.
About the Author
Danielle Naidu is assistant editor for Occupational Health & Safety and Environmental Protection Online.