June 24, 2024 - Could Tragedy in Korea Happen in Our Own Backyard?
by Josh Blevins

This morning's news from South Korea of a fire at a lithium battery plant that killed at least 22 workers was a wakeup call to many who have been following the saga of Duksan Electera's soon-to-be-opened electric car battery chemical plant here in Shelbyville.

The tragedy in Korea involved a plant that actually did the final assembly of lithium batteries versus the plant being currently built here that will only be making the chemicals used in the batteries. But a couple disturbing quotes from the AP article published do not paint a good picture of what a similar disaster might look like if it were to happen here.

The first was "the victims likely succumbed to extremely toxic gas within seconds of the blaze getting out of control." Not good to hear when we have been discussing how large of an area would need to be evacuated in the event of a fire at our new Duksan facility.

The second was "Battery production involves the use of highly toxic materials." We have seen lists of chemicals to be used at Duksan's facility. We already know there is some risk of disaster here in the event of a fire, but how highly toxic (or not) the final chemicals used here will be is yet to be determined.

We will continue to stay on top of the Duksan story as well as any other developments in Shelbyville and Bedford County. Below is a link to the AP article regarding this morning's tragedy in Korea:

https://nypost.com/.../22-dead-in-tragic-south-korea.../