-----Original Message----- From: Terry Blanton > Since 3H (tritium) has such a unique decay signature as it goes to 3He > (helium-3) one has to wonder if radiation was being monitored during the > battery testing. Probably not, since without deuterium in higher > proportions, this kind of radiation would be unexpected. However, it is > naïve to think GM would admit to this, even if it was a possibility. They > stand to lose more than $10 billion is the Volt turns out to be a flop.
Did you see this tidbit? http://goo.gl/jahTv Interesting comment from GM old-timer: There may be more to the story that I can share. I am in Detroit and I did work for GM for 25 years including 5 years on EV1, almost 20 years ago. I quit over lack of intelligence in management. SAE has some very destructive standard battery tests and this was probably a test to heat the batteries to 200 degrees C above ambient (about 375F). Very severe but necessary test to see what happens and what gases are released. It was mentioned in Detroit that Hydrogen Sulfide was present (commonly known as sewer gas) which will explode. (in auto industry we refer to this as a thermal incident). I do not know what created the H2SO4. My belief is that when GM retired out all of their old dogs and then hired a bunch of new college kids, they loss an incredible amount of knowledge, skills and experience. I truly believe, the test people were playing video games and then a bell rang and they said OMG! and then the thermal incident happened. I think it is fortunate that only one person was hurt, but it does say something about keeping your old dogs around. Experience tells you why it is important to follow test protocols and procedures very carefully. They probably didn't. No excuse for this. I think the same issue occurred in the design of the Volt battery pack. I'm an old dog and one look at the pack, I knew they were not going to be able to retain the cooling fluid consistently in production, let alone in a crash shake-up. When 50% ethylene glycol is allowed to evaporate, pure ethylene glycol does burn. Thus the several months between crash and thermal incident. Did GM learn anything from this? Doubt it.
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