Several metals, including lithium, sodium, and magnesium, can burn easily, and from time to time large amounts catch fire in factories. But even heaps of burning metal need not cause immediate panic.

Sodium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and energy storage are moving toward the mainstream. Wider use of these batteries could lead to lower costs, less fire risk, and less need for lithium ...

Lathrop himself has added to the sodium safety literature: after a smaller version of the experiment caught fire in 2005, his group developed a method for quenching a molten-sodium fire using ...

The fire was in a facility operated by SiGNa Chemistry, which makes products with alkali metals such as sodium, the spokesman said. SiGNa opened in Building 218 two years ago .

Sodium-iodide batteries are also safer. Spoerke said, "A lithium ion battery catches on fire when there is a failure inside the battery, leading to runaway overheating of the battery.

Lithium-ion batteries, for example, catch on fire if there is a failure inside of them, and this leads to runaway overheating. That cannot happen in the new molten sodium batteries.

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) -- Crews are cleaning up after a large chemical spill at a Natomas-area facility. The spill happened around 7 a.m. Wednesday at the Aramark facility along W. National Drive ...