South Korea hit by ‘digital Pearl Harbor’ as aging battery sparks data centre fire
A fire triggered by a lithium-ion battery explosion on the evening of Sept. 26 has paralysed a large swathe of South Korea’s online government services and provoked urgent remedial action from Seoul. The blaze at the National Information Resource Service centre in Daejeon began during maintenance work and burned for almost 22 hours before being fully extinguished on Sept. 27 at about 18:00 local time.
Authorities say the incident started when technicians disconnected a UPS battery module to move it to a basement; one cell exploded and initiated thermal runaway across a battery rack. The modules involved were produced by LG Energy Solution and — according to government briefings — dated August 2014, more than a year beyond the 10-year service life recommended by the manufacturer.
The fire’s effects were disproportionate. Officials report that 384 battery modules were destroyed and about 96 systems were directly damaged. In total 647 government systems were taken offline during emergency shutdowns — approximately one-third of the nation’s online public services.
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[…] Researchers at Australia’s University of New South Wales (UNSW) are validating a prototype of an artificial intelligence-enabled wireless, real time sensing system that can spot dangerous heat in lithium-ion batteries before it potentially becomes thermal runaway. […]