Eagleeye, you said

"Vanadium batteries are chemically and structurally different from any other battery. For the most part, battery technology hasn't advanced in decades: they're toxic, hold only a few hundred recharge cycles, leak power when not in use and are prone to overheating (ever felt the battery heat up in your phone or your computer as it's charging? Imagine that on the scale of a football field)."

Here is an article I found about lithium battery problems in my field of work. If Vanadium batteries are the new battery of the future, we are in a good position.

Pilots union calls for ban on lithium battery shipments.

By PAUL WALSH, Star Tribune

Last update: August 25, 2009 - 4:26 PM

Citing fire incidents in the Twin Cities and elsewhere in recent months, the world's largest pilots union on Tuesday called for a federal ban on shipments of lithium batteries on passenger and cargo aircraft until new regulations are in place to ensure safe transport.

Lithium batteries power laptop computers, cell phones, flashlights and cameras. The Air Line Pilots Association International (ALPA) said in a statement that it is not calling for new restrictions on what passengers can bring aboard, but it is "extremely concerned about the risk from transporting lithium batteries aboard aircraft as cargo." No one from ALPA was available to explain why these batteries carried on by passengers were not part of this push by the union.

In the past two months, the ALPA says, there have been three incidents of fire, smoke or evidence of fire associated with battery shipments on U.S. airliners. ALPA said those incidents occurred in Minneapolis-Saint Paul, the Dominican Republic and Honolulu.

At the Twin Cities airport shortly before 5 a.m. Aug. 14, a Federal Express cargo plane out of Indianapolis reported a fire on board as it approached for landing. The fire was quickly contained, and there were no injuries, said Metropolitan Airports Commission spokesman Patrick Hogan.

Hogan said the "possible ignition source" was a shipment of smokeless menthol cigarettes, which use lithium batteries. A final determination of the fire's origin is pending from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), Hogan said.

In 2006, a battery fire aboard a DC-8 in Philadelphia led to the NTSB recommending the full regulation of these types of batteries as dangerous goods.

First officer Mark Rogers, director of the ALPA's Dangerous Goods Programs, said, "The evidence of a clear and present danger is mounting. We need an immediate ban on these dangerous goods to protect airline passengers, crews and cargo."

Since 2004, the ALPA has urged the Department of Transportation to fully regulate these batteries as dangerous goods, including requiring proper packaging, labeling, marking, testing and pilot notification.