Event
- Event ID
- 317
- Quality
- Description
- The incident occurred at a facility performing material tensile tests in hydrogen at cryogenic temperatures. At the end of the test, the cryostat top was removed. In order to increase vaporization rate, it was warmed with conventional hair dryer, at which time an explosion occurred.
[Ordin, NASA (1974)] - Event Initiating system
- Classification of the physical effects
- Hydrogen Release and Ignition
- Nature of the consequences
- Macro-region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Date
- -
- Main component involved?
- Cryogenic Vessel
- How was it involved?
- Internal Explosion (H2-Air Mixture)
- Initiating cause
- Inadequate Or No Purge
- Root causes
- Root CAUSE analysis
- IMMEDIATE CAUSE
Removing lid of cryostat resulted in cryo pumping of air and formation of H2-air mixture. Ignition was probably by sparks from dryer.
ROOT CAUSE
The team was apparently ignoring the basic hydrogen hazards, and di d not have facility protocols and procedures.
Facility
- Application
- Laboratory / R&d
- Sub-application
- Aerospace
- Hydrogen supply chain stage
- All components affected
- cryostat, hair dryer
- Location type
- Unknown
- Operational condition
- Pre-event occurrences
- The facility had just completed a material testing and the cryostat was being emptied.
Emergency & Consequences
- Number of injured persons
- 0
- Number of fatalities
- 0
Event Nature
- Release type
- gas
- Involved substances (% vol)
- H2 100%
- Presumed ignition source
- Electricity
References
- Reference & weblink
Mishap no 26 in <br />
P. L. Ordin, Review of hydrogen accidents and incidents in NASA operations, 1974, NASA TM X-71565<br />
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19740020344Lowesmith et al., Safety issues of the liquefaction, storage and transportation of liquid hydrogen: An analysis of incidents and HAZIDS, Int. J. Hydrogen energy (2014) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2014.08.002
Hankinson and Lowesmith, Qualitative Risk Assessment of Hydrogen Liquefaction, Storage and Transportation, FCH JU project IDEALHY, Deliverable 3.10 (2013)<br />
confidential<br />
(accessed October 2025)Hankinson and Lowesmith, HAZIDs for Hydrogen Liquefaction, Storage and Transportation , FCH JU project IDEALHY, Deliverable 3.11 (2013)<br />
https://www.idealhy.eu/uploads/documents/IDEALHY_D3-10%20HAZIDs_Liquefa… />
(Only summary publicly available, accessed October 2025)
JRC assessment
- Sources categories
- ORDIN
