Event
- Event ID
- 187
- Quality
- Description
- In an electricity production plant, hydrogen leaked from a tank supplying the coolant to the generator. The leaked hydrogen iognited and formed a fireball. Possible involvement of sealing oil not confirmed by all sources.
The explosion was in the turbine-generator unit of one of the electric units (800MW each). Only damage to the unit. - 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?
- Joint/Connection
- How was it involved?
- Leak & Formation Of A Flammable H2-Air Mixture
- Initiating cause
- Unknown
- Root causes
- Unknown (No additional details provided)
- Root CAUSE analysis
- The only information provided by the sources on the cause, is that it seems to be a mechanical mishap of the turbine. Not enough to attribute a root cause.
Facility
- Application
- Power Plant
- Sub-application
- coal-fired power plant
- Hydrogen supply chain stage
- All components affected
- turbine, tank
- Location type
- Confined
- Location description
- Industrial Area
- Operational condition
Emergency & Consequences
- Number of injured persons
- 0
- Number of fatalities
- 0
- Environmental damage
- 0
- Property loss (offsite)
- 0
- Post-event summary
- only damage to one of the 4 turbine-generator units.
- Emergency action
- The fire brigade was called, and the unit was shut down via an “emergency stop” switch. Upon their arrival they saw that approximately 2/3 of the pit was on fire; and a flame front ranging from 3 and 4 m in height.
The pit was flooded with foam. and the hydrogen line supplying the storage facility isolated.
Event Nature
- Release type
- gas
- Involved substances (% vol)
- H2 100%
- Presumed ignition source
- Not reported
References
- Reference & weblink
ARIA database original reporting
Herald Tribune news<br />
https://eu.heraldtribune.com/story/news/2002/09/10/turbine-explosion-ca… <br />
(accessed December 2025)
JRC assessment
- Sources categories
- ARIA
