Event
- Event ID
- 434
- Quality
- Description
- After a test of a LH2 vessel, during the warm up phase, the plan was to dispose of the hydrogen through the vent system. However, a leak to atmosphere occurred. This was due to a blind flange having been removed and an incorrect valve was opened allowing an open line from the vent system.
[Ordin, NASA (1974)] - Event Initiating system
- Classification of the physical effects
- Unignited Hydrogen Release
- Nature of the consequences
- Leak No Ignition (No additional details provided)
- Macro-region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Date
- -
- Main component involved?
- Valve (Generic)
- How was it involved?
- Leak
- Initiating cause
- Wrong Operation
- Root causes
- Root CAUSE analysis
- The erroneous release of the LH2 was due to an operation which did not take into account temporary modifications of the piping system.
Facility
- Application
- Non-Road Vehicles
- Sub-application
- Aerospace
- Hydrogen supply chain stage
- Hydrogen Storage (No additional details provided)
- All components affected
- valve, tank
- Location type
- Unknown
- Location description
- Industrial Area
- Operational condition
Emergency & Consequences
- Number of injured persons
- 0
- Number of fatalities
- 0
- Environmental damage
- 0
- Property loss (onsite)
- 0
- Property loss (offsite)
- 0
Event Nature
- Release type
- liquid
- Involved substances (% vol)
- H2 100%
- Release duration
- unknown
- Presumed ignition source
- No ignition
- Ignition delay
- N
References
- Reference & weblink
Mishap no 75 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)
JRC assessment
- Sources categories
- ORDIN
