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Clean Hydrogen Partnership

Hydrogen release from gas storage in a nuclear power plant

Event

Event ID
921
Quality
Description

A hydrogen leak occurs at a gas cylinder storage tank park in a nuclear power plant.
Employees locate the origin of the leak on a defective pressure regulator. They isolate the hydrogen release and secure the park.
10 m³ of gas, the equivalent of one and a half cylinders, escaped.

Event Initiating system
Classification of the physical effects
Unignited Hydrogen Release
Nature of the consequences
leak no ignition
Macro-region
Europe
Country
France
Date
Component involved
pressure regulator
Failure mode
rupture, no ignition
Initiating cause
unknown
Root CAUSE analysis

INITIATING cause was the failure of a pressure regulator

Root causes
Unknown
Date entry in HIAD
01/01/2018

Facility

Application
Power plant
Sub-application
Nuclear power plant
Hydrogen supply chain stage
All components affected

hydrogen cylinders, pressure regulator

Location type
Open
Location
industrial area
Operational condition

Emergency & Consequences

Number of fatalities
0
Number of injured persons
0
Post-event summary

10 m3 oh hydrogen released to the environment

Emergency action

Following the automatic alarm (probably given by a hydrogen detector) the hydrogen release location was isolated.

Lesson Learnt

Lesson Learnt

The ARIA report does not mention the corrective actions undertaken. The system preventing/mitigation system seemed have worked as designed.
To prevent in an absolute way this type of releases, a better (e.g. more frequent) maintenance and replacement scheme is probably needed.

In-depth data

Release type
gas
Involved substances (% vol)
H2 100%
Released amount (kg)
1
Probable IGNITION SOURCE

References

Sources categories
ARIA
Reference & weblink

Event description in the French database ARIA
https://www.aria.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/accident/51682/
(accessed September 2020)

Local News of newspaper Ouest-France of 07/06/2018
https://www.ouest-france.fr/normandie/nucleaire-une-fuite-d-hydrogene-d…
(accessed September 2020)