Fire at the Storage of a Power Plant
At a nuclear power plant, a fire occurred in the station's hydrogen storage facility while the plant was operating at 100% power. The fire was reported to the control room by a non-licensed operator who saw the fire start after he had aligned valves at the hydrogen storage facility in preparation for putting the hydrogen injection system into service. The operator escaped injury because he was wearing fire retardant protective clothing and was able to quickly scale a 7 foot high fence enclosing the hydrogen area.
Event Date
January 14, 1999
Record Quality Indicator
Region / Country
Event Initiating System
Classification of the Physical Effects
Nature of the Consequences
Causes
Cause Comments
The licensee identified the lack of effective maintenance as a root cause of the hydrogen fire event at JAF. Immediate cause was the failure of three valves failed, starting the fire. According to the root cause evaluation, all of the failures were due to an inadequate preventive maintenance program by the hydrogen system vendor and inadequate system monitoring and management oversight by JAF..
Facility Information
Application Type
Application
Specific Application Supply Chain Stage
Components Involved
hydrogen storage area
Storage/Process Medium
Location Type
Location description
Industrial Area
Operational Condition
Pre-event Summary
Plant was operating at 100% power.A non-licensed operator had aligned valves at the hydrogen storage facility in preparation for putting the hydrogen injection system into service.
Number of Fatalities
1
Currency
Lessons Learned
Lessons Learned
The licensee identified the root cause as organizational and programmatic deficiencies that resulted in multiple component failures. The hydrogen control panel and associated equipment are vendor supplied and maintained. The licensee determined that the vendor maintenance program and JAF oversight of that program were inadequate. In addition, JAF had identified recurring problems with the system that had not been effectively resolved.More in general, the NRC report concluded that this event demonstrated that "lack of adequate maintenance, system monitoring and oversight of maintenance can contribute to the ignition of a fire which is difficult to extinguish and poses an extreme danger to fire fighting personnel. Properly maintaining, monitoring and overseeing of hydrogen storage facility equipment can minimize the risk of fire or explosion".
Event Nature
Emergency Action
The occurrence was immediately reported to the NRC, and staff sought firefighting assistance from local volunteer fire departments. Some 12 local organizations came to staffs aid, and the fire was under control within an hour, although the formal emergency status did not end until 8 p.m. Work crews were kept on over the weekend to enable the prompt initiation of an investigation as to the fires cause, which was still ongoing.
Emergency Evaluation
The results of the NRC special inspection (Report No. 50-333/99-02, Accession No. 9904010078, dated March 26, 1999) determined that the licensee's overall response to the event was acceptable. The licensee and offsite support took appropriate actions to control the fire until the hydrogen burned out. The special investigation also determined that the licensee's subsequent event investigation was systematic and comprehensive
Release Type
Release Substance
Detonation
No
Deflagration
No
High Pressure Explosion
No
High Voltage Explosion
No
Flame Type
Source Category
References
References
US.NRC Information Notice 2001-12: Hydrogen Fire at Nuclear Power Station, July 13, 2001
Available at (accessed 12/2019):
https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/gen-comm/info-notices/20…
NRC weekly information report ending January 29, 1999
https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/commission/secys/1999/se…
(accessed July 2020)