OSHA Inspection: ANALYTIC POWER CORPORATION

Issued

Feb 23, 1996

Abate by

Feb 28, 1996

Penalty

Initial $600 · Current $300 Reduced

Issued

Feb 23, 1996

Abate by

Feb 29, 1996

Penalty

Initial $1,000 · Current $1,000

Issued

Feb 23, 1996

Abate by

Feb 29, 1996

Penalty

Initial $2,000 · Current $1,700 Reduced

Issued

Feb 23, 1996

Abate by

Feb 29, 1996

Penalty

Initial $1,400 · Current $1,400

Issued

Feb 23, 1996

Abate by

Mar 20, 1996

Issued

Feb 23, 1996

Abate by

Feb 29, 1996

Issued

Feb 23, 1996

Abate by

Feb 29, 1996

Issued

Feb 23, 1996

Abate by

Mar 20, 1996

Penalty

Initial $1,400 · Current $1,400

Issued

Feb 23, 1996

Abate by

Mar 20, 1996

Penalty

Initial $2,000 · Current $1,700 Reduced

Issued

Feb 23, 1996

Abate by

Oct 31, 1996

Penalty

Initial $28,000 · Current $6,000 Reduced

General-duty citation text

Section 5(a)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970:  The
employer did not
furnish employmnent and a place of employment which were free from
recognized hazards that
were causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm to
employees in that employees
were exposed to: physical injury from an exploding reactor bottle, which
occurred during a
Hydrogen Gas generation experiment:
Analytic Power Incorporated, Research Lab:
On August 29, 1995, an employee was monitoring the reaction of powdered
Sodium
Borohydride and water to produce Hydrogen Gas. This employee and another
nearby
employee suffered severe burn injuries when the Aluminum reactor bottle
exploded. The
explosion occurred when the reactor bottle underwent hoop stress failure
as a result of
an exothermic Hydrogen Gas generation reaction.
Among other methods, several acceptable abatement methods to correct this
hazard include, but
are not limited to:
1)Develop engineering controls in accordance with National Safety Council
recommendations for safe usage of metal hydrides, in accordance with DIERS
technology, and/or other industry recommended practices, to ensure that
experimental
equipment is designed, maintained, inspected, and operated in a safe
manner:
-Installation of physical barricades around the reactor bottles.
-Utilization of stainless steel for the processing equipment.
-Installation of adequate ventilation to remove hydrogen.
-Exhaust lines should be of large diameter and should lead away from
personnel,
equipment, and moisture.
-Utilization of an explosion-suppression system.
-Elimination of ignition sources in the vicinity of the hydrogen
generation equipment,
including installation of explosion-proof electrical equipment, and
grounding of
all equipment and associated piping to avoid generation of static
electricity.
-Implementation of standard operating procedures to prevent formation of
flammable
mixtures.
2)Design an operating strategy, based on the results of a completed hazard
analysis, that
will help to prevent or minimize the consequences of releases of toxic,
reactive,
flammable, or explosive chemicals:
-Identification of potential problems with the system, through initial
acquisition and
analysis of chemical, physical, and other relevant data.
-Measurement and control of critical parameters (temperature, pressure,
feed rate,
coolant flow, catalyst level).
-Operation at conditions (temperature, pressure, concentration) that
provide a safe
margin from runaway conditions.
-Installation of redundant instrumentation to increase reliability of
measurement and
control of critical parameters.-Use of alarms to warn operators that a
critical parameter has changed from its normal
condition.
-Provision of training to enable operators to safely react to upset
conditions. This
includes development and implementation of SOPS (standard operating
procedures) that
provide  clear instructions for safely conducting activities.
-Activation of an automatic emergency shutdown when a critical parameter
has deviated
from normal by a pre-determined amount.
-Design and installation of an emergency relief system to include safe
disposal of the
discharged material, and to prevent over-pressurization of the equipment.
-Prevention of chemical/equipment contamination by proper design and
operating
procedures.