U.S. Cities Hot for Hydrogen

This stupid to allow lots of people around such a dangerous resource as a hydrogen facility, un like gasoline you can not detect a hydrogen leakage without specialist equipment. It is insane to have all those potential sources of ignition just milling about. I will soon be reading about the big explosion in "Vegas" appropriate name Eh. Even if you make sure there are no cigarettes static discharge is a very real danger especially in such a dry area.

That's not likely...Hydrogen has been proven time and again to be less dangerous than gasoline...Remember it's lighter than air, a leak dissipates immediately...

...and goes straight upwards, out of harm's way.

I would be weary of architectural features, like a roof, to contain some amounts of H2.

My experience with H2 is to make optical fiber photosensitive.

I was to add pressure display and temperature control on an otherwise static setup. Even got disconnected from the tank after fill-up. No H2 sensor was installed as this was installed in an open warehouse area.

The first step I took was to electrically ground the setup...

In another company, they did have an explosion in a leaky warehouse installation. The explosion was not large ennough to harm anybody, so the warehouse must not have been filled with H2. They were forced to build a bunker with pressure relief traps, H2 sensors, ventilation, etc.

My understanding is that if there is no sufficient air movement is forced in the area, H2 will form a bubble, slowly diffusing in air. Any static electricity, and BAM.

Just waite and see, time will tell. How many times have we said it's safe as houses then disaster hit us hard Titanic, Hindenburg, Three mile island. Etc. time will tell all things. The Us has had some of the most alarming explosive events in history because they thought we know better. They are riding for a fall. Petrolium spirit has caused more accident simply because it is far more widely available. Space shuttle explodes two off. Nuclear subs lost at sea. You have really great track record of things going wrong. Don't get me wrong I know once in a while you might just get it right M.O.A.B. My design, latest bunker busters my design.

Alas, methinks BrainWave see the glass as half empty.......

If you don't do anything you won't do anything wrong.

Writers are correct to be concerned about the unknown. In the immortal words of Dan Quayle, A Great American, "there is a lot we don't know about the unknown." It is encouraging that the operators are initiating an education program to help people understand the system better.

However, hydrogen has to come out of the prototype stage and into the real world sometime if it is to ever replace gasoline as a fuel.

Bravo and Good Luck, Las Vegas!!

Well to put this into proper perspective, all of the "disasters" you mentioned took less lives than we lose just to the flu every year, and just in the US....and if you take the last three "disasters", there are more people killed from falling coconuts every year!