Overview Hazard Analysis for the H2fuel Bus Program

The H2Fuel Bus project is a joint development effort to produce a safe, near-zero emission, 32 passenger bus that is propelled by electric power with continuous on-board hydrogen powered battery recharging. A key initiative in the hydrogen bus development effort is a rigorous evaluation of operational safety. Westinghouse Savannah River Co., the prime contractor at the Department of Energy`s Savannah River Site, has developed a hazard analysis methodology designed to provide a systematic, comprehensive identification and evaluation of hazards. Although originally developed to support nuclear/chemical facility safety basis documentation, the SRS Methodology has widespread applicability to operations and/or systems that utilize hazardous materials and energy. This methodology was used to perform an overview hazard analysis for the H2Fuel Bus project to focus attention on those hypothetical circumstances that pose the greatest threat to the populace and property. The hazard analysis yields a listing of all known H2Fuel Bus hazards, postulated accident scenarios describing possible hazardous releases or conditions, an assessment of the scenarios in terms of frequency of occurrence and consequence, and binning in frequency-consequence space to assess the relative severity of postulated scenarios.