In December, an MRI machine exploded due to a liquid nitrogen leak:
Two workers moving an MRI machine were injured Thursday after an explosion blew part of the machine into a wall. The workers were moving the machine at Atlanta Diagnostic Center in Kennesaw, said Firefighter Denell Boyd, a spokeswoman for the Cobb County Fire and Emergency Services Department. Boyd said liquid nitrogen leaked from the machine and caused the blast, knocking a 10-foot by 10-foot hole in the wall.
Several photos of the damage to the facility were taken by the MRI techs and distributed on the SMRT mailing list. Copies of these photos below the fold:
More information about the incident:
(WSB Radio) Two men are recovering after an MRI machine they were moving out of a medical office exploded Thursday afternoon.
Cobb County Firefighter Denell Boyd tells WSB’s Jennifer Griffies it happened around 1 o’clock at the Atlanta Diagnostics Center in Kennesaw.
“The MRI machine has an end bell, which has helium and liquid nitrogen. The pressure from the helium made the end bell come off, and it hit a wall,” said Boyd.
“The end bell that blew off really could’ve hurt them much worse than it did. It hit the wall, and they just took what was left from the blast of the bell coming off. The bell did not hit them, it was just all the debris from it,” said Boyd.
One man had shrapnel in the back of his head. Another man injured his arm. They were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
I just have to say that the fifth photo in particular, with the bent bore, is astounding. The cracked exterior brick wall evident in the second photo is pretty amazing too, actually.
This is the first time I’ve heard of an MRI exploding! They say an N2 leak caused it, but how? Did it run out of N2 and the He warm up so much that it blow off the side? Or did an N2 leak crack the bell causing the explosion?