1. Introduction

In our technique-oriented economy, there is a huge necessity for the usage of pressure vessels. This is especially valid for hydrogen and other gaseous energy carriers with a high future potential. The safety of design types depends on appropriate regulations. Thus, a short overview about the historical background of the development of regulations on pressure vessels is of interest. Thereafter, some of the aspects are explained, which have driven the author to elaborate a concept for a probabilistic safety assessment. One aspect is the common usage of the burst or stress ratio as key criterion for a sufficient service strength. This has to be understood in combination with the ongoing discussion about their reduction. Another aspect is the increasing concentration in regulations for composite pressure vessels on those with plastic liner, which often do not show “cycle fatigue sensitive” behaviour. This results in requirements which are not really appropriate for vessels with metal liner any more. Therefore, efficient test procedures need to take into account differences in the pressure vessels’ behaviour. In addition, it has become more and more obvious that the ageing procedures during approval tests do not guarantee an amount of degradation that is at least identical with that from service until end of life. This has led to the necessity for developing the capability for quantifying the degradation of strength—even in cases of extreme high load cycle strength to failure. For this purpose, the slow burst test is proposed as test procedure alternative to load cycle testing. Based on the created availability of a tool for the quantification of the residual strength, the elaboration of a statistical safety assessment is consequently the next step: the “Probabilistic Approach”, which finally does not ask for minimum burst ratios at all.