Explosives facilities, hazards

In explosive facilities and locations where the atmosphere may contain combustible dusts, or flammable vapors or gases, ferrous metal surfaces should not be coated with aluminum paint due to the potential sparking hazard. 

The Hazardous Element. To often it is automatically assumed that in an explosive facility the explosive item is the most hazardous item and, therefore, the electrical protection is designed based on its requirements. However, this assumption can lead to installing the wrong type of electrical protection. 

Sax (1968), 208—26 (Storage and handling of hazardous materials) 3) Anon, DOD Ammunition and Explosives Safety Standards , Office of the Asst Secretary of Defense, Installations Logistics, DOD 4145.27M (March 1969), 3-1 to 3-14 (Principles and application of quantity-distances, standard explosives facilities and siting requirements) 4) Anon, Safety—... 

Mr. Ellison is president of Cerberus Associates, Inc. and as a private consultant, has responded to both transportation and fixed facility hazardous material incidents throughout the state of Michigan. He has acted as incident commander, safety officer, and response specialist at scenes involving chemical fires, water reactive materials, and shock sensitive materials. He has provided chemical and biological counterterrorism training to members of hazardous materials (HazMat) teams, police Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams, and Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) teams. 

At Pantex, the preliminary hazards analysis takes the form of a questionnaire (PX-1245), which is used to collect information about facility inventories of highly hazardous chemicals, explosives, and nuclear material. This information serves as an objective basis for facility hazard classification. The information also allows ranking of facilities based on the quantity and form of nuclear material the eonsequences associated with an explosive event, as well as the type of explosives operation and the eonsequences of a release of highly hazardous materials. 

Pantex uses its Facility Hazard Classification as the basis for determining if a facility is nuclear (which requires the development of Authorization Basis Documents) or if a facility requires control under the plant s PSM program because it is classified as an Explosive Manufacturing Operation or has threshold inventories of Highly Hazardous Chemieals. The Preliminary Hazard Analysis serves as the safety basis for facilities that are not classified as nuelear or eoveied by PSM. 

If this product, which has been commercially available since March 2004, were to be widely adopted as a nonvolatile alternative to the hundreds of millions of pounds of volatile coalescing solvents currently present in paints, the environmental, health, and security implications would be enormous. Paint manufacturing facilities that no longer used or stored large quantities of alcohol esters and ether alcohols would no longer constitute such an explosive or hazardous focal point in their communities. 

Hexaflumuron has very low toxicity to mammals so its manufacturing facility would offer little interest to terrorists seeking explosive or hazardous targets. It is a replacement for the neurotoxic pesticide chlorpyrifos a broad-spectrum chlorinated organophosphate... 

In the past, hazardous wastes were often grouped into the following categories (1) radioactive substances, (2) chemicals, (3) biological wastes, (4) flammable wastes, and (5) explosives. The chemical cate-goiy included wastes that were corrosive, reactive, and toxic. The principal sources of hazardous biological wastes are hospitals and biological-research facilities. 

Consequence Phase 3 Develop Detailed Quantitative Estimate of the impacts of the Accident Scenarios. Sometimes an accident scenario is not understood enough to make risk-based decisions without having a more quantitative estimation of the effects. Quantitative consequence analysis will vary according to the hazards of interest (e.g., toxic, flammable, or reactive materials), specific accident scenarios (e.g., releases, runaway reactions, fires, or explosions), and consequence type of interest (e.g., onsite impacts, offsite impacts, environmental releases). The general technique is to model release rates/quantities, dispersion of released materials, fires, and explosions, and then estimate the effects of these events on employees, the public, the facility, neighboring facilities, and the environment. 

While RP14C provides guidance on the need for process safety devices, it is desirable to perform a complete hazards analysis of tlie facility to identify hazards that are not necessarily detected or contained by process sLifety devices and that could lead to loss of containment of hydrocarbons or otherwise lead to fire, explosion, pollution, or injury to personnel. The industry consensus standard, American Petroleum Institute Recommended Practice 14J, Design and Hazards Analysis for Offshore Facilities (RP14J), provides guidance as to the use of various hazards analysis techniques. 

Different materials pose different hazards, including thermal radiation, explosion overpressure, and toxic and flammable vapor clouds. Some materials pose only one hazard, while others may pose all four. For the purposes of ranking facilities you will need to estimate the laigest area affected by the potential hazards. You can arrive at such an estimate by calculating the greatest downwind distance to a particular level of hazatd. The following thresholds are commonly applied ... 

Facilities can be ranked based on the sum of the maximum hazard distances for each release. Only one hazard distance should be used for each release, even if there is the potential for more than one hazard (thermal radiation, explosion overpressure, toxic cloud and flammable vapor cloud). The highest-ranked facility will be the one whose potential releases would reach the greatest total distance. 

This study investigated risks to the public from serious accidents which could occur at the industrial facilities in this part of Essex, U.K. Results are expressed as risk to an individual and societal risk from both existing and proposed installations. Risk indices were also determined for modified versions of the facilities to quantify the risk reduction from recommendations in the report. Nine industrial plants were analyzed along with hazardous material transport by water, road, rail and pipeline. The potential toxic, fire and explosion hazards were assessed for flammable liquids, ammonia, LPG, LNG, and hydrogen fluoride (HE). The 24 appendices to the report cover various aspects of the risk analysis. These include causes and effects of unconfined... 

Under RCRA. each facility must contain a contingency plan designed to minimize hazards to human hetiltli or tlie enviromiient from fires, explosions, or tuiy unplanned sudden or nonsudden release of hazardous w aste or hazardous waste constituent to air. soil, or surface water. The items tliat follow are applicable to each contingency plan. 

The first step in minimizing accidents in a chemical phuit is to evaluate the facility for potential fires, explosions, and vulnerability to other liazards, particularly those of a chemical miture. This calls for a detailed study of plant site and layout, materials, processes, operations, equipment, and training, plus an effective loss prevention program. The technical nature of industry requires detailed data and a broad range of experience. Tliis complex task, today becoming the most important in plant design, is facilitated by the safety codes, standiu ds, and practice information available. The technical approach to evaluating die consequences of hazards is discussed later in tliis cliapter and in Part V (Chapters 20 and 21). 

FPN No. 1) As a guide in determining when flammable gases are present continuously, for long periods, or under normal conditions, refer to. Recommended Practice for Classification of Locations for Electrical Installations of Petroleum Facilities, API RP 500-1991, Electrical Apparatus for Explosive Gas Atmospheres, Classifications of Hazardous Areas, lEC 79-10 and. Institute of Petroleum Area Classification Code for Petroleum Installations, IP 15. 

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