High-hazard plant

Data on accidents and incidents show that, for every major accident, there may be dozens or even hundreds of minor incidents, which might have escalated into a worse situation. It is important that the organization tries to learn from minor incidents and anomalies to ensure no repetition and to avoid possible escalation into something worse. Hence, the management of high-hazard plant should have processes in place to review incidents, learn the important lessons, identify the root causes, implement the necessary changes promptly, and educate all the relevant people about the changes. 

IRI 1990. Guiding Principals for Protection of High-Hazard Chemical and Petrochemical Plants. IRInformation Manual 17.2.1. Industrial Risk Insurers, Hartford, CT. 

This is a situation where a plant appears to be operating successfully, without a major human error problem. However, management are interested in assessing the systems in the plant from the point of view of minimizing the error potential. This type of exercise is particularly relevant for plants dealing with substances or processes with high hazard potential, for example, in terms of... 

Monitors and deluge sets-Many chemical plants use monitors for general use and for high hazard locations in order to provide maximum water supply with a minimum of manpower exposure. Deluge sets supported by ample hose streams are preferred for some protection uses. 

In many of the chemical catastrophes of the past, compliance with PSM and RMP would have ensured that the affected processes/plants had been thoroughly surveyed for processes using or producing highly hazardous chemicals and extremely hazardous substances. This survey would have determined, of course, that the sites used covered chemicals in their process. Moreover, the survey would have noted the normal quantity of listed chemicals stored on the plant site at any given time. This survey would also have made note if any quantities of listed chemicals stored on the plant site exceeded the PSM and RMP threshold quantities (TQ). 

The regulatory environment will continue to change. As of this writing, the key regulatory instrument is OSHA 29 CFR 1910.119, Process Safety Management of Highly Hazardous Chemicals, which pertains to process safety management within plants in which certain chemicals are present. 

While the actinides Pu, Am, Np and Cm are critically important to assessments of the exposure of humans to environmental sources of radioactivity due to their highly hazardous a emissions, the role which the plant root absorption pathway plays in this exposure is relatively small. A conservative estimate of the degree to which plants will incorporate Pu from soil, for instance, is 10% (ie, a soil-to-plant transfer factor of... 

Up-to-date standard operating procedures are now required by U.S. regulations for all chemical companies who handle significant quantities of highly hazardous chemicals. However, in the 1970s as chemical plants grew and grew, not all of them had up-to-date procedures to cover every unique situation. 

Each incident is unique. One working definition of Process Safety Incidents is incidents which—in the judgment of responsible, informed, in-plant administrators (such as the shift superintendent or any second-level supervisor)—could reasonably have resulted or actually had resulted in a catastrophic release of highly hazardous chemicals. A catastrophic release for these purposes is a major uncontrolled emission, fire, or explosion, involving one or more highly hazardous chemicals, that presents serious danger to employees in the workplace. 

An incident investigation shall be initiated as promptly as possible, but no later than 48 hours following a catastrophic release of highly-hazardous chemicals or one which could reasonably have resulted in a catastrophic release. Upon the recommendation of the shift superintendent or a second-level supervisor, the incident investigation will be initiated by the affected plant manager or one of his superintendents. 

Expert Systems for Control of Plant Operations in Real Time Using Expert Systems to Monitor Safety Margins for High Hazard Processes... 

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. 

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