System Safety Development Center SSDC

The work by Bill Johnson was expanded and supplemented throughout the 1970s by the System Safety Development Center (SSDC) in Idaho Falls, Idaho. The MORT program provides the direction for this second major branch of the system safety effort. 

The MORT tools and techniques can be helpful in preparing a safety analysis report (SAR), the upstream safety product most frequently required for new DOE programs, but the more common system safety products (system safety program plan, preliminary hazard analysis, system/subsystem hazard analysis, operating hazard analysis) are not a dominant part of the MORT program and are seldom even referenced in System Safety Development Center (SSDC) documents. 

Figure 12-1 Basic response model. (Source System Safety Development Center (SSDC) course handouts.)...

The basic concept from which event and causal factors charts were developed can probably be traced back to Ludwig Benner and others at the National Transportation Safety Board. Benner developed a very similar technique called multilinear event sequencing (MES) and more recently sequentially timed events plotting (STEP). Event and causal factors charts were part of the overall MORT approach to system safety developed by W. G. Johnson for the Atomic Energy Commission in the early 1970s and further developed and taught by the Department of Energy s System Safety Development Center (SSDC). The use of the event and causal factors chart is sometimes referred to as causal factors analysis. 

System Safety Development Center (SSDC), EG G Idaho, Idaho Falls, Idaho, Bob Nertney, director (at that time), and the instructional staff, particularly Dick Buys (now with Los Alamos National Laboratory). While serving as a satellite instructor for the System Safety Development Center, I had the opportunity to teach MORT-based system safety and to interact with the SSDC staff and the Department of Energy and DOE contractor safety community. 

Buys, J. R. and J. L. Clark. Events and Causal Factors Charting, System Safety Development Center. (SSDC-14). Idaho Falls, ID EG G Idaho, Inc., August 1978. 

US Department of Energy, Accident/Incident Investigation Manual, Second Edition. Idaho Falls, ID System Safety Development Center, Idaho National Engineering Lahoratoiy 1985. (DOE/SSDC 76-45/27)... 

SSDC System Safety Development Center Glossary of SSDC Terms and Acronyms, SSDC-28 (DOE)... 

Blackmane, H. S., Gertman, D. L, and Haney, L. N. September 1985. The Process of Task Analysis (SSDC-31). U. S. Department of Energy, System Safety Development Center EG G Idaho, Inc., Idaho Ealls, ID. 

Information about SSDC pamphlets may be obtained from Systems Safety Development Center, EG G Idaho, Inc., P.O. Box 1625, Idaho Fails, ID 83415-3405. 

MORT User s Manual. DE-76-45/4. SSDC-4. Systems Safety Development Center. EG G. Idaho. INPO Good Practice OE-907. Root cause analysis. 

Bullock, M.G.Change Control and Analysis (SSDC-21). System Safety Development Center. Idaho Falls EG G Idaho, Inc. August 1981. United States Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy. Root Cause Analysis Guidance Document. Washington February 1992. 

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