Tanks, storage toxic chemicals

On a chilly winter night, a disgruntled worker at Union Carbide India Ltd. sneaks into a deserted area of its Bhopal pesticide plant where storage tanks hold thousands of gallons of a toxic chemical. [6]... 

On December 3 and 4, 1985, a chemical release causing a massive toxic gas cloud occurred at the Union Carbide India, Ltd, plant in Bhopal, India. (Union Carbide is now a part of The Dow Chemical Company.) The process involved used methyl isocyanate (MIC), an extremely toxic chemical, to make Sevin, a pesticide. According to various authoritative reports, about 1,700-2,700 (possibly more) people were killed, 50,000 people were affected seriously, and 1,000,000 people were affected in some way. The final settlement may involve billions of dollars. It was one of the worst industrial accidents in history. The accident occurred when about 120-240 gallons of water were allowed to contaminate an MIC storage tank. The MIC hydrolyzed, causing heat and pressure, which in turn caused the tank rupture disk to burst. 

There have been 17 chemical releases that have exceeded Bhopal in volume and toxicity. Fortunately, their locations and weather conditions prevented disasters such as Bhopal. In 1994, failure of a storage tank at Occidental Chemical allowed as much as 500 lb of chlorine to escape through a hole the size of a filing cabinet.89 Fortunately, air currents did not carry the cloud of chlorine over Delaware City, about a mile away, or New Castle, Delaware, a few miles to the north. (Chlorine was used as a war gas in World War I.)... 

Chemical Production or Manufacturing Facilities such as pesticide plants can have a number of reactive or toxic chemicals. A bulk manufacturing facility can have large storage tanks of hazardous chemicals, which may be transported in drums, pipelines, or tankers. A specialty chemical company may have similar quantities of a larger number of chemicals. 

Aircraft Earthquake Explosives Toxic Chemical Chernobyl Abusive Drug Storage Tank Leakage... 

FIGURE 4.1 High-volume scenario storage. As depicted in (a), a chemical facility is located within the midsized, fictitious River City. In the terrorist attack outlined in (b), Facility A is targeted first. The shock wave from this attack caixses the destmction of Facility B. Shrapnel from Facility B hits Storage Tanks C, which then release toxic chemicals into the river, the source of drinking water for River City and downstream communities. See text for details. 

A diverse range of chemical process equipment-including reaction vessels, storage tanks, separation equipment, and transfer equipment. Storage and process equipment (excluding chemical reaction vessels) account for over 65 percent of the equipment involved chemical reaction vessels account for only 25 percent. Reactive incidents can result in a variety of consequences, including fire and explosions (42 percent of incidents) as well as toxic gas emissions (37 percent). 

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