Domino effects in a disaster

A good example of domino effects of a blast occurred in July 2011 in Cyprus when munitions in a military dump located near to a power generation station blew up. The blast damaged the power station leading to severe power shortages in Cyprus. An article mentions the following:
'Twelve people have been killed and about 30 injured in a blast at a munitions dump in Cyprus. The island's largest power station has been damaged, resulting in widespread power cuts.
The force of the dawn explosions blew out virtually every window in the neighboring village of Zygi and extensively damaged the islands main power station, which remains offline.
Large-scale damage could be seen to a huge section of the barriers of the main Larnaca-Limassol highway and a huge crater about 500 meters from the power station was shown on state TV."
Read the article in this link
See pictures of the blast damage in this link.

Facility siting - fiberglass tanks and radiated heat

An incident in the US highlights the need for a careful evaluation of siting (location) of fiberglass tanks. In the incident, a fire from a hydrocarbon relaease due to an equipment failure led to the melting of a fiberglass tank containing hydrochloric acid. The HCl spilled into a dyke area. If you are using fiberglass tanks for storing hazardous chemicals, take into consideration the heat radiated from nearby potential sources of fires.
Read about the incident in this link.

Cost - Benefit trade off and risk

An editorial in Las Vegas Review Journal highlights the need for facility siting, inherent safer design and cost benefit trade off Vs Risk. The article mentions the following:
"It's not too early to start asking the billion-dollar questions: Is it possible to build nuclear reactors that can be relied on to safely shut themselves down, using passive cooling systems dependent on gravity rather than electric pumps, during an earthquake of such magnitude? Of the 442 nuclear reactors in operation around the world today, the World Nuclear Association estimates 20 percent are located in areas of "significant seismic activity." Siting will be re-examined. Better designs do appear possible.
One hundred percent passive cooling systems are not yet commercially available. But had even a partial passive system been in place at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, Japan's current nuclear crisis could have been averted, argues John McGaha, a board member of the American Nuclear Society.
"The thing that got Japan in trouble was not the earthquake, but the tsunami that took out power supplies," Mr. McGaha says. "Passive reactors would have been part of the answer to what happened."
In General Electric's design for the Fukushima reactors, the cooling tanks for storage of spent fuel rods sit atop the containment buildings. Some of these tanks appear to have gone dry, leaving the spent rods to spew radiation. If the tanks sat at or below ground level, they could be refilled by simply opening a spigot from backup water tanks, or through gravity-fed pipelines.
Meantime, the backup diesel generators that might have averted the disaster were positioned in a basement, where they were overwhelmed by the tsunami. In the end, cost-benefit trade-offs will still be made. But a valid cost-benefit analysis requires data as to what the true "costs" are when systems fail."
Read the editorial in this link..

Facility siting - different countries, different approaches

I read an interesting article where an expert in Canada testifies against the construction of a residential complex next to a chemical facility. The article mentions that "Gaade (the expert) gave testimony about several scenarios he examined to determine the effects of an accident at the chemical plant, and although he said BioVectra has one of the safest plants he’s been in, putting an apartment building next to it is not an acceptable risk. “I’ve never seen it before anywhere other than Third World countries,” Gaade said."
Now, In India, the main problem is lack of will in enforcing the existing laws. Many chemical plants come up in isolated areas but after some years, residences spring up around the plant, with the authorities knowing about it. The IOC Jaipur oil depot where a major fire occurred, is an example.
When will we ever learn? Read the article in this link.

Facility siting and hazardous chemicals

Greenpeace has sent a blimp over a chemical plant in Delaware, as part of a worldwide campaign to eliminate toxic chemicals. Their focus is on toxic chemicals that could spread in an airborne plume if released suddenly by an accident or terrorist attack. The article mentions that "Federal risk management reports indicate that up to 660,000 people live in potential “downwind” areas at risk in the event of a sudden, complete release from one of the 90-ton chlorine tank cars routinely parked at Edge Moor in east Wilmington.A similar accident at the Chambers Works operation, near the Delaware Memorial Bridge, could endanger 2 million people, by federal estimates".
In India, the problem is more acute.Residential dwellings are allowed to come up in the no man zone surrounding hazardous chemical factories.
Read the full article in this link

Domino effect and Process Safety

An interesting article on Domino Effects in the developed countries mentions the following "A study of 261 accidents involving domino effect has been carried out. The main features have been analyzed: origin, causes, consequences and most frequent sequences. The analysis has shown that the most frequent causes are external events (31%) and mechanical failure (30%). The storage areas (37%) and process plants (27%) are by far the most common places where domino accidents have occurred. The most common sequence in the event trees resulted to be explosion–fire (21%), followed by release– fire–explosion (15%) and fire–explosion (14%)".
While the study concludes that "The historical analysis has shown that the frequency of domino effect accidents has decreased over the last two decades. Most of these accidents have occurred –as could be expected– in the most industrialized countries (from which, furthermore, more information is available). The most frequent sequences are explosion–fire, release–fire– explosion and fire–explosion. From the analysis of the causes, although the most frequent ones are external events and mechanical failure, a relatively high frequency is found for human error. This would indicate the need to further promote the training of employees, as well as an additional improvement of safety measures, specially in storage areas".

As more and more chemical industries are coming up in India, it becomes very important to study facility siting issues.Incidents like the Jaipur fire clearly indicate the need for a stronger implementation of facility siting rules.
Read the whole article in this link.

Fire near refinery destroys shanties

It was reported that about 100 shanties were gutted in a fire near the Guwahati refinery on 11.1.2010. Luckily there were no casualties. The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained. Local residents allege that the effluents released from the refinery in a bypass drain caught fire. The incident raises the question of facility siting and how did the shanties come up near the refinery? The Bhopal disaster was an epitome in facility siting. Shanties were allowed to spring up near the plant leading to greater number of deaths when the gas leaked. In today's scenario, allowing dwellings to come up near hazardous installations poses two risks - one is the exposure of people living in the shanties to the hazards from the installation and the other is from the security and terrorism point of view. The Jaipur oil depot fire also pointed out the hazards of allowing development close to hazardous installations. When will we wake up?

Jaipur oil depot fire and facility siting

The Jaipur oil depot fire emphasises the need to enforce strict land use policies that are on paper. 25 years ago, Bhopal, too had a similar issue when slums were allowed to come up around the factory, resulting in large number of deaths. At the rate at which India's population is expanding,many chemical factories are worried about rampant growth of residences and building near their factories. Today, in Chennai, in Manali, the population and buildings that have come up are phenomenal when compared to 30 years ago when I worked there.