In any hazardous area installation the requirement for safety is paramount and recent accidents at refinery and tank farm sites offer vivid illustrations of the catastrophic consequences of such events. Valve actuators have an important impact on safety as vital components for the movement and isolation of bulk fluids, providing not only the muscle to open and close the valves but also the ...
Although safety is and has always been the primary objective for the nuclear community, it happens that the established practices for verification of nuclear plants' safety systems fail to provide reliable knowledge. The traditional investigation techniques have proven to be insufficient in their attempts to solve the problems and to prevent new failures. In this paper, difficulties in performing ...
Continuing Our Guide for New Plant Safety Managers On Monday, we took a closer look at the first few steps of an on-site OSHA visit, including the opening conference and records review. (Refresh your memory on that post here.) As a new plant safety manager, being prepared in a situation like this is key, and we want to make sure you have the tools and information you need. Now let’s ...
Fluid system leaks are common throughout the miles of tubing, valves and other components that span most industrial plants. Such leaks represent increased operating costs at best and potential safety issues at ...
This paper presents an overview of the use of risk insights to aid the derivation of the requirements for the Koeberg Emergency Plan. The methodology and the results are presented. This methodology is based on using the Koeberg risk assessment to the worst credible severe accident scenario, which then becomes the reference accident. The off-site consequences of this reference accident are then ...
Advice for when you are new to EHS and have to hit the ground running Much to your surprise, you have suddenly become the new plant safety person. And on top of that, you have little or no background in safety! Unfortunately with downsizing/right-sizing and budget cuts, this kind of move has become increasingly common at the plant level, despite the importance of EHS to the operation. Instead ...
Game theory can provide an analytical framework for investigation of the strategic conflicts surrounding critical infrastructure. Immediately after the 1986 Chernobyl event, for example, plant management, political appointees and world media struggled over the timing and accuracy of information release. The aging of nuclear power plants and the increasing difficulties faced by management and ...
Reality has set in. You are the new plant safety person and it’s time to start moving forward with figuring out how to become the capable and informed safety person that your plant needs. As we talked about in our first post in this ongoing series: “…. you do not have to go it alone. Recognize that the same management principles and practices that apply to plant production, ...
The Customer The company is a worldwide supplier of industrial graphite components. Precision machined graphite parts are available in a variety of shapes and sizes and are used in many industries including mining, aerospace, transportation and power generation. The Process Components are formed by impregnating carbon with various solvents, catalysts and resins. The formed products are loaded ...
A method is described for modelling, verification and automatic generation of code for PLC controllers. The requirements for a controller are modelled using UML state machine diagram, with a formal semantics given by a finite state time machine. The model can automatically be converted into a timed automaton, embedded into a model of the environment (a controlled plant) and verified against ...
Zero styrene in the Renovation of Industrial Processing plants and Storage tanks Renovation without hassle In industrial processing and chemical storage plants the continuity of operation is of major importance. Plant downtime may have significant financial implications. Also equipment breakdown may negatively affect plant safety as in many cases dangerous chemicals are involved. When old ...
Desalination systems are mostly based on membrane (RO) and thermal (MSF and MED) processes. High-pressure operation and high level of corrosion are the major aspects of concern in a Seawater Reverse Osmosis (SWRO) Plant. Selection of the appropriate material for construction and the following of the proper design, fabrication and testing codes, and safe operational procedures ensure the safety of ...
Trichloroethylene (TCE), a common groundwater contaminant, was found at high levels at an Oregon work site in 1998. According to a recent report released by the National Research Council, “the evidence on carcinogenic risk and other health hazards from exposure to trichloroethylene has strengthened since 2001.” A convenience sample of thirteen former workers from the Oregon work site was ...
This paper, based on a survey in nine countries, deals with the way in which different countries impose new requirements on existing nuclear power plants. This is a question that will often arise when national regulations are revised in a process of international harmonisation. It will be shown that new requirements can be divided into three categories with different justifications and different ...
The use of nuclear reactors for seawater desalination has been investigated extensively for more than ten years and various designs of nuclear reactors have been proposed for future nuclear desalination plants. All such plants should satisfy recent safety requirements. In this paper, we firstly review the general safety requirements to be imposed on future nuclear desalination plants. Secondly, ...
You, the new plant safety manager, just left your first one-on-one plant manager meeting (as we talked about in our second blog in this series) and you are on cloud nine! You have just received the commitment you requested from the plant manager and you are so relieved that the meeting was successful. Then your supervisor comes into your office, sits down in front of your desk, and begins a ...
The Customer The company is a worldwide supplier of industrial graphite components. Precision machined graphite parts are available in a variety of shapes and sizes and are used in many industries including mining, aerospace, transportation and power generation. The Process Components are formed by impregnating carbon with various solvents, catalysts and resins. The formed products are loaded ...
Continuing Our Guide for New Plant Safety Managers You have been the new plant safety manager for a little over two months. During this timeframe you have had the opportunity to review the limited number of safety procedures left in your office by your predecessor and you are beginning to move forward with your safety responsibilities by following the requirements in the procedures. As part of ...
Looking for the perfectly carbonated beverage? Is your CO2 injection process leaving your drinks flat? Industrial mass flow controllers offer the perfect solution for controlling the exact CO2 injection into beverages to create the perfect foam for the beer industry or carbonation for popular soft drinks. It is pivotal that carbonated beverage manufacturers have the ability control the exact ...
The prospect of a major fire onboard a nuclear submarine is almost unthink- able (see inset). One approach to managing this potent hazard in multi-compartment spaces is to model the fire progression using computer codes based upon three dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Unfortunately, this can be time consuming and expensive, and is only as good as the model definition. Moreover, ...