(52c) The Next Generation of Chemical Process Safety: a Comparison with the Nuclear Industry

The chemical industry continuously strives towards improved EH&S performance ? in particular, the reduction or elimination of process safety incidents. The purpose of this paper is to contrast some of the differences in management systems, designs, or other ?layers of protection? that exist between the chemical industry and the highly regulated nuclear power industry.

There are similarities to how each of these two industry segments approach safety, and opportunities for the Chemical Industry to learn from and adopt best practices from the Nuclear Industry. This paper will summarize a visit by the author to a nuclear power plant and a description of observed design and management systems in contrast to chemical manufacturing facilities.

Many similarities exist between a typical chemical plant and the nuclear plant visited. Each industry segment typically exhibits culture and values such as ethical management, respect for the employees, responsibility for providing a safe work place, and the necessity of being a good neighbor in the community. Each entity designs, constructs, operates, and maintains its facilities to employee, community, customer, and government expectations. The degree to which each industry addresses these elements is where differences can be found and the historical differences exist because of the recognized inherent differences in the potential consequences of an incident. We can expect, though, that societal pressures will continue to push the Chemical Industry in the direction of the Nuclear industry when it comes to tolerance for incidents.

This presentation will use a ?Layers of Protection Analysis? approach to describing the differences in approaches noted between one chemical plant and one nuclear power plant. Specific areas of discussion will include technology, design, training, security, and daily activities of operations and technical staffs.