(103c) Learning the Lessons From Buncefield

The fire and explosion at the Buncefield fuel storage depot, Hemel Hempstead, UK in December 2005 was the largest peacetime explosion in Europe. Fortunately no one was killed and the number a people injured was small, mainly because the incident happened in the early hours Sunday morning. However, the incident has had major repercussions for the UK storage and petrochemical industry. To ensure that the lessons from the incident were translated into higher standards of safety and environmental controls at fuel storage facilities industry, trades unions and the UK safety and environmental regulators formed the Process Safety Leadership Group, PSLG. This paper will cover the guidance published in December 2009 by the PSLG to address the Major Incident Investigation Board's recommendations on the design and operation of fuel storage sites. The PSLG guidance covers high reliability overfill protection, fuel transfer protocols, inspection and maintenance of tanks, human factors, secondary and tertiary containment and emergency arrangements. The paper explains how HSE will expect new and existing sites to comply with this new guidance.