Chemical facility vulnerability assessment project

Abstract

Sandia National Laboratories, under the direction of the Office of Science and Technology, National Institute of Justice, conducted the chemical facility vulnerability assessment (CFVA) project. The primary objective of this project was to develop, test and validate a vulnerability assessment methodology (VAM) for determining the security of chemical facilities against terrorist or criminal attacks (VAM-CF™). The project also included a report to the Department of Justice for Congress that in addition to describing the VAM-CF™ also addressed general observations related to security practices, threats and risks at chemical facilities and chemical transport. In the development of the VAM-CF™ Sandia leveraged the experience gained from the use and development of VAs in other areas and the input from the chemical industry and Federal agencies. The VAM-CF™ is a systematic, risk-based approach where risk is a function of the severity of consequences of an undesired event, the attack potential, and the likelihood of adversary success in causing the undesired event. For the purpose of the VAM-CF™ analyses Risk is a function of S, L A, and L AS, where S is the severity of consequence of an event, L A is the attack potential and L AS likelihood of adversary success in causing a catastrophic event. The VAM-CF™ consists of 13 basic steps. It involves an initial screening step, which helps to identify and prioritize facilities for further analysis. This step is similar to the prioritization approach developed by the American Chemistry Council (ACC). Other steps help to determine the components of the risk equation and ultimately the risk. The VAM-CF™ process involves identifying the hazardous chemicals and processes at a chemical facility. It helps chemical facilities to focus their attention on the most critical areas. The VAM-CF™ is not a quantitative analysis but, rather, compares relative security risks. If the risks are deemed too high, recommendations are developed for measures to reduce the risk. This paper will briefly discuss the CFVA project and VAM-CF™ process.