Dealing with risk of fixed installations in The Netherlands

Abstract

In a densely populated and highly industrialized country such as The Netherlands, the competent authorities face the problem of making sure that, on the one hand, the chemical industry can develop and, on the other, the population is not subjected to undue risk or nuisance. Cryogenic storage facilities are treated just as other industrial facilities would be in this respect. While up to the early 1970s such planning was done on the basis of qualitative insight into the hazards of chemical plants, since then it has been recognized that global insight and engineering judgement alone no longer form a solid enough basis on which to rest safety decisions, such as changes to an installation, siting and zoning. From the mid-1970s the Directorate General for the Environment in The Netherlands has been developing tools to support decision makers with quantified information about risks. The development of these techniques has been a complicated task in which the Directorate worked together with engineering companies and the research institutions of the EEC. The development of more accurate tools is a continuing process. The application of decision support techniques to areas other than the immediate risks to life, such as carcinogenic effects and ecological damage, may need even more work to develop suitable techniques. The Directorate General for the Environment has also developed preliminary guidelines for the acceptability of risk. The application of quantitative techniques to support decisions with respect to potentially hazardous chemical installations has been accepted by Parliament. Since the introduction of the Major Hazards Regulation more than 50 external safety reports, describing the risks of major chemical complexes, have been produced. These reports give an interesting insight into the risks of these types of installations and the necessary safety zones around them. They also give an indication to what sort of information can be used successfully by the authorities in licensing and zoning decisions.