Recovery analysis in risk management of hazardous materials

Abstract

Recovery analysis as an adjoint activity in risk assessment is to account for situational and technical aspects of a plant's preparedness for incident response and accident management. Recovery analysis has been well established in nuclear industry in evaluation of the means to prevent accident propagation. The aim of this study was to apply recovery analysis principles in the management of accidental water pollution events due to uncontrolled releases of hazardous materials. A checklist comprising possible means to prevent accident propagation, was worked out. The checklist included correction measures at equipment level, remediation measures along migration routes and release treatment systems. All the correction and remediation measures included two phases: detection of the accident evolution and the actual response actions. Methodology was tested at two paper mills with different environmental settings. First, various potential accidental releases of hazardous materials were identified and estimated using traditional methods like preliminary hazard analysis and Hazop. After that possible recovery measures were analyzed. Recovery analysis appeared a worthwhile tool in evaluating the entire event chain causing accidental water pollution. The recovery procedures along release migration routes were often considered more efficient than system modifications trying to reduce release probability. That was because releases originating from numerous sources may be recovered along the migration route.