Analysis of the ARIA database shows a sharp increase in NaTech events in French industrial facilities between 2010 and 2019. NaTech accidents are technological events that have been triggered or exacerbated by intense natural phenomena, such as floods, high temperatures[...]
Periods of cold weather are often synonymous with high electricity consumption and technical incidents. They can also cause power supply and telecommunication network outages. An imbalance between electricity supply and demand could happen this winter, generating power outages. Whatever their[...]
Spells of scorching heat always give way to episodes of intense rainfall and what are known as Cévennes rain events. In recent years, France has experienced many rain events that have resulted in flooding of industrial facilities. Although well known,[...]
In a refinery, at around 3.35 a.m., an alarm in the control room informed the operators of a fire in the distilling unit. At around 4.00 a.m., the flames had reached a height of 50 m and had engulfed an area of 2,500 m². The[...]
Placed directly on the surface of the liquid, the floating roof of a storage tank allows the reduction of emission by evaporation of certain products by the gaseous sky and thus limits the chronic atmospheric pollution generated by the most[...]
The Water Framework Directive of December 2000 which commits the countries of the European Union with a goal of regaining the quality of the water and the aquatic environments by 2015, supposes a better protection of these environments against any[...]
Petrol stations are classified facilities presenting the unique characteristic of containing large quantities of hazardous materials while some of their equipment is available for direct use by customers, in accordance with concise information and instructions. The storage and transfer of[...]
During transfer of a hydrocarbon mix from a river barge to a refinery storage zone, a defect at the level of the pipe compensator caused a leak around 3 am. A number of steps had been taken the day before to[...]
At 11.57 AM a power failure occurred in a refinery. The supply of electrical power was cut off, as a result of the failure of the main power line during maintenance. Because of this the refinery was almost completely powerless,[...]
Within a refinery storage zone, the shell of a fragile 15,000-m³ tank (at the end of its filling cycle) containing 13,500 m³ of HTS residue (at 130°C) split open. The flow of HC then destroyed two other tanks (15,000 m³[...]
