Organisational and human factors Archives - Page 7 of 31 - La référence du retour d'expérience sur accidents technologiques

Rupture of a red aluminium sludge pond

04/10/2010
HONGRIE

Around noon, a red sludge basin at an aluminium production site employing some 1,200 personnel broke over a 50-m length, releasing 1 million m³ of highly basic sludge; 10 people were killed and another 286 injured (due to chemical burns[...]

Release of styrene following a power cut

14/07/2010
FRANCE

At 10:46 pm during a thunderstorm, an electrical outage interrupted polystyrene (PS) production at a chemical site where 27 of the 160 employees were on the job. A safety disc broke and styrene was released. The crystal manufactured polystyrene (CMP)[...]

Burst of a superheated steam pipe in a fertilizer factory

28/06/2010
FRANCE

At 11:15 pm, a violent and loud bursting occurs within an ammonia (NH3) synthesis unit at a SEVESO-classified nitrogenous fertiliser plant. The convex base welded to a heat-insulated, high-pressure water vapour pipe connected to catalytic reforming equipment had burst prior[...]

Fire at a 15.000 t storage facility for used tyres

20/06/2010
GRECE

A large fire broke out at an open used-tire storage in an industrial area, near a recycling plant that had started its operation only two months earlier. The fire expanded fast and covered the whole pile of the tires, estimated[...]

Buried for 36 years at a depth of 2.5 m on a Seveso-rated plant involved in liquefying air on behalf

13/06/2010
FRANCE

Buried for 36 years at a depth of 2.5 m on a Seveso-rated plant involved in liquefying air on behalf of Lorraine's regional industry, an oxygen (O2) pipeline pressurised at 40 bar burst at 1:45 pm along the property boundary,[...]

Explosion in a pharmaceutical factory

10/06/2010
ITALIE

An explosion occurred around noon while conducting hot work (with a disc saw) on a 320-m³ fixed-roof tank at a pharmaceutical plant employing 240 personnel. The tank cover was blasted 20 m away and the subcontractor performing cutting works was[...]

Naphtha pipeline rupture at an underground salt cavern storage site

01/05/2010
FRANCE

Around 7:20 pm, at the time of injecting naphtha originating from a refinery, a steel pipeline (DN 500-62 bar: 7 mm thick) burst open at a site dedicated to underground hydrocarbon storage using saline cavities in the heart of the[...]

Fire of solar panels on the roof of a warehouse

14/01/2010
FRANCE

Fire broke out around 3:30 pm on the roof of a 15,000-m² warehouse covered by 1,000 m² of solar panels (totalling some 660 panels). The building, inaugurated in November 2009, had received an HQE (highest environmental quality rating) certification; it[...]

Explosion in an plant manufacturing polymers

23/11/2009
FRANCE

In an upper-tier Seveso-rated plant manufacturing polymers used for water treatment applications, and despite the differentiated storage and packaging zones, a technician assigned the morning shift poured by mistake 1 to 2 kg of sodium hypophosphite classified non-hazardous into a[...]

Leakage of a pipeline in a nature reserve

07/08/2009
FRANCE

A leak was discovered on a crude oil pipeline (diam.: 40'', maximum service pressure: 40 bar, built in 1972) composed of welded rolled tubes. The accident occurred on a Natura 2000 site in the Crau Natural Reserve, home to several[...]