Environmental and health risks Archives - Page 2 of 5 - La référence du retour d'expérience sur accidents technologiques

In a paper mill, the cone-shaped bottom on a black liquor storage tank (with pH 13) experienced mech…

08/07/2011
FRANCE

In a paper mill, the cone-shaped bottom on a black liquor storage tank (with pH 13) experienced mechanical failure at 8:47 am. When the incident occurred, this 600-m³ capacity tank was holding 500 m³ of liquor which drained in less[...]

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[...]

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[...]

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[...]

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[...]

Firewood storage

22/08/2008
FRANCE

In a wooden pallet recycling plant located on the former site of a company recovering electrical transformers, a fire of unknown origin broke out at around 4 am in a 2 000 m² wood storage area. The security guard spotted[...]

Water pollution

22/04/2008
FRANCE

In a wood processing plant, the door on an autoclave suddenly opened while its contents (wood + wood treatment product) were still pressurised at 11 bar inside. Given the door's dimensions and the pressure setting, the product spewed out of[...]

Oil spill in an estuary during a transfer operation

16/03/2008
FRANCE

While loading 31,000 m3 of bunker fuel in a ship, a leak in a refinery transfer hose resulted in a major oil spill in the Loire estuary. At 4.10 pm, a person on a barge observed the presence of hydrocarbons[...]

Leakage on a pipeline and water pollution

23/03/2007
BIELORUSSIE

In Belarus, a leak was detected in a 377 mm diameter pipeline carrying gas oil causing 120 tonnes of hydrocarbons to be spilled in the DAUGAVA river for 5 hours. The emergency services contained the most of the gas oil[...]

Breakage of an oil tank

12/01/2007
FRANCE

The bottom of a 13,500 m³ containing 12,000 m³ of light crude oil tank ripped open at 8:00 am within an oil depot. The earthen dikes surrounding the retention basin withstood the wave effect; 2,000 m³ of oil still overflowed[...]