Organisational and human factors Archives - Page 8 of 31 - La référence du retour d'expérience sur accidents technologiques

Explosion in a chlorine-alkali plant

23/07/2009
ALLEMAGNE

A lightning strike caused a voltage drop on the power supply of a chlorine-alkali plant using the mercury process. The emergency electrical system was activated, though restoring the external supply voltage in less than 200 ms rendered the entire system[...]

Explosion of superheater on vapour cracking at a petrochemical platform

15/07/2009
FRANCE

Superheater "A" on vapour cracking unit no. 1 at a petrochemical platform exploded around 3 pm. Of the 8 personnel present at the time, 2 were killed and the other 6 injured. Projectiles, composed mainly of refractory material, were sent[...]

Explosion and fire at a chemical plant

11/07/2009
PAYS-BAS

In a chemical plant producing mainly cellulose derivatives, an explosion and fire occurred at about 4 pm during the restart of a production line stopped for 9 h after a breakdown. The commissioning of the vacuum belt filter by the[...]

Explosion of LPG wagons

29/06/2009
ITALIE

Shortly after crossing a train station at a speed of 90 km/hr around 11:45 pm, the conductor of a convoy of 14 railcars containing 110 m³ (45 tonnes) of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) felt a jolt and noticed the derailment[...]

Chlorine leak in an industrial gas plant

27/05/2009
FRANCE

Liquid chlorine (Cl2) leaked out inside an industrial gas plant during air pressure drainage of a railcar. The previous day at 2 pm, 2 experienced technicians connected a Cl2 railcar in accordance with the procedure entitled "Railcar acceptance/hook-up", consisting of:[...]

Flooding of a pharmaceutical plant

01/11/2008
FRANCE

A pharmaceutical plant on a 55 hectare platform out of which 15 hectares were used was flooded (ARIA 35427) with 20 cm to 1 m of water due to torrential rains (300 mm in a few days including over 100[...]

Water pollution

12/09/2008
ESTONIE

A hydrocarbon spill was detected on the coast near the port of Sillamäe. The inspection authorities responsible for environmental protection visited the site and discovered that the pollutant had escaped from a stormwater outfall of the neighbouring boiler room. The[...]

Methomyl explosion and fire at a pesticide plant

28/08/2008
ETATS-UNIS

Inside a pesticides plant with 520 employees, a 17-m³ reservoir used to treat methomyl residues in a methylisobutyl ketone (MTBK) solvent suddenly rose in pressure at 10:20 pm and exploded 15 min later, seriously damaging the production unit, ripping apart[...]

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[...]

Spreading grain in a silo and leakage of LPG

19/08/2008
FRANCE

2,100 tonnes of wheat and 1,000 tonnes of maize spilled over to the ground at around 1.30 following the rupture of the walls of a 14,900 m³ "sheeting pile" silo built in 1989 and comprising 6 square storage bins (4[...]