The earthquake on 11.03.2011 followed with tsunami and nuclear emergency at Fukushima reminded me of Murphy's law. There was power outage. The pumps for cooling the reactors could not be operated by DG sets. The engineers of the nuclear plant are trying hard with available limited resources. Already there are reports of increase in radiation levels.
What lessons we can learn from this incident in a chemical plant?
We may be having toxic/flammable/corrosive chemical storages. Our processes may be dependent on cooling failure of which may lead to boiling and explosion. Or lead to failure of protection systems leading to pressure buildup and explosion followed with release of toxic/poisonous chemicals.
Do we have enough sources to handle emergencies arising out of simultaneous failure of containment of all chemicals and process upsets.
Then, if we are located in an industrial area, what is the impact of similar emergencies in neighbouring facilities on us.
What are the considerations on which structures and buildings were designed.
Whatever is thought earlier as impossible or unlikely in our risk assessment sheet may become now likely. We have to review all our safety systems for risks in light of emergency at Japan, learn lessons and take permanent measures against identified hazards.
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