Accident

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A malfunction is commonly referred to as a disruption of the normal operation of a technical system, in particular the chemical industry , or a nuclear power plant . Intended operation is the operation for which the system is technically designed and approved by the competent authority.

In the legal sense, the term “accident” is defined differently for different technical systems or operations. The term incident is also often mentioned in the media ; this is often used when the event has been classified below the usual assessment levels or a final assessment is not yet available.

Nuclear technology

In nuclear technology in Germany, an incident according to Section 3 of the Radiation Protection Ordinance is " a sequence of events, when the operation of the plant or the activity cannot be continued for safety reasons and for which the plant is to be designed or for which precautionary protective measures are to be provided during the activity are. “It differs from the accident in that the effects are limited to the plant. On the International Assessment Scale for Nuclear Events (INES), an incident in a nuclear facility corresponds to level 2, and a serious incident to level 3. Level 0 corresponds to breakdowns that have little or no safety significance. Category 1 events are malfunctions , i.e. deviations from normal operation without radiological effects. In nuclear power plants, the first countermeasure that is usually triggered in the event of an incident is a reactor shutdown , and other safety systems usually also come into action.

chemical industry

Legal background

In the chemical industry and other commercial companies, but also for public corporations (with the exception of national defense institutions), the provisions of the 12th Ordinance on the Federal Immission Control Act - Incident Ordinance in the version published on March 15, 2017 apply in Germany (Federal Law Gazette I p. 483), which was last amended by Article 58 of the Act of March 29, 2017 (Federal Law Gazette I p. 626). The essential requirements for the operators of operating areas or systems that fall under the scope of the Hazardous Incident Ordinance are defined here (including obligations to create a safety concept, safety management, safety report, operational alarm and hazard prevention plans and to inform the public).

definition

According to this regulation, an accident is defined as “ an event, such as B. an emission, a fire or a large-scale explosion that results from a disruption of the intended operation in an operating area covered by this ordinance or in a facility covered by this ordinance, which occurs immediately or later inside or outside the operating area or the facility leads to serious danger or property damage according to Annex VI Part 1 Number I No. 4 of the Hazardous Incident Ordinance and in which one or more dangerous substances are involved ”. A serious hazard is defined as " a hazard in which human life is threatened or in which there is a risk of serious damage to human health, the health of a large number of people or the environment, particularly animals and plants, the soil, which Water, the atmosphere as well as cultural or other material assets can be damaged if the common good would be impaired by a change in their existence or their usability. "

The dangerous substances are named in the regulation itself. Business areas or plants for which the regulation applies are those for which the thresholds for the quantity of hazardous substances present exceed certain limit values ​​defined in the regulation.

The term accident from the accident ordinance describes events with effects on the environment of a plant, while in nuclear technology incidents are limited to the area of ​​the plant.

As far as the safety precautions against such accidents ( chemical safety ) are concerned, one speaks here v. a. also of "second barriers": z. B. Pipes with a double jacket, tank pans or sealed protective structures should avoid the release of dangerous substances whenever possible. In some cases, however, there is insufficient protection against explosion and fire loads.

See also

Web links

swell

  1. ^ Special page of the Bieler Tagblatt (Switzerland) of October 6, 1993 on the accident precautions of Ciba