A site assessment can involve a number of cross discipline elements to assess the costs, risks and health of the occupants. The various elements focus on the identification of hazards, the characterization of those hazards and delivering a mitigation strategy.
Siting Assessment Elements
- Facility Siting
- Process Hazards Analysis (PHA)
- Dust Hazards Analysis (DHA)
- Fire Risk Assessment (FRA)
- Quantitative Risk Assessment (ALARP)
- Security Strategy Review
Facility siting assessments engineering firms evaluate the potential damage that a workplace explosion, fire, or release of toxic chemical could cause to every occupied building in the work area. Many safety standards (including OSHA 19 29 CFR 1910.119) require that facility siting is addressed as part of the process hazard analysis.
Facility siting assessments are beneficial when:
- Designing/Modifying Buildings/Unit Operations Layouts
- Evaluating Location of Air-intake for HVAC Systems
- Developing Risk Mitigation Strategies
A proper siting analysis considers the hazards that are specific to the identified workplace and evaluates the risk in the context of the environmental conditions of the existing or proposed work site. A key task is identifying credible worst case scenarios. These may include:
- Dust Hazard / Explosion Analysis
- Jet Fire Risk Analysis
- General Fire Risk Analysis
- Liquid Release to Vapor Cloud Analysis
- Atmospheric Relief Dispersion Analysis
- Combustible Gas Analysis in Rooms and Compartments
- Asphyxiant Concentration
- Pure Oxygen Release and Migration
- Chemical Compatibility in the Event of Unintended Chemical Communication
Process Hazards Analysis (PHA)
A PHA is a systematic evaluation of the hazards involved in a process and is required for initiation of a process and for ongoing process operations. Process safety/nuclear safety engineering and testing lab offers a full range of PHA services using a variety of techniques including:
- Hazard and Operability (HAZOP) Analysis
- What-if Checklists
- Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA)
- Quantitative Risk Assessments (such as layer of protection analysis)
Fire Risk Assessment (FRA)
Performing a quantitative fire/explosion hazard analyzes the facility’s vulnerabilities to fire by identifying, characterizing, and partitioning ignition sources as well as evaluating mitigation strategies and proposing potential recommendations.
Quantitative Risk Assessment (ALARP)
As Low As Reasonably Practicable (ALARP) is a decision-making logic that, when applied correctly in quantitative risk assessments, results in actions or designs balanced between benefit and cost or effort. The ALARP concept requires applying the notions of reasonability and practicability. It is difficult to clearly define what is reasonable and practicable, but simply put, the process of assessing the risks to be ALARP is an assessment of the safety benefits against the expense of implementing the option to determine if the level of risk is tolerable.
Dust Hazard Analysis (DHA)
Security Strategy Review
