Safety in Design

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 Definition
“Process by which safety considerations
are integrated into the early design
activities for new facilities or major
modifications of existing facilities.
Facilities shall be designed in a manner that gives
adequate protection from for the health and safety
of the public and for workers, including those at
adjacent facilities, from the affects of potential
facility accidents involving the release of hazardous,
chemical, and radioactive materials.”

from DOE Standard 1189, “Safety in Design” (Draft)

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 Objective
Reduce potential for changes to the technical, cost,
and schedule baselines. “Designed-in” instead of
“added-on”
Align technical criteria between owner, operator,
regulator, and constructor.
Lower overall safety risk by defining the strategy for
risk management.
Passive vs. Active Criticality Control
Confinement
Over pressure protection Fire Protection
Construction Safety Explosion Prevention
Leak prevention and Response to Natural
detection Phenomena Hazards:
(flooding, earthquake, high
winds, tornados, lightning, etc.
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 Safety in Design (Project Phases)

Design
Construction
Startup & Operations
Decommissioning and
Demolition

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Safety Considerations for Design

Process technology selection

Process design
Hazardous material inventory
Facility location
Facility and equipment configuration
Material selection
Preventative safety controls over mitigative
controls
 Safety Considerations for Design
Material Selection

Photograph of the corroded quill. The arrows

indicate locations where the wall was penetrated
from corrosion on the inside surface.

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 Safety in Design - Design Phase Tools
Design Standards
 Client design standards
 Bechtel design standards
 Industry standards (API, ASME, ANSI, AWWA,
FM, NFPA, NEC, UBC, British Standard.)

Calculation Procedures
 Standardized Methodology for each calculation
 Use industry accepted methodology
 Use acceptable/proven design margins or factors

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 Safety in Design – Design Phase Tools
Drawing Requirements and Standardization

Safety Analysis
HAZID/ENVID/HAZOP
SIL Reviews
Release and Dispersion modeling
Dow index analysis
HSEIA / EIA / EIS
Process Safety Management
Quantitative Risk Analysis
Regulatory Compliance
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Safety in Design (Design phase assessment)

By and far…

Our Process Design is typically safe

Due in large to established industrial codes and standards,

process knowledge, and good work process control
 Safety in Design – Construction Phase
Top Five Risks on a Typical
Construction Site:

1. Work at Height

2. Confined Space

3. Excavation

4. Exposure to Chemicals
and Toxins

5. Vehicle Accident

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 Safety in Design – Construction Phase

Preventative controls:

Reduce Population on site

Reduce Equipment Congestion
Control Work Environment and Conditions
Eliminate Surprises
Work execution planning
Reduce time / probability / exposure to
risks

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 Safety in Design – Construction Phase
Construction Strategy - Modularization
Reduce worksite
population
Experienced crews
Controlled
environment
Examples: Pipe
racks, Pre-fabbed
sumps, Pre-poured
foundations, Tilt-wall
concrete slabs.
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Fjardaal Aluminum Smelter, Iceland (2005)
 Safety in Design – Construction Phase
Construction Strategy – Materials Selection

Welding
Paints/coatings/
epoxies/galvanized
Solvents
Concrete vs. steel
Fireproofing / fire
suppression systems
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 Safety in Design – Construction Phase
Construction Strategy - Vessel Trim
Pre-dressed
vessels at factory
Vessel Pre-dressing
staging at site prior
to lift
Unocal-Bechtel Alliance Rodeo, CA (1984)

Work on vessels
laid horizontally is
not as risky as
vertically

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Shell Athabasca Oil Sands project, Canada (2001)
 Safety in Design – Construction Phase
Construction Strategy - Ladders and Platforms

Typically separate
vendor package or
contract
Sometimes one of
the LAST things Darwin LNG Project
designed August 2004

Sometimes one of
the LAST to be
delivered
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 Safety in Design – Construction Phase
“Textbook” Confined Space Incident

Could the
piping have
been designed
in such a way
that we didn’t
need to have
workers enter
the pipe?

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 Safety in Design – Construction Phase
Break the Paradigm…

Welded construction vs. Bolted

construction (Tanks) which is safer?
Larger is Better? Economy of
scale? Maybe multiple smaller units
are better?
Client standards are best or
Bechtel Standards are best?
Maybe industry standard is good
enough?
Stick-built vs. modular pre-fab
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Incident happened in
a facility in Brazil
during a pneumatic
test of the tank
associated piping. A
blind was NOT
installed to isolate
the piping – only
block valves were
closed.
 Safety in Design – Operations Phase
Intuitive Design
A door should not require operating instructions!

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 Safety in Design – Operations Phase
Stove top example

•Layout
•Safety
•Ergonomics
•Visibility

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 Safety in Design – Operations Phase
Stove Top Example

•Layout
•Ease of use
•Safer

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 Safety in Design – Operations Phase
Human / Machine Interface
Ergonomics / Worker interface
RAMI (Reliability, Availability, Maintainability, and Inspectibility)

Hazardous Energy Isolation

Spare Parts/Maintenance Strategy
Automated vs. Manual operations
Material handling
Collaborative studies with machine designers
and end-users
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 Safety in Design – Decommission & Demo Phase
Considerations
Decontamination Utilities and Facilities
Equipment rigging and removal plans and support steel
Elimination/reduction of contaminated areas/surfaces
Temporary ventilation requirements
Manual control capabilities
System jumpers and flushing capabilities
Equipment and personnel access in restrictive PPE
Regulatory and permit flexibility for closure
configuration.
Material staging and control

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 Safety in Design - Summary
Implementation practices:
Power EDPI Designing for Health and Safety in Construction
EI Conducting safe design reviews.
EI Design risk assessment reviews
Telecoms DG Design guide for tower safety

BSII EDPI Determination of quality levels

DG Fire protection for facilities handling radioactive materials

EI Hazards and safety evaluation

M&M EDPI Hazard studies
OG&C EI Design for safe construction
Civil EDPI Designers duties and responsibilities under the construction
(design and management) regulations
Corp Guide engineering instruction for process safety, health, and
environmental study
Guide engineering specification for site specific health and
24 safety plans.
 Safety in Design

Formosa Plant Explosion

Investigation
(8 Minute Video)

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 Safety in Design - Summary
Challenges to Standardized Solution
Subcontract/Vendor Implementation
 Do you include innovative design aspects in the evaluation?
 Do you include ease of constructability?
 Materials of construction?
 Risk to field personnel?
 Do you ask for alternative designs from vendors?
 Do you evaluate modularization?
 Do you score pre-fabrication and painting in the shop vs. field?
First-of-a-kind Facilities
 No operating experience/Data gaps
 Lack of applicable industry standards
Diversity in Markets (Clients/Industries)
 Inability or reluctance to fund downstream objectives (Operations/D&D)
 Differing contract structure and funding

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 Safety in Design – Recommendations
Develop corporate level guidance on the recommended use
of safety in design evaluation tools. Tools must recognize
diversity of the client
Empower and task all functions – engineering,
construction, procurement, project controls, project
management, etc. to consider safety in all project phases.
Assign responsibility and resources for systems SAFETY
early in the design phase and maintain focus throughout
project life cycle.
Consider the use of checklists to facilitate the early
identification of needed studies/risk.
The design effort needs to include construction,
operations, and D&D insight to better define system and
plant safety requirements and risks.
Must maintain flexibity in approach.
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 Safety in Design

Questions/Comments