Joint Chemical Safety Issues Workshop November 3-5, 1998 Albuquerque New Mexico

Workshop Topical Highlights

 


Each of the Issues identified on the Agenda for discussion during the break-out sessions at the Workshop will be examined in the context of its applicability to bench-scale laboratories, facility transition, and on-going chemical processes/operations.

· Issue 1. Chemical Safety as a part of Integrated Safety Management (ISM)

 

The incorporation of chemical safety into the Integrated Safety Management (ISM) systems that are currently under development at many DOE sites raises issues that must be resolved to ensure the permanent inclusion of chemical safety as an integral part of the ISM process. This workshop session will provide participants an opportunity to identify, examine and discuss these issues, and will offer a look at some practices that have been developed and used by the chemical industry for ISM verification. 

 · Issue 2. Chemical Safety Issues During Facility Transition  Many chemical safety issues are involved in each of the primary life cycle phases of DOE facilities, including their planning, design, construction, occupancy, use, maintenance, closure, decontamination, decommissioning and demolition. Facility transition to safe storage or decommissioning and decontamination may require the removal of significant quantities of hazardous chemicals. In many aging facilities, characteristics of the residual hazardous chemicals may not be clearly known. In addition, new chemicals may be introduced during cleanup operations where chemical reactivities and incompatibilities could result in negative consequences to workers, the facility, the public and/or the environment. An integrated approach to managing chemical safety throughout a facility's life cycle could provide great benefit and cost savings to each phase of facility transition while ensuring that chemical-related work is conducted safely throughout the facility's life. This session will discuss these and related issues and ideas and examine best practices that may be available. · Issue 3. Chemical Safety in Laboratories  Laboratory issues at the "bench-scale" level are commonly found throughout the DOE, yet they are frequently deferred for issues that are considered to be of greater importance, if only because of their magnitude or visibility. One such issue arises with regard to OSHA's Process Safety Management (PSM) Rule. The PSM rule requires a rigorous safety management program for facilities and processes with hazardous chemicals at greater-than-prescribed "Threshold Quantities". While many DOE facilities and laboratories contain a variety of hazardous chemicals and conditions that are not covered by the PSM rule, the hazards to workers in these laboratories, and the potential for catastrophic consequences are nevertheless "real". This session will look at bench-scale laboratory issues, vulnerabilities and concerns that are shared by multiple sites, with an eye to sharing ideas and exploring possible solutions. · Issue 4. Access to Chemical Safety and Lessons Learned Information  

The DOE Chemical Safety Home Page and its links to related web sites can serve as a valuable resource. These pages enable users to gain ready access to a broad base of chemical safety information on chemical work planning, chemical hazards analysis and control, chemical management systems and chemical safety management tools. An overview of this, and other major chemical safety-related websites and the Lessons Learned Home Page will be provided. Issues surrounding the need to update, review and analyze the constantly changing base of chemical safety information will be discussed. In addition, industry and DOE "best practices" that can be shared and used to improve the effectiveness of our chemical safety information handling  programs will be explored. Attendees are encouraged to review the DOE Chemical Safety Home Page prior to the Workshop and bring suggestions for its improvement. 

 · Issue 5. Chemical Safety in Work Planning  

The value of exchanging ideas and lessons learned in work planning activities involving chemicals can lead to improvements in the effectiveness of chemical safety programs and prevent accidents, injuries and illness. This session will explore issues that may arise and must be addressed when planning work and will discuss the need for development of a model program for use throughout the complex to address chemical safety issues in work planning. 

 · Issue 6. Common Threads and Lessons Learned in Recent Chemical Occurrences and Identified Vulnerabilities. Recent chemical-related accidents that resulted in fatalities may have had commonalities and lessons learned that should be examined and utilized to prevent future recurrences. This session will focus on a discussion of the status of DOE's chemical vulnerabilities and perceived vulnerabilities along with related issues, such as the use of lessons learned and the use of tracking, trending and analysis information on chemical-related occurrences within DOE. · Issue 7. Chemical Reactivity and Incompatibilities  

Collecting available data on special chemical hazards that include uncommon hazardous chemicals and reactive chemicals, unique to the major DOE facilities as well as general chemical incompatibilities, can be used to reduce/prevent chemical incidents at DOE sites. This session will examine issues related to the collection, dissemination and use of such information as an integral part of the DOE complex-wide effort to reduce chemical vulnerabilities and provide follow-through to the PRF explosion at Hanford and other chemical-related occurrences. This session will also look at the usefulness of chemical interaction matrices for hazard assessment and for use in preventing chemical accidents and issues that may arise in the development and utilization of such matrices./dir> 

 · Issue 8. Integrating Chemical Safety and Nuclear Safety  

Chemical safety and nuclear safety share common ground in terms of hazard characterization, safety analysis and control methodologies. However, their respective regulatory requirements and safety documentation can be quite different. There are opportunities to efficiently and cost-effectively deal with chemical safety issues while simultaneously addressing nuclear safety issues and still meet applicable requirements in both arenas. Traditional chemical safety and nuclear safety documentation can be tailored and coordinated appropriately to address facility-specific hazards. This session will focus on issues that arise when attempting to deal simultaneously with chemical safety and nuclear safety in a seamless, integrated and coherent manner.

 · Issue 9. A Road Map of Requirements for Chemical Safety  Deficiencies in environment, safety and health in some DOE chemical safety programs have been linked to the need for clarification of DOE, EPA and OSHA compliance objectives and guidance in achieving them. This session will explore issues that may arise when attempting to develop a roadmap of existing chemical safety requirements and compliance objectives for use as a work-planning tool for identifying applicable requirements and track their implementation for laboratories, legacy operations (including D&D and facility transition) and on-going chemical process operations. · Issue 10.Chemical Life Cycle Management and Best Practices  

Several DOE sites have recently updated their chemical management systems,
implementing elements of a good chemical management system and methodology
representative of "best practices" in chemical management programs.
Issues related to the development, implementation, and continuous
improvement of a robust chemical management system include identifying the
principles and elements of such a system, finding examples of proven
best-practices and determining ways in which to keep pace with new
developments in safety management and technology.   In this session,
current issues at DOE sites concerning chemical life-cycle management will
be explored along with best-practices that have been identified by some
that can be shared on the way to finding useful solutions to common
issues.