An approach to the quantitative assessment of risk due to NaTech events

Abstract

External hazard factors as natural events and intentional acts of interference are perceived as important threats affecting the safety of chemical and process plants. The increasing frequency of some natural events having a particularly high severity also raised a growing concern for industrial asset integrity and for the consequences of major accident scenarios that may be triggered by natural events. The specifi c features of technological accidents triggered by natural events were recently recognized, and these scenarios are now indicated as NaTech (Natural-Technological) accidents. The analysis of past accident databases points out that NaTech accidents frequently impacted industrial facilities. Methodologies and tools for the specifi c assessment of the potential consequences of NaTech accidents were only recently developed, and are still missing for a number of specifi c NaTech scenarios. In the present contribution, a framework for the analysis of NaTech accidents is proposed and recent advances in the tools available for the assessment of NaTech events are revised.