- IRGC 2011 Annual Event - Roundtable 1
- IRGC 2011 Annual Event - Roundtable 2
- IRGC 2011 Annual Event - Public Conference
IRGC recently held a public conference co-organised with the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
|(click above to download the conference flyer)
LEARNING FROM LARGE-SCALE INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS
WHEN DISASTERS CAN BE OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVING SAFETY AND RISK GOVERNANCE
3 November 2011, 17:00-19:00, EPFL, Rolex Learning Center, Switzerland
It appears from the March 2011 Fukushima Dai-Ichi accident in Japan and based on the many indirect and often far reaching consequences in other countries that:
Capabilities for adaptive risk assessment to deal with large scale industrial accidents (for example those involving large releases of nuclear materials) need to be improved
Decision-makers should be better able to understand and manage public risk perception
Risk communication in situations of high uncertainty and emergency should be improved
The main topic of this conference was: lessons learned from past accidents. For example, following the core meltdown at one of the reactors at the Three Mile Island (TMI) nuclear power station and the industrial accidents that occurred at chemical and pesticide plants in Seveso and Bhopal, risk managers made major progress in improving safety and risk governance. The TMI accident resulted in the creation of the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO) which has dramatically improved US nuclear power operations and safety. Bhopal and Seveso led to a wide range of changes and improvements in the chemical industry including the creation of the ICCA Responsible Care Initiative.
Following some key note presentations, a panel of experts and practitioners from Europe, the US and Asia were invited to discuss on how we have learned from and built better risk governance institutions and processes in the wake of past disasters, with a view to elaborate recommendations for improving safety, communication and overall risk governance of highly risky industrial activities.
The conference was chaired and moderated by Prof. Granger Morgan, Head, Department of Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University. Speakers and their presentations included:
Welcome remarks:
Dr Charles Kleiber, Chairman of the Board, IRGC
Prof. Patrick Aebischer, President, EPFL
Speakers:
Prof. Granger Morgan, Carnegie Mellon University: "Improving future safety and risk governance by: Learning from Large Accidents"
Dr Takashi Sawada, Science Council of Japan; Atomic Energy Society of Japan; Mitsubishi Heavy Industries: “Lessons learned from the Fukushima Daiichi accident”
Mr Jean-Pierre Sursock, EPRI: “US Industry Response to the Fukushima Accident”
Dr Hans Wanner, ENSI, Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate: “Fukushima - Lessons for Switzerland”
Mr Richard Gowland, European Process Safety Center: “Lessons learned after disasters in the chemical industry”
Prof. V.S. Arunachalam, CSTEP, Bangalore: "Learning from failures: A Morality Tale in the Offing”
Panel with speakers and members of the IRGC Scientific and Technical Council:
Prof. Dr Wolfgang Kröger, ETH Risk Center; IRGC Founding Rector; former head of research in nuclear energy and safety at the Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI)
Prof. Xue Lan, Tsinghua University, Beijing, Professor and Dean, School of Public Policy and Management
Prof. Dr Ortwin Renn, Stuttgart University, Professor of environmental sociology
Dr Timothy Walker, former UK Governor of IAEA and Chairman of the EBRD Nuclear Safety Account
Concluding remarks:
Prof. Granger Morgan, IRGC
Prof. Hans Björn Püttgen, Energy Center , EPFL
Contact:
More information about the conference can be obtained from Diane Boulay
IRGC partners:
