Safety Lessons

This excellent post by Derek Lowe over at the In the Pipeline Blog is a stark reminder that we all work in a dangerous business. The analysis illustrates all of the classical causes of disasters:

• Complacency- This disaster happened on the 175th run.
• Ignoring Close Calls- Past close calls were never investigated.
• Exothermic Reactions- No need to say more.
• No Redundancy of Critical Systems- At this point in history, having no back-up cooling water is like a theme from a bad movie.
• Education & Training- Obviously the education and training necessary to safely run this reaction were not present.

Please remember to stay safe.