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Facility
Siting
OSHA's PSM regulations require that
"facility siting" be addressed in a Process Hazard Analysis
(PHA). Facility siting involves the assessment of the possible impacts
of fire and explosion on life safety, structures, and equipment as well
as the effects of releases of toxic substances and their ingress into
buildings. OSHA is particularly concerned that facility siting address
the spatial relationship between the hazards of the covered process and
the location(s) of people, especially in occupied buildings.
Services Offered
Primatech can help ensure your PHAs
address facility siting to meet OSHA's expectations and requirements. We
can also conduct a stand-alone Facility Siting Analysis (FSA) for your
facility or individual process areas to provide a more thorough
analysis. Such a study focuses on facility siting issues alone, which
helps ensure that facility siting issues are addressed properly and are
not overlooked. Results of a stand-alone FSA can be referenced during a
subsequent PHA study.
Facility siting analysis performed
during a PHA uses simple checklists to identify issues. A separate FSA
involves identifying issues using detailed checklists and evaluating
them using consequence analysis. Toxic release, blast overpressure and
thermal radiation footprints are overlaid on the facility plot plan and
an occupied building analysis performed using API RP 752 good
engineering practice guidelines.
Issues covered in a Facility Siting
Analysis include:
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Identifying hazard
scenarios that could have significant effects on occupied buildings
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Identifying vulnerable
locations of control rooms, and other buildings that may be occupied
by people
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Spacing of process units
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Spacing between
equipment and employees in occupied buildings, and equipment and
potential ignition sources
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Domino effects, i.e.:
the potential for an incident to propagate from one process area to
another separate area
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Analysis of the ability
for an occupied building to provide sheltering-in-place
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Emergency response
issues such as availability of emergency equipment, and the location
of fire suppression systems
Primatech presents the findings of
the FSA and facilitates a client team in the generation of
recommendations for corrective actions. A written report is issued after
these team sessions that documents the FSA results and the
recommendations generated by the team.
Primatech consultants are experienced in performing
FSAs and can assist clients in choosing the best consequence analysis
software modeling tools to meet the unique requirements of each project.
They understand how to meet applicable good engineering practices (such
as API RP 752) and comply with regulatory requirements.
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