Case Study
Exothermic Reaction Jacksonville Florida
December 19th 2007
Joseph Haag
Columbia Southern University
Advance Interactions of Hazardous Materials
On December 19th 2007, a small chemical manufacturer T2 Laboratories suffered a catastrophic failure and release while in production of a compound that is produced to increase octane in gasoline and is a common additive in fuel production Methyleclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl or MCMT. The failure occurred during production and resulted in the death of 4 and injuries to 32 people, 28 of which were members of the community. (CSB, 2009) The incident began on December 19th at approximately 07:30 am when the one of the facilities operator began production of the MCMT compound. The process began in a clean reactor and started with the operator loading the reactor with specific quantiles of raw materials through use of an automated control system. This was completed at the same time as an employee hand-loading several blocks of sodium metal into
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A better understanding of the process they were utilizing at their facility and risk involved with the product being manufacture could have drastically influenced the outcome of this incident. While both owners had a chemistry / chemical history, reactive chemistry is not commonly part of the curriculum for most chemical degree programs. The owner’s limited knowledge of reactive chemistry was apparent in the lack of redundancy in the cooling process of the reactor. This created a single point of failure to allow for a catastrophic incident. This single point in which the failure likely occurred was probably the largest contributing factor to the accident. If a secondary source or systems had been available the cooling process likely would have been
The Nuclear Metals Incorporation or the Starmet Corporation is located on a 2229 Main Street in Concord, Massachusetts. The site produced depleted uranium products for armor piercing ammunition. They also created metal powders for medical applications, photocopiers, and specialty metal products, such as beryllium tubing for aerospace needs. From1958 to 1985, the holding basin that contained all the industries waste such as depleted uranium and copper was unlined, which caused issues.
dangers in the nuclear plant because the bosses just ignored it. The bosses and workers are not
This paper discusses pharmacology and terminology related to “Pharmacology” which is the branch of medicine concerned with the uses, effects, and modes of action of drugs“ pharmacology. 2015. In Merriam-Webster.com. The study of different classes of drugs, routes of absorption, and drugs have effects on those consuming them. There are drugs that are necessary for illnesses and healing but, there are medicines that cause concern regarding interaction and harming the body.
- If all of the options were explored, and patient is given antibiotics and is treated without any pain or suffering than the treatment identifies with the ethnical principles of autonomy, non-maleficence, and veracity. In turn, Mrs. Dawson will be happy with the outcome of the procedure.
...e are now regulations in place dealing with casings and other equipment (Regulations). If there were more regulations like this, there might be less breaks and les contamination. There might also be less spills or related accidents if there were more regulations on the disposing of these dangerous chemicals. How the chemicals are being disposed of should be monitored (Howells).
No. 4 and No. 6 reactor. An inspection found a 6’ long crack had developed and reached the
U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board. (March 20, 2007). Final Investigation Report. Retrieved July 26, 2010, from U.S. Chemical and Safety Board: http://www.csb.gov/assets/document/CSBFinalReportBP.pdf
On April 17, 2013, the community of West, Texas, suffered a devastating and heartbreaking event in the evening hours. After a fire broke out inside the West Fertilizer plant, a massive explosion leveled the facility, caused millions of dollars in damage to surrounding buildings, and took the lives of over a dozen people. Sadly, the majority of those killed were volunteer firefighters who had responded to the fire and were unable to retreat to a safe distance before the explosion. Nearly 200 injuries were also reported to have been treated at local hospitals (Wood, 2013). The explosion was said to be caused by the combination of the fire and large stores of ammonium nitrate fertilizer at the plant.
In terms of net income, Applied Materials is a leader in the semiconductor machinery industry with 2015 net income of $1.377 billion (Applied Materials:10-K 2016). Exhibit 1 shows net income in more detail. ASML Holding, a Dutch company, is consistently comparable to Applied Materials with regards to net income. However, as a Dutch company, some of the financial figures are not easily comparable due to different accounting standards. Another leading semiconductor machinery company, LAM Research, has had significantly less net income over the past five years. However, LAM Research still holds a strong position in the industry as shown by its market share of 13.2% (MarketLine 2014) and relatively high-diluted EPS of $3.7 (LAM Research 10-K 2015).
One of the most significant environmentally damaging instances in history was the Chernobyl incident. In 1986, the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant in Ukraine exploded. It became one of the most significant disasters in the engineering community. There are different factors that contributed to the disaster. The personnel that were tasked with operating the plant were unqualified. The plant’s design was a complex one. The RBMK reactor was Soviet design, and the staff had not be acquainted with this particular design. As the operators performed tests on the reactor, they disabled the automatic shutdown mechanism. After the test, the attempt to shut down the reactor was unsuccessful as it was unstable. This is the immediate cause of the Chernobyl Accident. It later became the most significant nuclear disaster in the history of the
Hazardous materials can be important in everyday life when properly handled. However, when improperly handled, they can result in injury, death, and destruction as well as have lingering effects that may last for years to come. To address the risk of an uncontrolled hazardous materials release, there must be a coordinated effort to identify, locate, and quantify the hazardous materials in a particular location (Drexel University Safety & Health, 2001). Typically, industry and government agree that a hazardous materials incident is one where
Toxic substances are very dangerous to have in a science laboratory, especially when they are open. The toxic can leak out into the air which can be harmful. Therefore the laboratory must have a separate section where toxic materials are stored. Labo...
Based on the cases discussed above from various authors, it is evident that the most tragic industrial pollution that is, Minamata Bay bears a dark story in history claiming many innocent lives where the methylmercury manifested in various forms, making it an environmental tragedy. Due to the ignorance and negligence of the officials responsible for the dumping of methyl mecury, symptoms such as impaired vision, loss of motor skill and mental retardation was exhibited to people that had very low illness history. The prevalence of this epidemic could have been haltered by the Japanese officials but failure to detect the poisoning at an early stage allowed the disease to manifests itself unto both the Japanese people and the ecosystem.
Story of our lives takes some decisive turns as we make our way through the figments of our imagination towards and over the threshold of reality. It was one such turn and a milestone that was the driving force behind my decision to choose Chemistry as my graduate major and research area.
The crew was working on deck for tank cleaning operation and at the same time hot work was going on. No intervention was done while doing hot work and methanol spray operation simultaneously. The explosion should have avoided if any of the crew members applied stop work policy.