On March 28, 1979, an accident happened at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Middletown, Pennsylvania. The accident started due to equipment failures, but was further escalated by operator errors. Reports of the disaster showed that had the operators kept the emergency cooling systems on, this accident would’ve just been an insignificant incident. The accident caused the core of the reactor to meltdown and release radioactive gas. There weren’t any injuries or health affects due to the radiation, however, the accident scared the nation away from nuclear power for many years to come. One of the biggest contributors to the accident was due to operator errors. The operators at the plant weren’t trained to deal with the “less important” accidents. This was due to an oversight by the scientists and engineers in charge of the regulations and safety. The scientists and engineers mindset was based around the idea, “what is the worst kind of equipment failure that can occur?” This mindset covered some serious issues, such as if a pipe that carries cooling water bursts. These issues were carefully analyzed and resolved. The mindset of working around the worst case scenarios, was the foundation for the design of the plants. They …show more content…
fixated so much on the large scale disasters, that if they can control the worse possible scenarios, they don’t have to worry about the smaller issues. Since large-break accidents require immediate reaction, it is automatically controlled by the equipment. However, the less important accidents do not get spotted immediately and requires an operator to monitor and take action. This was the Achilles heel for the plant. There were equipment failures that were less dramatic than the worst case scenario and the operators weren’t properly trained to deal with them. The operators were trained sufficiently enough for day to day responsibilities, but were not trained on how to deal with minor issues. Even the senior reactor operators had no idea what to do. The majority of the operators’ errors were not just due to training, but the equipment they had to work with as well. When the plant was designed, the engineers did not take into account the human element. The control room for example, is very convoluted. The control panel was massive and was covered with hundreds of alarms. The alarms were not properly labeled, and indicators to important switches were placed in spots that they can’t see. The control room was manageable during the day to day operations, but terrible for emergencies. When the accident started, hundreds of alarms that covered the control panel turned on. Every single alarm went off, and there was no way to turn off the less significant ones or to track each alarm. The operators were overwhelmed and panicked. The system did not provide proper information in a fast and clear way. For example, there were sensors that monitored the temperature and pressure in the reactor coolant system. Although that information was displayed, there was no warning that the coolant was turning into steam. Operators could not make proper decisions under the situation and escalated the problem. These could’ve easily been avoided by designing the system for the operator. This accident has taught me many things that I would not have learned in class.
When I was reading the technical details of the accident, I was surprised at what caused the incident. I thought that the plant hired people who were not qualified to be operating important systems. The root cause of the incident was the lack of consideration for the operator when designing the plant. I don’t blame the operators for not being able to prevent the issue. I don’t think anyone could’ve been able to keep their composure when there are hundreds of alarms flaring and flashing. Not only are there hundreds of alarms going off at once, you can’t even properly react due to the fact that there were no indicators or information on half the
alarms. In conclusion, the reason why the Three Mile Island happened was due to operator errors, equipment failures. The operators were not properly trained to deal with the less important accidents. They were only trained to deal with the day to day operation. The engineers who designed the plant arrogantly thought that if they can deal with the large-break issues that they can deal with the small-break issues without any analysis or consideration. The equipment design of the plant also lacked consideration for a person. One example of poor design was the control room. The control panel was not organized and had hundreds of alarms without any labels. When the accident happened, every single one of them went off and the operators were not able to properly respond. The plant design was a recipe of disaster. It was inevitable that something terrible was going to happen. Luckily it didn’t turn out to be another Chernobyl.
...being held accountable, the city officials themselves were also held accountable because of improper safety regulations. Showing that the city itself should be at fault for not enforcing safety regulations for such things as fire escapes, that were not in working order. These unprecedented circumstances just lay down the blueprint for what is now the correct way to set regulations for industrial factory conditions.
dangers in the nuclear plant because the bosses just ignored it. The bosses and workers are not
This tragic accident was preventable by not only the flight crew, but maintenance and air traffic control personnel as well. On December 29, 1972, ninety-nine of the one hundred and seventy-six people onboard lost their lives needlessly. As is the case with most accidents, this one was certainly preventable. This accident is unique because of the different people that could have prevented it from happening. The NTSB determined that “the probable cause of this accident was the failure of the flightcrew.” This is true; the flight crew did fail, however, others share the responsibility for this accident. Equally responsible where maintenance personnel, an Air Traffic Controllers, the system, and a twenty cent light bulb. What continues is a discussion on, what happened, why it happened, what to do about it and what was done about it.
Rizzo Island is right in the Gulf of Maine, where the capital city of Megatropolis is located at 43°"N -68°”W. It is in the North-Western hemisphere, on the East side of the Atlantic Ocean. It is considered a part of North America and is South of Maine, and West of Nova Scotia. People here have no specific religion, and mostly speak French and English. The flag is rectangular with a giant lobster on it. The reason for this is because lobster is the main money source for Rizzo Island.
The Little Rock Nine. I’m sure for some it rings a bell, but for others it might not. Everyone should know about the Little Rock Nine, because this was a major event in America’s history. This is an event that made America the free land it is today.
Chernobyl was the greatest nuclear disaster of the 20th century. On April 26th, 1986, one of four nuclear reactors located in the Soviet Union melted down and contaminated a vast area of Eastern Europe. The meltdown, a result of human error, lapsed safety precautions, and lack of a containment vessel, was barely contained by dropping sand and releasing huge amounts of deadly radioactive isotopes into the atmosphere. The resulting contamination killed or injured hundreds of thousands of people and devastated the environment. The affects of this accident are still being felt today and will be felt for generations to come.
“On March 23, 2005, at 1:20 pm, the BP Texas City Refinery suffered one of the worst industrial disasters in recent U.S. history. Explosions and fires killed 15 people and injured another 180, alarmed the community, and resulted in financial losses exceeding $1.5 billion.” (U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, 2007) There are many small and big decisions and oversights that led to the incident. Underneath all the specific actions or inaction is a blatant disregard for addressing safety violations and procedures that had been pointed out to BP even years before this event. The use of outdated equipment and budget cuts also contributed to the circumstances that allowed this accident to happen.
I. (Gain Attention and Interest): March 11, 2011. 2:45 pm. Operations at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant continued as usual. At 2:46 pm a massive 9.0 earthquake strikes the island of Japan. All nuclear reactors on the island shut down automatically as a response to the earthquake. At Fukushima, emergency procedures are automatically enabled to shut down reactors and cool spent nuclear fuel before it melts-down in a catastrophic explosion. The situation seems under control, emergency diesel generators located in the basement of the plant activate and workers breathe a sigh of relief that the reactors are stabilizing. Then 41 minutes later at 3:27 pm the unthinkable occurs. As workers monitored the situation from within the plant, citizens from the adjacent town ran from the coastline as a 49 foot tsunami approached. The tsunami came swiftly and flooded the coastline situated Fukushima plant. Emergency generators were destroyed and cooling systems failed. Within hours, a chain of events led to an explosion of reactor 1 of the plant. One by one in the subsequent days reactors 2, and 3 suffered similar fates as explosions destroyed containment cases and the structures surrounding the reactors (Fukushima Accident). Intense amount...
Since the probe, General Motors had created a new post that is charged with responsibility for vehicle safety (Muller, 2013). General Motors terminated sixteen people for their role in not repairing the faulty ignition switch. The mindset throughout General Motors was to retain the bad news and keep it apart from senior supervisors. This was undeviatingly contributed to no effort being taken to remedy the faulty switch. Because of this, General Motors is directly accountable for the graves of 13
It is considered as the worst offshore catastrophe in the world that killed 167 people. This disaster happened due to the explosion and fire of the Piper Alpha platform in the United Kingdom in 1988. The disaster has caused by a combination of different causes including human factors. However, this disaster has led to many changes across the world in the field of safety regulations in order to improve safety in different fields.
Engineers design, build or maintain applications and systems to solve various societal problems. Their behaviors thus have a non-negligible impact on human development. Oftentimes, however, engineers are faced with the dilemma to choose between compromising their code of ethics and threatening their promising careers. It is important that engineers deem public welfare as a supreme concern and stand their ground so that they will report any observed situations that potentially can harm public safety to their superiors. The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) case study is a good example of engineers being responsible with society in that they attempted multiple times to inform their supervisors in management about their concerns with the possible imminent system failure of BART. Even though their voices were ignored and they were fired by the company in the end, they made the passengers realize the probable dangers underneath this regional rail service. Consequently, on October 2nd, 1972, as a result of Automatic Train Control (ATC) failure, a BART train overshot the station at Fremont and wounded several people. In order to prevent these tragic accidents from happening, the BART case needs to be further examined for deeper understanding of the problem. This paper will use deontological ethical framework to address the cause of BART train system failure and recommend feasible plans to avert similar tragedies from occurring in the future to BART employees. Therefore, not only engineers, but also managers and board of directors should be educated about ethics and should be familiar with basic technical knowledge regarding their business.
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
The filing system flaws were only part of the problem. The other part was the safety procedure conducted by the maintenance team. If the pipe was secured no leak would have happened and therefore the first explosion would have at least been minimised and contained.
On April26, 1986, the nuclear power plant was exploded in Chernobyl, Ukraine. At 1:23 AM, while everyone were sleeping, Reactor #4 exploded, and 40 hours later, all the city residence were forcefully moved to other cities, and they never return to their home. The Chernobyl disaster is ranked the worst nuclear accident. The Chernobyl nuclear power plant was ran by the Soviet Union central nuclear energy corporation. (International Atomic Energy Agency-IAEA, 2005)
An industrial accident could be defined as a domino accidental event in which the severity of the domino accident would be higher or on par with the initial event. Here, the leading cause of the gas leak was attributed to the presence of copious amount of water that flowed into tank 610. A runaway reaction started almost instantaneously as materials interacted with contaminants, high temperatures and other factors. As domino effect unfolds, particularly in a tight coupling industry, a disaster would result. In this case, Bhopal disaster occurred and worsened as the increasing congestion within industrial complexes coupled with high population density in close proximity with the Bhopal