Criteria for risk decision-making process related to hazardous installation: a French experience

Chemical process industry gathers critical infrastructures since chemical plants represent for the society both an instrument to generate activity and benefits (production of goods, employment, services...), and an instrument that can harm people and the environment. This paper describes the risk assessment approach led in France for licensing the hazardous installation, in particular those covered by the Seveso II directive and the implication for land-use planning. The first part explains why the French risk assessment procedure is based on the quantitative evaluation of major accident scenarios with explicit criteria, and only on qualitative analysis of the risk reduction measures without explicit criteria. The second part shows some on-going evolutions in the formal definition of criteria to make the analysis of the safety barriers