Major Accidents Due to the Impact of Natural Events on Technological Systems

Many accidents in chemical process plants are caused by natural events. These so-called Natech accidents can result in hazardous-materials releases due to the extended damage to process and storage units. In order to improve our understand-ing of the dynamics of Natech events and to support future prevention and mitigation efforts, past accidents triggered by earthquakes, floods and lightning were retrieved from industrial accident databases and the collected information was analyzed. Our results indicate that pipelines and storage tanks are the most affected equipment items. In addition to toxic dispersions, fires and explosions, water contamination was also identified as a possible final scenario in the case of floods.JRC.G.7-Traceability and vulnerability assessmen