Safety Moment #57: Equipment Spacing (Pumps/Fireproofed Pipe Racks) described the layout of pumps in a process or energy facility. Continuing the discussion, this Safety Moment describes some of the issues to be considered with regard to the layout of storage tanks, sometimes referred to as “API Tanks”.

In any performance-based program such as process safety, the work is never finished — there is always room for improvement.

In practice, most of the developments in techniques for improving safety analysis are improvements of existing programs or techniques. For example, the hazards analysis technique LOPA (Layers of Protection Analysis) has seen widespread application in recent years. Yet it is basically a development of the well-established Fault Tree and Event Tree techniques.

The topic of Management of Change (MOC) is discussed in the following publications:

• Safety Moment #5: Management of Change — Defining Change and
• Safety Moment #67: The Most Important PSM Elements - Management of Change

In this Safety Moment we look more deeply into the distinction between “In-Kind” and “Not In-Kind” changes.

The material in this article to do with risk perception is taken from the book Process Risk and Reliability Management.

Risk perception is fundamentally a subjective matter; no matter how hard analysts strive to make the topic objective the fact remains that, as Oscar Wilde  (1854-1900) once said, A truth ceases to be a truth as soon as two people perceive it. 

This Safety Moment has been updated. It is now The Process Safety Professional. Part 9: That Sinking Feeling.