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Explosives Safety Risk Assessments at Ports
Brandon Fryman; A-P-T Research, Inc.; Huntsville, Alabama, USA
Deb Satkowiak; Institute of Makers of Explosives; Washington, D.C., USA
Bill Evans; A-P-T Research, Inc.; Huntsville, Alabama, USA
Jorge Flores; A-P-T Research, Inc.; Huntsville, Alabama, USA
Keywords: Quantitative Risk Assessment, Ports, Explosion Effects and Consequences, Risk-
based siting, TP-14, IMESAFR
Abstract
Ports in the U.S. and around the world are integral components of the global explosives supply
chain. Ports are utilized for the shipment of both commercial and military explosives. Ships used
in explosives transport could carry large amounts (millions of pounds) of explosives into ports.
Often, the large amounts of explosives these ships carry make it impossible to meet the
quantity/distance (QD) rules in place in ports around the world. The shipment of explosives
through ports cannot simply come to a halt because of national and global dependence on the
explosives products. One possible solution to this problem is to use a quantitative risk
assessment (QRA) to determine the level of safety at a port instead of QD rules. Once a QRA is
completed, there must be a level of acceptable risk (risk criterion) that a governing body will
accept to allow port operations to continue.
Guidelines for conducting a QRA at a port, and various risk criteria and their applicability to
ports are discussed in this paper.
Introduction
Explosive QRAs are designed to quantify the risk of harm to people and assets from explosive
operations. QRAs are becoming increasingly more common in the explosives industry and are a
method, in addition to historic QD methodology, for determining the safety of explosive
operations. Examining the risk for unloading and loading of explosives at ports using a QRA is
more complex than a traditional QRA but provides a valuable tool for determining if the risk at
these operations is acceptable.
In recent years, several ports have used QD rules to eliminate or reduce explosives shipments
through the ports because of the presence of people in close proximity to where explosives
operations would occur. This trend of reducing the amounts of explosives allowed through a
port, or closing ports to explosives entirely, is counterproductive to the growing need for
more/larger shipments of explosives. When ports are closed to explosives, or significant
reductions of explosives materials are mandated, system wide safety and security risk exposure is
greatly increased by causing more ships to travel to some ports, with more frequent loading and
unloading operations. In many cases, a reduction in net explosive weight (NEW) may render a
port no longer economically feasible for commercial explosives shipments. If companies switch
