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Part I/Risk-Based Siting Criteria – Current and Future Efforts in Risk Management and Siting Applications
Josephine Covino; Department of Defense Explosives Safety Board; Alexandria, VA, USA
Ming Liu; Naval Facilities Engineering & Expeditionary Warfare Center; Port Hueneme, California, USA
Brandon Fryman; John Tatom and Jorge Flores A-P-T Research, Inc.; Huntsville, Alabama, USA
Jon Chrostowski, ACTA, Inc.; Torrance, California, USA
Keywords: Risk Management, Risk Analysis, Explosives Safety and Munitions Risk Management (ESMRM),
Qualitative and Quantitative Risk Analysis, Risk-Based Siting
Abstract
The U.S. Department of Defense Explosives Safety Board (DDESB) has established Explosives Safety and Munitions
Risk Management (ESMRM) processes. These processes includes qualitative risk management in the acquisition
lifecycle of munitions, and quantitative risk assessment (QRA) for explosives site plan submissions. Both qualitative
and quantitative risk assessment processes approved by the Department of Defense Explosives Safety Board (DDESB)
follow definitive risk management principles and have been applied to the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) title
munitions worldwide. The processes and tools provided by DDESB can be adopted by the DoD Components, Program
Managers and Explosives Safety Professionals to assess the risk associated with all activities related to explosives
safety and munitions operations.
Part I of this paper provides an overview of all the DDESB available processes and tools. It provides overarching
guidance on implementing an ESMRM process in the DoD acquisition lifecycle of munitions. It further looks into the
future of munitions risk management as it applies to explosives safety in the 21
st
Century where weapon systems
development processes are required to streamlined and balance cost, performance, and safety.
Introduction
For the past 20 plus years, the DDESB, which serves as the major explosives safety policy-setting organization for
the U.S. government, has been involved in the development of risk-based management approaches for explosives
safety. These methods are based on significant testing and practical field experiences. The outcomes of the risk-based
methods provide a practically feasible and cost-effective solution when the traditional Quantity-Distance (QD) criteria
cannot be satisfied due to restrictions of the field situations.
Quantity-Distance (QD) criteria have been used as the primary means for the safe siting of facilities for more than 70
years. QD criteria consider only explosives quantity, Hazard Division (HD), and facility type to determine an
explosives safety separation distance (ESSD). Safety professionals recognized that QD could be improved by
considering other factors in the safety analyses to include type of activity, number of people, building construction,
and environment to assess the overall risk of an operation related to ammunition and explosives (AE).
In the late 1990’s, the DDESB recognized the usefulness of risk-based approaches for explosives safety analysis
and
pioneered the explosives safety community to embark on a comprehensive development of a risk-based
methods and tools that would be used to improve explosives safety at large.
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