Learning from Industrial Accidents

Accidents can happen during energy production, distribution or consumption. Since the 19^th century, states and industrial stakeholders have learned to analyze their causes. They have developed preventive measures and have drawn up specific legislation.

Pollution response exercise: containment and recovery of oil at sea. Norway, June 2003
© Cedre

What Have Been the Main Energy-Related Industrial Accidents?

Despite all the precautions taken to avoid them, accidents can happen at any stage in the energy sector.

Some of them have been substantial, affecting mines and oil and electricity production sites.

  • In the Courrières coal mine in France in 1906, a firedamp explosion (an explosion of underground gas) caused over a thousand deaths.

  • In 1959, the Malpasset hydroelectric dam in France burst, suddenly releasing 50 million cubic meters of water. This caused 423 deaths and destroyed 155 buildings. 

•  In 1979, a series of technical and human errors caused the partial fusion of the reactor core in the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant (United States). The containment enclosure fully played its role and the immediate radiological consequences for the environment fortunately proved minimal¹.

  • The Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986 caused the direct or indirect death of hundreds of thousands of people in the Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. The accident also discharged a high number of radioactive elements in the atmosphere.

  • The explosion and fire on the Piper Alpha oil platform in 1988 in the North Sea killed 167 people.

  • In 2006, an oil drilling operation in Sidoarjo Indonesia caused a massive discharge of sludge and gas, resulting in the forced displacement of thousands of people and significant material damage - several villages were destroyed.

Accidents can happen at any stage in the energy sector.

  • In Chile, in 2009, part of a geothermal power plant was propelled 60m into the air for reasons that remain unknown. The accident did not cause any fatalities.

  • The production of electricity from wind has also given rise to accidents causing damage to equipment (turbines collapsing, blades becoming detached or breaking).

Other accidents can also happen when energy or electrical resources are being transported or distributed, affecting oil and gas pipelines, oil storage depots or power lines.

  • In 1984, 500 people were killed and 7,000 wounded in Mexico when an LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) tank exploded.

  • In 2004 in Ghislenghien in Belgium, a gas pipeline explosion caused by site machinery killed 24 people and injured 132.

  • In 2009, a oil pipeline rupture on La Crau plain in France spilled 4000 cubic meters of crude oil in a nature reserve.

Oil spills are spectacular accidents that attract a lot of media attention and can happen while petroleum products are being shipped. They cause pollution to seas and coastlines, disrupting flora and fauna. Some oil spills have been particularly huge, like:

  • The Torrey Canyon shipwreck off the British coast in 1967 (120 000 tons of oil spilled into the sea)

  • The Amoco Cadiz shipwreck off the coast of Northwestern France in 1978 (228 000 tons of oil)

  • The Tanio shipwreck off the French island of Batz in 1980 (11 000 tons of oil) 

  • The Exxon Valdez shipwreck off the coast of Alaska in 1989 (180 000 tons of oil)

  • The Erika shipwreck off the coast of Northwestern France in 1999 (10 000 tons of oil)

  • The Prestige shipwreck off the Spanish coast in 2002 (64 000 tons of oil)

  • The oil spill caused by the Deepwater Horizon oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 (the equivalent of 4.9 million barrels of oil leaked in Gulf waters).

Oil spills are the main cause of the presence of hydrocarbons in the sea and on beaches.

False. Ship accidents account for only 10% of oil spills observed in nature. Other spills come from natural flows, land-based plants or voluntary pollution (caused by cleaning ship holds at sea).

Finally, accidents can disrupt energy consumption (ex. electrical short-circuits causing fires).

Preventing Industrial Accidents - Measures and Regulations

Over time, society has learned to protect itself from energy-related industrial accidents by analyzing the causes of previous accidents. There are a variety of causes:

   • Natural factors (ex. lightning, flooding, earthquakes, and the presence of underground gas pockets in mines)

   • Mechanical failure (ex. inadequate equipment, breakdown or blockage of emergency warning systems and power cuts)

   • Dilapidated facilities

   • Human error or vandalism

In Europe at the end of the 19th century, the monitoring of energy production facilities began to be stepped up. Specific measures were put in place to prevent industrial accidents.  

• After the firedamp explosion in Courrières in France, open flame lamps were banned in European mines. Instead, security lamps were introduced, which reduced the risk of igniting pockets of underground gas when extracting coal.

   • After the Malpasset Dam accident in France, engineers gained better understanding of how water pressure can lead to a dam burst.

In 1976, dioxin (a highly toxic chemical compound) leaked from a plant in Seveso in Italy, affecting the health of 37,000 people. This incident spurred European awareness of industrial accident risks, including energy-related accidents, and stricter legislation was drafted. The 1982 Seveso I directive required states and companies to describe and rate plants according to risk level (in relation to their business). This directive stipulates a number of preventive measures that apply in particular to refineries and oil storage depots, coal distillation and gas conversion plants (ex. those that manufacture liquefied petroleum gas). These include:

   • A hazard survey for each industrial site

   • Emergency plans for each plant

   • Restricted urban planning around industrial sites

   • Information for local residents

   • Regular plant inspections by public authorities.

The Seveso I directive was later amended and upgraded to facilitate the standardization of national legislation in the EU. The renamed 1996 Seveso II directive now defines all European industrial risk prevention schemes. In addition, the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island led to work aimed at consolidating plant safety. In the early 1980s, emergency plans were set up in France. Six years later, regular monitoring of changes and a major experimental program (in collaboration with the IRSN in particular) were developed. Today operating conditions are constantly improved². In the post-Chernobyl period, we now see research programs for personal and environmental protection. Since then, four international conventions have been signed³ relating to:

   • rapid notification of nuclear accidents

   • nuclear safety

   • mutual assistance between States

   • management of waste and spent fuel

On March 11, 2011, Japan experienced a powerful earthquake followed by a tsunami. These exceptional geophysical events claimed numerous victims and caused a series of serious accidents at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, including a loss of power and backup generator failures. The cooling circuits shut down and the reactors suffered heat-related explosions and damage. Radioactive material was released into the atmosphere and employees suffered severe irradiation.

This accident relaunched the debate about the safety of nuclear power plants worldwide. In particular, inspection and maintenance improvement initiatives are under investigation; shutting down the oldest reactors is also being considered.

In Europe, industrial accidents cause more casualties than domestic accidents.

False. Thanks to strict preventive measures, industrial accidents are a rare event in Europe. In contrast, tens of thousands of domestic accidents happen every year in EU countries.

   • Upgrading tanker fleets, encouraged by the International Maritime Organization (IMO)

   • Banning dilapidated ships from territorial waters (since 1990 in the United States and since 2002 in the EU)

   • Choosing itineraries and modes of transport that minimize the risk of accidents

   • Regular environmental audits to monitor the impact of oil transportation on natural environments

   • Major oil companies and public authorities pool intervention resources to combat oil spills. In France, for example, the investigation into the Amoco Cadiz accident led in 1979 to the creation of Cedre ¹ (Centre of Documentation, Research and Experimentation on Accidental Water Pollution). This is an association whose members include private stakeholders from the oil sector, state bodies, local authorities, and a number of public research institutes. For more information see the Cedre website or the site "Understanding black tides".

These measures helped reduce the number and size of oil spills between the 1970s and the 2000s. Over this period, the number of large oil spills (over 700 tons of crude released into the sea) decreased eightfold⁵.

Finally, specific measures are applied to reduce the risk of industrial accidents related to energy consumption. For example, European electrical standards for industrial plants have significantly reduced the risk of power failures and therefore fires.

[1]Source IRSN,Three Mile Island

[2]Source IRSN, les enseignements tirés

[3]Source IRSN, les leçons de Tchernobyl

[4]Source Cedre, black tides

[5]Source ITOPF, Handbook 2010