Course description
In Explosion at the DuPont Buffalo Facility, you'll learn ...
- What caused a deadly explosion at the Dupont Buffalo plant
- How faulty design assumptions contributed to the incident
- Shortcomings in the plant’s procedures and work permit process
- Steps that should have been taken immediately prior to and during hot work, which could have prevented the explosion
Overview
Credit: 1 PDH
Length: 17 pages
On November 9, 2010, hot work being performed on a tank at the DuPont Yerkes plant in Towanda, NY (near Buffalo, NY) set off an explosion that killed one worker and injured another.
The work being performed that day involved repairing the weld on an agitator support mounted at the top of the tank. The repair involved a simple fillet weld, which did not penetrate the tank shell. And the tank had been used for decades to store what engineers thought was “only a slurry basically made up of water”. Nonetheless, the welding repair work ignited an explosion inside the tank.
In this course, you’ll learn what caused the explosion in Slurry Tank #1 at the Dupont Buffalo plant. We’ll review the polyvinyl fluoride (PVF) production process at the plant and how faulty design assumptions contributed to the accident. You’ll see how mistakes, shortcomings and human error in the plant’s maintenance practices, operational decisions, start-up procedure, management of change (MOC) process and work permit process led to the explosion.
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Upcoming start dates
Who should attend?
Certificate of Completion
You will be able to immediately print a certificate of completion after passing a multiple-choice quiz consisting of 10 questions. PDH credits are not awarded until the course is completed and quiz is passed.
Training content
This course teaches the following specific knowledge and skills:
- What is polyvinyl fluoride (PVF), how it is made and what it is used for
- The dangers associated with components used in the PVF production process
- The risks inherent with welding, brazing and other hot work activities
- Why it is important to check for explosive atmospheres prior to hot work – even with seemingly benign containers, tanks and vessels
- Faulty assumptions made in the process hazard analysis (PHA) during the project’s design phase
- Errors, shortcomings, and bad decisions made in the days and weeks leading up to the accident
Costs
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