(68b) Concepts for a Toxic Facility Siting Program

Developing a protocol for a toxic facility siting program requires an underlying framework that embodies four concepts. These concepts provide the principles for establishing the basis for using an engineering approach to prove a toxic refuge is safe for the credible release scenario versus a qualitative approach for designing a toxic refuge.

This paper develops the four concepts and highlights how they contribute to the effectiveness of the overall program. The concepts are:

1. The importance of considering the aggregation of risk on a buildings location as well as the individual risk
2. The significance of a centerline dispersion curve and the relationship to the tightness of a safe haven, shelter-in-place building, or toxic refuge building
3. The understanding of the plume shape (not a circle) of the toxic dispersion and the correlation with emergency response planning
4. The interaction between a toxic refuge tightness, the emergency response plan, and the credible scenario

An effective toxic facility siting protocol will encompass elements of all four of these concepts and have in the unexpected case of a toxic releases have the flexibility to react to variations for each of these concepts.