WRC 555 ✓ Most Recent

Risk, the probability of occurrence of an adverse event combined with an estimate of the consequences of that event is inherent in many aspects of human activity. Generally, little thought is given to the personal risks associated with flying and driving. We accept generally those risks because normally they are small and because flying and driving are necessary parts of modern civilization. However, the industrial activities such as generating electrical power, petroleum refining and producing other essential products or services for modern life introduces not personal risk but risk on a potential large scale to industrial facilities, centers of population, financial resources and even corporate survival. The study reported herein was commissioned to explore the possibility of systematizing the process of risk assessment for the purpose of including risk assessment and the consequences of failure in the process of the design of and establishing safety criteria. The scope of the document prepared by Sims and Bush at the request of ASME is extremely broad. The authors selected for the project were senior, highly respected engineers with broad backgrounds in design, fabrication and safety criteria. The scope of their report was extremely broad as they sought to gain a complete picture of the various approaches to risk assessment in all regulated aspects of human endeavor. This WRC Bulletin fully records how they arrived at their conclusions and recommendations. See more