Quantification of Risk and Risk Acceptance Criteria in Indian Context

Quantitative Risk Analysis (QRA) is today well accepted in the process industries as a tool for identifying the risks and hazards associated with the process to assess their tolerability and to identify opportunities for risk reduction, which can be evaluated for cost-benefit. For a QRA study to be useful the methods and tools adopted for the quantification of risk and its assessment are key. This paper presents the methods and tools developed, which have found international acceptance for the purpose. However, the numbers produced by a QRA study are of no inherent use in themselves. It is the assessment of those numbers that allows conclusions to be drawn and recommendations to be developed; and which is of prime importance in providing value from a QRA study. The quality of a risk assessment depends on the availability of appropriate and well-defined risk acceptability criteria. While no criteria have been laid down by the Indian authorities, a review has been made of such criteria in use in other countries. The derived criteria from review have been used for a number of QRA studies in the Indian context, specifically for environmental clearance.