Institution news
With this in mind, the Institution's Hazardous Substances seminar will outline the safety and regulatory requirements for multiple transportation methods and substance types for organisations to reduce risk of incidents and reputational damage. Chairing the upcoming seminar and also the Institution’s Safety and Reliability Group, we spoke with Pete Stewart at Hydrock to better understand the challenges facing engineers to achieve compliance.
Q: Please could you briefly explain your role, involvement and experience with regards to hazardous goods.
Pete Stewart [PS]: I have spent over 30 years in various engineering roles in high hazard industries ranging from defence to nuclear power and oil and gas both on and offshore but the transport of hazardous goods is an area where I have less experience and I would like to change that. I will Chair this important seminar in my role as the current Chair of the IMechE’s Safety & Reliability Group.
Q: What are the main engineering challenges facing the industry at the moment?
PS: I believe that the size and nature of the transported packages is growing ever larger and more complex whilst the threat form terrorism and accident consequences is growing also.
Q: What key topics are you excited to discuss?
PS: I am interested to understand what development have been made in the field of safety justification and whether there are important lessons we might bring to the wider safety assurance world.
Q: What are the most common gripes you hear from your colleagues?
PS: The cost of any safety justification is always increasing and that it becomes disproportionate in the demands placed upon the engineering.
Q: Who else are you most interested in hearing from on the programme?
PS: As the Chair I’m looking forward to hearing from all our speakers and as noted elsewhere I am not allowed to have favourites but my background is a nuclear engineering one so perhaps my sympathy lies elsewhere for this event in areas where I have less experience.
Q: What are your top tips when tackling a new challenge involving hazardous substances transport, packaging or storage?
Always understand the true extent of the hazard and the consequences of any failure.
Q: Why is it important for engineers to join this seminar?
PS: As professional engineers we must never stop learning and developing new skills and perhaps understanding that best practise in what ever engineering domain is worth sharing.
Q: What developments are you most interested in for the future and why?
PS: I am interested in the developing interest in the cyber security aspects of the safety assurance world and what that might bring to the world of transporting hazardous goods across all industry sectors.
Hazardous Substances: Ensuring Safe and Compliant Transport takes place on 24 September 2019 in London.
Attend to get an update on the latest regulation changes to ensure that your containing, loading, testing for transportation processes are compliant. Mitigate risk of potential incidents by gaining best practice from the key engineering organisations handling hazardous materials. To find out more details and book please visit the event website.