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Hazmat trains travel across the country since railroads exist…what are the risks

In follow-up of this post. Hazmat trains travel across the country since railroads exist…what are the risks? Accident b1) Each year various accidents occur, limited casualties occur, they are reported in local to national media, as “minor” accidents. For example CN train hauling dangerous goods derails near Clair, Saskatchewan or the two Union Pacific locomotives hitting head on, in Hoxie, Arkansas. Accident b2) One major, catastrophic accident occurs, a vivid one with “unthinkable” consequences (Lac Megantic, for example) Hazmat trains travel across…

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Identical single accidents’ consequences can lead to diverging societal impacts: where lies the difference?

Identical single accidents’ consequences can lead to diverging societal impacts Let’s discuss, as we mentioned in the prior post, different accident types, with identical or very similar single-accident direct consequences, but very different global impacts, which may generate surprisingly different public reactions. The discussion will include the classification of the “German” metaphors. Incidentally, we have found one non German document entitled “Blackett Review of High Impact Low Probability Risks ”, by the U.K. Government Office for Science, that refers to…

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First level mitigation of some personal and business cyber-risks

Personal and business cyber-risks Riskope thanks Paige Calahan for this contribution It is amazing to see that so many private users, small business, but sometimes even sizeable companies are far behind in basic mitigation of cyber-risks. As a business owner, you’ve put in a considerable amount of proverbial blood, sweat and tears to launch your operations. Now that your business is up and running and doing well, the last thing you want is for some sort of privacy leak or…

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“Rischi” d’impresa e fuga dei talenti

Riskope ringrazia Federico Fontolan per questo interessante contributo. Osservando il Risk Management Survey 2013 redatto da Aon sulla base dei risultati di un’indagine effettuata tra 1415 società in 70 paesi, possiamo notare come nella top ten dei “rischi d’impresa” figurino “rischi” quali la crisi economica, l’incertezza politica e, con grande rilievo perché al quinto posto assoluto, il “rischio” di perdere o non saper trattenere i talenti.  La fotografia che ne deriva è molto interessante perchè sintomatica dell’evoluzione che ha avuto…

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Tailing and Mine Waste 2014 conference entitled “Risk Assessment and Decision Making for Tailings Facilities”

The course emphasys was on risk assessment methodologies, but we included many failures case studies such as the recent Mount Polley (based on public data) and a view on perpetuity. The subject of perpetuity was the focus of our paper at this conference (also with Jack) entitled “Risk Assessment of the Long Term Performance of Closed Tailings Facilities”. Having practiced risk management for over 20 years, we strongly believe in rational and well conceived Risk Assessments and also here. So when…

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Metaphoric description of risks and their perception: are they useful or just “wordplays”?

Metaphoric description of risks and their perception A couple decades ago, German researchers in the field of theoretical risk management developed a series of metaphors to describe public perception of risks. They are summarized below, with examples: Sword of Damocles has a very high disaster potential, although the probability that this potential manifests itself is theoretically extremely low. Nuclear power plants (Fukushima), large-scale chemical facilities (Bophal, Seveso), hydro-dams and meteorite impacts are typical examples. Cyclops it is only possible to…

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