Safety in the Process Industries

Guiding Principles to the Implementation of IEC-61508

SIPI Functional Safety Database Reaches Critical Mass
August 03

The European Community Framework V funded project, Guiding Principals to the Implementation of IEC61508, SIPI61508, held the ninth of its twelve European workshops, in Paris, France 17th September 2003. This one-day workshop hosted by Bureau Veritas and Ineris was attended by fifty-one practitioners drawn from a wide range of process industry organizations within France.

The one-day focus group combined both breakout sessions in addition to five presentations.

The attendees were welcomed by Michel Suzan from BVI and Philippe Villeneuve de Janti from Ineris in their roles as TLG members. Exera also supported the event. Stuart Nunns provided an overview of the SIPI project and the proposed web schema.

Our keynote presentation was delivered by Bruno Cahen from the (Ministère de l’Ecologie et du Développement Durable, a regulatory authority within France. They have developed a methodology and scheme outlining how to implement the standard into the industry and have a number of supporting documents covering Methodology of risk and Guideline and analysis of risk. Bruno commented that there is a big gap between the theory and practical aspects of risk reduction and tolerability.

Patrick Teixeira from Bureau Veritas provided a summary of the CEI61508 / CEI61511and their convergence on certain crucial points, e.g. applicative SW, techniques and measures. This was followed by ‘IEC 61508 Conformity Assessment of a Safety IR Barrier for Dangerous Storage’ presented by Sebastien Bouchet who works within the Accidental Risks Direction Department of Ineris.

In keeping with our generic programme model, we included the well-tried breakout groups tasked with identifying their top five issues, taken from each individual attendees top five points.

Intermingled with our breakout sessions further presentations were delivered by Benjamin Nicolas, Bureau Veritas and E. Fae, Certification Directorate, Ineris. The former covered ‘A Practical Implementation of IEC 61508 within the Power Generation Industry: Turbine Over-Speed Protection and Functional Safety’ and the latter ‘Implementation of IEC 61511: A Practical Method Developed by the European Project ARAMIS for SEVESO Plants’. To provide a background for comparison the situation in with other European countries Chris Birtles presented a summary of the proceedings at previous workshops.

These presentations provided a further insight into many of the issues faced within France with respect to regulation and compliance with the standard. The workshop will provide an opportunity for delegates to investigate the issues and difficulties associated with the implementation of IEC61508 and IEC61511, and to discover solutions and approaches being adopted elsewhere in Hungary and Europe.