Process Safety Management questions for the ASP

Question 1

A chemical plant certified its operating procedures for a covered process as current and accurate eight months ago. Last month the plant replaced a feed pump with a different design and began using a new process chemical. The supervisor proposes leaving the procedures as they are until the next annual certification in four months, since they were certified within the past year. What does the standard require?

1. AUpdate only the sections that affect contractor entry, because changes to equipment and chemicals do not otherwise trigger a procedure review
2. BHold the update until the next refresher training cycle, since procedures are revisited when employees are retrained
3. CReview the procedures now and revise them to reflect the new equipment and chemical, because the review must keep pace with changes and is not tied to the annual certification date
4. DLeave the procedures unchanged until the annual certification, because certification within the past 12 months satisfies the review requirement

Question 2

A plant stores a highly hazardous chemical in three tanks. Tanks 1 and 2 sit side by side in a shared containment dike with no piping between them. The plant's own release analysis shows that a rupture of either one would put the chemical in the other at risk. Tank 3 holds the same chemical at the far end of the site, in a separate area where a release could not involve the other two tanks. How should the employer define the process(es) for applying the PSM standard?

1. ATanks 1 and 2 are separate processes unless the dike is later piped into a common drain header, and Tank 3 is a separate process
2. BTanks 1 and 2 are one process and Tank 3 is a separate process, because Tanks 1 and 2 are located so the chemical could be involved in a potential release
3. CThree separate processes, because none of the tanks is interconnected by piping
4. DAll three tanks are one process, because they hold the same chemical

Question 3

During a contractor crew's maintenance work on a reactor feed line, a valve was left misaligned. The resulting pressure surge could reasonably have caused a catastrophic release of a highly hazardous chemical, but nothing was released. The plant manager forms an investigation team of the operations supervisor, a process engineer who knows the reactor well, and the site safety manager. The contractor's crew members will be interviewed but not placed on the team. What is the problem with this team under the process safety management standard?

1. ANo investigation team is needed, because nothing was released and the event was only a near miss
2. BThe team must include a contract employee, because the incident involved the contractor's work
3. CThe team may include only people from outside the company, so that the investigation stays independent of the plant's own staff
4. DThere is no problem, because the process engineer is knowledgeable in the process and contractor input through interviews is enough