SAFEX Newsletter No.35 - EU-Excert

SAFEX Newsletter No.35, 4 th Qtr. 2010 6
member or outside organisation
that may be able to contribute
training material. To that end
SAFEX was delighted when the
Chemring Group, the KEMEK
organisation by way of Ulster
Industrial Explosives, Cranfield
University and the Competence
Centre of Energetic Materials
(KCEM) agreed to participate. .
Representatives from most of these
organisations met outside London
for 3 days towards the end of
October. The Workshop agreed a
preliminary outline for the course
comprising 8 modules to be
presented over 4 or 5 days.
A further Workshop will be held in
San Diego prior to the Board
meeting at the beginning of
February next year.
What will the course cover?
A principle which the Workshop adopted is that the Course is not a general management course; there are enough of
those on the market. This Course must focus on the important things managers must know to be effective in an
explosives operation; those things that are unique to explosives
Based on their collective experience, the results of the Strategy Survey and the origin of many reported explosives
incidents, the Workshop identified the following as key issues that such a Course must cover:
• Explosives regulations – an overview of the general principles involved
• Basis of safety and good explosives practices
• Risk management – the essentials in an explosives context
• Permit to Work – decontamination and understanding the essentials of a good system
• Management of Change – implementing change in processes, plant and procedures responsibly
• Materials management including disposal of explosives – how to handle raw materials, semi-products,
products, contaminated material, out-of-spec materials and waste
• Emergency Response and Crisis Management. – what to do when things go wrong in order to minimise the
consequences (business and other)
• Incident Reporting and Investigation including near-events - why it is important (incident prevention);
investigation tools; use of the SAFEX database
It is proposed to cover each of these aspects in a module and that the 8 modules will be presented over a period of 4
to 5 days.
The Course must provide participants with the knowledge and skills to lead explosives operations under their
control safely and in the best interest of their businesses. Above all, we want participants to return to their jobs as
more effective managers. We need them to say this course was one of the better, if not the best, training/education
experiences of their career.
Congress chat
The XVII SAFEX Congress in 2011 will take place during the week Monday, 23 May to Saturday, 28 May 2011
in Istanbul, Turkey. The planning framework for the Congress was communicated to members in Congress
Bulletin No.1 which we distributed in March. At the end of April we issued Bulletin No.2 in which we called for
Congress Papers and requested prospective authors to submit Abstracts by the end of June. Bulletin No.3 outlined at
the end of August the Congress Programme in order to give members an indication of what to expect if they attend
this Congress. This was followed by Bulletins No.4 and No.5 in which prospective delegates were informed of
accommodation arrangements and how to register. This Newsletter elaborates on those arrangements
.
Please contact the Secretariat for copies of the Bulletins if you are interested in them.
You can help, please!
We have tried to send out the hotel reservations and Congress registration information earlier for this Congress than
previous times. If delegates wait till the last minute before making reservations or registering, it makes planning the
Congress more difficult.
You can help us if you make your hotel Reservation and Register for the Congress sooner rather than later.