Lessons From the Three Musketeers
Mining, oil refining, offshore drilling, chemical manufacturing, power generation. These are all capital-intensive industries where accident consequences are potentially high, even if accident likelihood is quite low. At least to the public, the sensational nature of potential accidents—explosions, nuclear meltdowns, gaseous releases—ascribe to these industries a higher degree of responsibility in terms of avoiding accidents.
The nuclear industry came to grips with this reality after the 1979 Three Mile Island accident. Regulatory oversight got stronger, the industry instituted a self-policing organization to enhance its commitment to safe operation and, over time, public confidence slowly recovered. It wasn’t easy, it wasn’t painless and the results weren’t immediate. Still, the fact is that there hasn’t been a nuclear plant accident in the past 30 years.
The lessons learned from Three Mile Island and from the resulting industry and regulatory response hold particular relevance in the aftermath of the recent disasters at the Upper Big Branch coal mine owned by Massey Energy and at the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil well owned by BP.
