Newcastle University

Project:

POP & C - Pollution Prevention and Control

From January 2004 to December 2006
Project Leader(s): Dr Jonathan Downes
Contact: jonathan.downes@ncl.ac.uk
Sponsors: European Commission
Partners: INTERTANKO (Coordinator), Norway; Universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde; Bureau Veritas, France; SIREHNA, France; Centre of Maritime Technologies, Germany; National Technical University of Athens, Greece; Stocznia Gdynia S.A., Poland; STC-Maritime Simul
Homepage: http://www.pop-c.org

The project intends to deliver a framework and suitable tools for a methodological assessment of risk to be undertaken to provide a rational basis for making decisions pertaining to the design, operation, and regulation of oil tankers. Such support can be used to make more informed decisions, which in turn will contribute to reducing the likelihood and severity of future oil spills.

The School of Marine Science and Technology (MAST) is the leader of the structural reliability work package which considers the effects of damage on the global and local structure of the ship in order to develop the probability of the loss of the vessel due to structural failure. In addition, MAST is analysing the consequences of an oil spill for the purposes of comparison of different ship designs and investigating post-accident mitigation and control measures. Project results are very encouraging with much information about the type and severity accidents, the design and operation of oil tankers, and the impact of regulations, being disseminated through both the project website and published papers.