Survey on Dispersion Models for Dangerous Substances

The Seveso II guideline (96/82/EC) of the European Union on the Control of major-accident hazards involving dangerous substances is to be implemented in all European Union member states by February 3, 1999. In Austria this will lead to law adjustments and new regulations on the calculation of safety distances around industrial plants. Such calculations can be done by an approach where worst-case scenarios are defined. Another method is to calculate safety distances by using the probability of a certain accident or damage level. For both of these approaches, a cooperation between experts from government, industry, science and interest groups is necessary.