NASA, BSEE Announce Agreement to Examine Risk Offshore

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Mar 17, 2016, 12:40 ET

HOUSTON, March 17, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) have announced a five-year agreement allowing BSEE to capitalize on the best risk management approaches from the aeronautics industry to inform stakeholders and further strengthen worker and environmental safety protections on the Outer Continental Shelf.

"Both BSEE and NASA work in harsh and uncompromising environments, relying on cutting edge technology to go deeper and further than previously thought possible," said BSEE Director Brian Salerno. "This partnership brings together technical experts from BSEE and NASA to focus on the specific risks associated with offshore operations so that we can continue to find ways to improve safety for offshore workers and protect the environment."

Under the agreement, NASA will assist BSEE in further developing BSEE's risk management capability through the use of NASA's probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) technique; evaluating, designing and testing technologies and hardware, including emerging technologies and best available and safest technologies, and assessing failures and near miss occurrences using NASA's accredited failure analysis laboratory at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

NASA uses probabilistic risk assessment to quantitatively model risk for human spaceflight, including the International Space Station, and Orion deep space exploration spacecraft, and the Space Shuttle Program.

"Whether the mission takes one to deep space, or into the deep ocean, the analysis of the environment, training of personnel and risk mitigation methods are similar. NASA is pleased to work with BSEE, as we endeavor to learn best practices from each other," said Jack James, technology transfer strategist at Johnson.

For more information about NASA and its programs, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/content/benefits-on-earth

For more information about Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement and its programs, visit:

http://www.bsee.gov/International-and-Interagency-Collaboration/Interagency/index/

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SOURCE NASA