DEMOKRITOS is a state owned multidisciplinary research centre, the larger of Greece, performing R&D in the area of physical sciences and technology (www.demokritos.gr). The scientific activities of the centre are organised in eight administratively independent Institutes: Nuclear Physics, Nuclear Technology and Radiation Protection, Materials Science, Telecommunications and Informatics, Microelectronics, Physics/Chemistry, Biology and Radioisotopes and Radio diagnostic Products. DEMOKRITOS employs about 900 permanent and fixed-term-contract employees and its annual turnover is 30 million EURO, 65% from the Greek Government and 35% from third party contracts. Expertise in industrial safety has been developed in the laboratories of Systems Reliability and Industrial Safety Laboratory (SRISL) and Environmental Research Laboratory (EREL), both belong administratively to the Institute of Nuclear Technology and Radiation Protection. SRISL has long experience in quantitative risk assessment of technological systems and risk management, while EREL in Complex Fluid Dynamic dispersion modelling and Hydrogen Safety.

Systems Reliability and Industrial Safety Laboratory (SRISL)

SRISL was founded in 1988 with initial objective the development of an integrated capability for the quantitative risk assessment of large nuclear and non-nuclear systems. The laboratory has contributed to the state-of-the art of system reliability, quantified risk assessment the development of decision support systems with multiple criteria and under uncertainty, land use planning in chemical sites, assessment of human factors for plant safety enhancement and quantified occupational risk assessment. This contribution has been achieved through the participation to over thirty R&D projects partially or totally funded by third party sources including the framework programmes of the European Commission, other international funding organizations, Greek ministries and companies. SRISL is one of the main consultants to the Greek Government in matters related with the safety of industrial installations having the potential to cause a major accident and subject to the SEVESO European Directive. In this capacity the SRISL has either reassessed or analyzed the safety of almost the totality of the Greek industry subject to the SEVESO directive handling LPG, fuels, LNG, ammonia, chlorine and explosives. Recently research and development has been focused in the following areas: a) Decision Support Systems for risk management and emergency response policy selection in major hazard accidents in nuclear and chemical installations, b) Safety enhancement in the process industry through the use of virtual reality tools c) Development of quantified risk models for occupational risks and tools for multicriteria optimization of occupational risk management strategies and d) Quantification of uncertainties in risk analysis.