The MORT programme documented general principles and techniques for managing highly diverse safety risks. These principles and techniques were derived from the best evidence available at the time.

Safety Risk Management

The MORT programme dealt with a broad spectrum of risks including fire, occupational disease, radiological hazard, and nuclear criticality. These risks arose in diverse sectors, ranging from air and road transport to fixed installations and mines. This allowed the MORT programme to acquire know-how in many different settings and to discover general techniques and principles.

The 1973 report from the original MORT project is notable example of this way of working. “MORT, The Management Oversight and Risk Tree, Including systems developed by the Idaho Operations Office and Aerojet Nuclear Company” attempts to document the early work done by Johnson, Nertney and their colleagues. An earlier report by Johnson, “New approaches to safety in industry”, published in 1970 demonstrates a similar style, gathering principles from diverse sources and showing how to apply them in a general way.

During the 1970s and 80’s, many monographs on safety risk management subjects were written-up within the MORT programme. Some of these are already available, and more will follow.