It’s worth reading about refineries and chemical plants. We’ve all heard of Bhopal and other disasters but it’s worth bearing in mind just how few disasters happen in these fearsomely complex and dangerous plants. Almost all are managed successfully by the private sector.

There was an interview with Jim Radcliffe recently in which he described Ineos’ approach to safety. It’s a variation on what’s described my Steven J. Spears in his case study of Alcoa. The truth is that the private sector has innovated much of what’s best in modern safety practice in a way that has made monumentally dangerous industrial processes routine.

There are perhaps good reasons to keep nuclear weapons management in the public sector. Canards about the safety record of the private sector are not though.