North Sea oil rigs spill safety software keeps crashing - no one cares?

[auroraglacialis]

Ok, that was not the intention.

To clarify - the program is one that does not run for several days in case of an event, but rather simulates the development of an oil spill under certain conditions (though I cannot say if that simulation runs several hours, days or weeks to produce the model). That simulation covers several days (virtual). The simulation should predict the effect of a period long enough to ensure, that after that time, the spill has ended. This program does not just fail occasionally, but consistently crashes if it tried to model enough days. As a result, they simply accepted a 14 day period as sufficient.

The reason this is worrysome is, that this is also part of a risk assessment for a oil rig. Let's say you want to build an oil rig near the coast and there is a wildlife reservation there. A simulation then can predict, if there is a threat to the reservation due to a spill or if the situation turns out to be manageable. If the spill goes on for a longer time than the model, it is unknown if after these 14 days, the oil will reach the reservation or the situation evolves into one that is harder to manage by emergency protocols. Simply put, you want to know what is happening to the oil in a spill up to the point the spill is over. And what worries me most is, that governments who claim to be spokespersons of the general public and environmental interests do not take such things seriously enough to delay "development" on these grounds.