On 2 December 1973 three documents were presented to the Management Committe of Union Carbide Eastern Inc, a subsidiary of Union Carbide Corporation: a two-page internal memorandum relating to the company’s plan to begin manufacturing methyl-isocyanate at its Bhopal factory; supported by a four-page capital budget plan and a forty-four page project proposal. The plan called for the use of “unproven technology” in the highly hazardous MIC unit. Despite the misgivings and warnings of design engineers, this was deemed to be “an acceptable risk”.
Exactly eleven years later – on the night of December 2nd 1984 – Carbide’s unproven technology, functioning badly in a by then run-down and loss-making factory – combined with non-existent staff training, a savage programme of cost-cutting and almost total absence of maintenance – released 27 tonnes of deadly methyl-isocyanate into the night air of Bhopal.
Internal memorandum page 1
Internal memorandum page 2
Capital Budget Plan cover sheet
Capital Budget Plan page 1
Capital Budget Plan page 2
Capital Budget Plan page 3
Project Proposal cover
Project Proposal index
Project Proposal index of schedules
Project Proposal page 1
Project Proposal page 2
Project Proposal page 3
Project Proposal page 4
Project Proposal page 5
Project Proposal page 6
Project Proposal page 7
Project Proposal page 8
Project Proposal page 9
Project Proposal page 10
Project Proposal page 11
Project Proposal page 12
Project Proposal page 13
Project Proposal page 14
Project Proposal page 15
Project Proposal page 16
Project Proposal page 17
Project Proposal page 18
Project Proposal page 19
Project Proposal page 20
Project Proposal page 21
Project Proposal page 21a
Project Proposal page 22
Project Proposal page 23
Project Proposal page 24
Project Proposal page 25
Project Proposal page 26
Project Proposal page 27
Project Proposal page 28
Project Proposal page 29
Project Proposal page 30
Project Proposal page 31
Project Proposal page 32
Project Proposal page 33
Project Proposal page 34
Project Proposal page 35
Project Proposal page 36
Project Proposal page 37
Project Proposal page 38
Project Proposal page 39
Project Proposal page 40
Project Proposal page 41
Project Proposal page 42
Project Proposal page 43
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