Nowadays, the most prominent risk assessment techniques are founded on the values of measuring and controlling the
frequency and the consequences of risks in order to assure an “acceptable level” of “safeness” mainly in the lines of environmental,
health and hygiene and port product issues. This paper initially introduces risk assessment approaches within the emerging role of ports.
Thereafter, it qualitatively assesses their potential for ports by discussing issues challenging every safety and security approach within
the maritime industry such as proactiveness, organization, transparency, cost-effectiveness and, when possible, calibration to specific
experiences. Moreover, an empirical study was conducted in order to provide evidence for formal risk assessment for safety and
security in the main Greek port container terminals of Piraeus and Thessaloniki. The empirical research is based on in-depth
semi-structured interviews with the administrations of container terminals. The results include important findings, regarding the
likelihood of appearance of certain risks and their perceived severity in Greek container terminals. The collected answers and their
analysis are also important for confirming the suggested theoretical formal risk assessment framework for ports.