Health and Safety
Executive / Commission
Nuclear
LLC reports
This report is issued as part of the Health and Safety Executive's commitment to make information about inspection and regulatory activities relating to the above site available to the public. It is for distribution to members of the Capenhurst Local Stakeholder Group (LSG) and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at the Capenhurst Works. These reports are distributed quarterly and are available also from the Internet at http://www.hse.gov.uk/nuclear/index.htm. Site Inspectors of HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (part of the Health and Safety Executive’s Nuclear Directorate) normally attend LSG meetings and will be happy to respond to questions raised there or subsequently by members of the LSG. Any other person wishing to inquire about matters covered by this report should contact the HSE’s, Nuclear Directorate on 0151-951-3484/3290.
Nuclear DirectorateInspectors from NII visited the site on the following dates:
Each NII Site Inspector has an inspection programme, to inspect the licensee’s compliance against the 36 Nuclear Site Licence Conditions. NII attention is directed particularly towards inspection of the major “cornerstone” licence conditions.
During this quarter, site inspections have been undertaken across a range of the nuclear site licence conditions, including licence condition 11, (emergency arrangements). Two emergency exercises were observed on the site, both of which resulted in an acceptable site performance. Both emergency exercises were observed by a team of NII inspectors, (including an NII specialist health physics inspector). The unannounced exercise on 7 th November was designed to test the licensee’s arrangements for the timely processing of special accident dosimetry, (worn by some of the Capenhurst workforce) at laboratories at Sellafield and Westlakes in Cumbria and successfully demonstrated the ability to promptly assess an accident radiation dose to a plant operator. The annual Level One Emergency Exercise, at which the licensee demonstrated the site wide emergency arrangements to NII, was conducted on 23 rd November.
The site inspector continued to advise the licensee on licence condition 6 regulatory requirements, (relating to documents, records, authorities and certificates) for the planned rationalisation of historic site records.
In respect of licence condition 36, (for the control of organisational change) regulatory advice regarding the need for the licensee to retain adequate “core competence” and “intelligent customer” capabilities was further discussed. The emerging proposals by the licensee for the significant reduction in the site workforce, on completion of the short term decommissioning projects were discussed. A specialist NII inspector provided regulatory advice to the licensee, supporting the site inspector during these site meetings. NII aims to agree appropriate regulatory review and hold points, in relation to the licensee’s proposed site organisational changes, in accordance with licence condition 36 arrangements, early in 2007.
The site inspector reviewed the licensee’s implementation of the licence condition 7 arrangements, (for reporting and investigating events on the site). The licensee was found to have generally been adequately investigating the minor events that had arisen and completing the actions arising from the licensee’s investigations within acceptable timescales.
The implementation of the licence condition 35 arrangements, (relating to the control of decommissioning) for the demolition of lightly contaminated parts of the former Diffusion Plant, was inspected during a plant inspection. Two further plant inspections were also made, noting the continuing good progress being achieved by the licensee, in the safe processing and interim storage of down blended uranic materials, at a separate area of the former Diffusion Plant. The licensee was able to demonstrate effective control of this significant hazard reduction decommissioning work during the NII plant inspections.
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, (NDA), the owner of the site, requires all of its sites to have an integrated ‘Life Time Plan’, for the decommissioning of the site. The site inspector participated in two Regulatory Review meetings, involving NII, the Environment Agency, the licensee and NDA, reviewing the Lifetime Plan, in order to lobby for improvements to safety.
In particular, NII continues to actively press the licensee to develop the options to bring forward the date for the commencement of processing or disposing of the legacy “Hex Tails” uranic and other materials currently stored on site, taking account of wider developments. The licensee has provided the site inspector with some visibility of the ongoing work to review acceleration options. NII was encouraged that the licensee was now actively engaged in reviewing the options to address the “Hex Tails” legacy, with a view to reducing the potential hazard from this legacy material, earlier than currently programmed in the 2006 Lifetime Plan, (such that some acceleration milestones could be specified by the end of March 2007 and any necessary additional work subsequently included in the Lifetime Plan, through the contractual “change control” process, prior to the establishment of a new “parent body organisation” for the licensee, British Nuclear Group Sellafield Limited, in 2008. NII will continue to press for progress to be made by the licensee in the timely reduction of this medium term site hazard.
There continue to be effective working relationships between the regulators, the licensee and the NDA at Capenhurst, which serve the interests of each party.
The site inspector continues to consult with the active site safety representatives during most visits to site. At the request of NII, safety representatives accompanied the site inspector during the plant inspections and the site inspector also participated in a Safety Representatives Forum meeting during this quarter.
The site inspector delivered a presentation, summarising NII activities at the site during the preceding 12 months, to the Local Stakeholder Group members, on 29 th November. The site inspector and the Local Stakeholder Group Chairman met with the licensee to discuss legacy “Hex Tails” disposition acceleration on 7 th December.
None
No regulatory enforcement action was necessary in this quarter.
The Inspectorate has powers under the site licence to issue Consents, Approvals and Directions. In addition, the Inspectorate may use Licence Instruments to issue Specifications, Acknowledgements and Agreements, under either the conditions attached to the Licence, or arrangements made by British Nuclear Group Sellafield Limited, Capenhurst Works, for complying with those conditions.
No Licence Instruments were issued in this period.
BNGSL Capenhurst NII Site Inspector.