Health and Safety
Executive / Commission
Nuclear
LLC reports
The 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 covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at Dounreay. These reports are distributed quarterly. Site Inspectors of HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate attend the Dounreay Stakeholder Group meetings and will be happy to respond to any questions raised there. Any person wishing to inquire about matters covered in this report should contact the HSE, Nuclear Directorate on 0151-951-3484/3290.
This report will be put onto the HSE Website under ‘Local Liaison Committee Reports’ at www.hse.gov.uk/nuclear/llc/index.htm
1. Site Inspectors and Specialist Inspectors visited Dounreay on the following dates:
16 th – 20 th January, 23 rd – 26 th January, 1 st – 3 rd February,
27 th February – 2 nd March, 6 th – 10 th March, 13 th – 16 th March,
20 th – 23 rd March
2. Dr Mike Weightman, the NII Chief Inspector, visited Dounreay in February and met with senior site staff and the lead Trade Union Safety Representatives. Dr Weightman visited the Dounreay Fast Reactor, the Dounreay Cementation Plant, the Materials Test Reactor Reprocessing Plant, the Wet Silo and the Shaft.
3. Compliance inspections were undertaken against a number of the Licence Conditions. No major issues were raised. An inspection for compliance with the Environmental Impact Assessment (Decommissioning Reactors) Regulations (1999) was also undertaken for the three Dounreay Reactors.
4. NII Specialist Inspectors continue to assess the relatively high safety category decommissioning projects at DFR (ie. NaK disposal and breeder/fuel removal) with a view to permissioning these projects in due course.
5. Inspection of a plant emergency exercise showed improved application of contamination control techniques and enhanced command and control at the Forward Control Point since the NII witnessed the May 2005 annual site exercise.
6. UKAEA has discussed with NII proposals to reduce the size of the Dounreay emergency planning zone. The review of the Hazard Identification and Risk Evaluation required by Radiation Emergency Preparedness and Public Information Regulations(REPPIR) 2001, has shown that the reduced level of radiological hazard on the site, as a consequence of the termination of operations and the onset of decommissioning, indicates that the size of the emergency planning zone could be reduced. NII will hold further discussions with UKAEA on these proposals during the next quarter.
7. NII continues to engage with UKAEA on the Dounreay Site Restoration Plan. UKAEA has now agreed to revert to the previous agreed dates for starting encapsulation of PFR raffinates. NII has not agreed to any changes affecting timing of waste retrievals from the Shaft and Silo. UKAEA had committed to starting retrievals in 2011 and 2014 respectively, but is now proposing to start retrievals from both facilities in 2019.
8. NII continues to monitor the progress in decommissioning of the Dounreay reactors and has liaised with UKAEA in changes to Regulatory Milestones which are to be included in the Lifetime Plan 2006.
9. Resource constraints within NII have continued to prevent close out of the medium term recommendations of this audit.
10. NII agreed to UKAEA’s proposal to restructure its Dounreay Division on 12 th January and has monitored preparations for the change throughout the quarter. NII will be monitoring the effects of the changes introduced on April 1 st.
11. No events have occurred during the quarter that met the Ministerial reporting criteria, and no improvement notices were issued during the period of this report. NII gives updates to the Dounreay Stakeholder Group on progress of any significant recommendations from either its own or UKAEA’s investigations. In addition, UKAEA has a database of incidents and their progress for close out of recommendations, is inspected regularly by NII.
12. On 20 th January, two persons who had made entries to the pond area of this plant were found to be contaminated. NII reviewed the UKAEA investigation and considered that whilst the radiological consequences of this event were not serious, there were a number of causes underlying the event that required attention. Consequently, NII has sought an action plan from UKAEA to ensure that appropriate levels of control are maintained over similar operations carried out on the site.
13. Following the spillage of a batch of MTR raffinate onto a cell floor, in September, NII served two Improvement Notices on UKAEA . The first Notice related to necessary improvements in training : UKAEA provided an adequate response to this by the end of March. The second Notice relate d to improvements to operating instructions and in the control of modifications to plant. UKAEA needs to comply with this Notice by the end of June 2006. NII continues to monitor decontamination activities to ensure that any radiation exposure to workers is as low as reasonably practicable.
14. During inspection activities to follow up the discovery of a corroded mild steel container in the Fissile Material Store, UKAEA informed NII that another container displayed similar evidence of corrosion on its interior surface. UKAEA has set up a working group to consider the implications of these findings. NII Inspectors have held discussion with UKAEA on the strategy for dealing with these containers in order to ensure that appropriate action is taken as soon as reasonably practicable.
15. The Inspectorate has powers under the licence to issue Consents, Approvals and Directions. In addition, the Inspectorate uses Licence Instruments to issue Specifications, Acknowledgements, and Agreements under either the conditions attached to the Licence, or arrangements made by UKAEA for complying with those conditions.
16. A Licence Instrument has been issued agreeing to the Dounreay reorganisation under Licence Condition 36(1).