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 Dungeness Site Stakeholder Group (SSG) and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at Dungeness B Power Station. 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) attend LCLC meetings and will be happy to respond to questions raised by members of the LCLC. 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 Directorate
Health and Safety Executive
Redgrave Court
Merton Road
Bootle
Merseyside
L20 7HS
The Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) Site Inspector visited Dungeness B on the following dates during the quarter covered by this report:
Other NII inspectors with specialist technical expertise also visited Dungeness B and other British Energy establishments during the period to support the Site Inspector by performing inspections on specific aspects of the Licensee’s arrangements and nuclear safety case.
Routine planned inspections are carried out throughout the year and enable NII to judge whether a Licensee is complying with the conditions attached to the Nuclear Site Licence, the Ionising Radiations Regulations, and other relevant statutory provisions on a sampling basis. Compliance with the following Licence Conditions was inspected during the period:
In general the station’s arrangements were found to be satisfactory. In those areas where improvements were identified, satisfactory commitments to address the issues were made by the station.
A routine meeting was held with the Trades Unions safety representatives on 13 December 2006.
Meetings were held to discuss progress made of both the Data Protection System (DPS) Replacement project and the Fuel Plug Unit (FPU) Project. Meetings were also attended to discuss the station’s progress against closing out actions placed on it following the NII team inspection of LC 28: Maintenance, Examination, Inspection and Testing in September 2006.
A meeting was attended to review the actions arising out of the 2006 Level 1 demonstration exercise and to plan the 2007 exercise.
As part of their planned inspection site inspectors examine safety-related events that have occurred and the Licensee’s response to them. Generally the Licensee’s internal system for following up events is robust and the appropriate actions are implemented. More noteworthy events followed up during the period include the following:
This incident occurred on 19 July 2006. While diving operations were being carried out at Dungeness B out on the isolated B station cooling water intake structure, a diver had to invoke emergency actions. This involved switching from umbilical air to bottled air when the umbilical became entangled with two guide ropes following turbulence from the adjacent Dungeness A cooling water intake structure. He diver cut both guide ropes and was then manually recovered to the dive vessel. This incident was reported to HSE under RIDDOR. A specialist diving inspector from HSE’s Offshore Division commenced an investigation into this incident on 06 September 2006. HSE has written to the station seeking assurance that steps have been taken to prevent any further such incidents.
Under Health and Safety legislation the Site Inspector, or other HSE Inspectors, may issue formal notices to secure improvements to safety. No such notices were issued during the reporting period.
The Inspectorate has powers under the Licence to issue Consents, Approvals and Directions. In addition the Inspectorate uses Licence Instruments to issue Specifications and Agreements under the conditions of the Licence. These are all called Licence Instruments. No Licence Instruments were issued during the period.