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 Heysham Power Stations’ Local Community Liaison Council (LCLC) and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at Heysham 1 & 2 Nuclear Power Stations. These reports are distributed quarterly and are also available on the HSE’s web site at http://www.hse.gov.uk/nuclear/llc/index.htm. Site Inspectors of HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate attend LCLC meetings and will respond to questions raised there by members of the LCLC. Any other person wishing to inquire about matters covered by this report may contact the HSE’s Nuclear Directorate on 0151-951-3484/3290 .
The Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) Site Inspectors and other inspectors visited Heysham during the quarter; inspections were made on the following days:
| Heysham 1 | Heysham 2 | |
|---|---|---|
| 10, 17, 18, 25 & 26 | Oct 2006 | 24, 25 & 26 |
| 9, 10, 14, 21, 22 & 23 | Nov 2006 | 8, 9, 21, 22 & 23 |
| 12 | Dec 2006 | 12,13 & 14 |
Inspections are undertaken at site as part of the process for monitoring compliance with:
This entails monitoring licensee’s actions on the site in relation to events, operations, maintenance, projects, modifications, safety case changes and any other matters which may affect safety. Many of these areas are covered by the licence conditions and inspections are judged against the requirement for the licensee’s actions to be deemed adequate. In this period routine inspections of both stations covered:
In general the arrangements made and implemented by the stations in response to safety requirements were deemed to be adequate in the areas inspected. However, where improvements were considered necessary, satisfactory commitments to address the issues were made by or are being sought from the licensee, and the site inspectors will monitor progress during future visits. Where necessary, formal regulatory intervention action may be taken to ensure that appropriate remedial measures are implemented to reasonably practicable timescales.
The NII site inspectors attended the Local Community Liaison Council meeting, which took place in the evening on 23 November 2006 at the Heysham Village Institute.
On 22 November a team of NII inspectors observed the level 1 demonstration emergency exercise “LANCE”. The purpose of the exercise was for the station to demonstrate the adequacy of its arrangements for responding to an accident or emergency on the site. The NII judged the exercise to be an adequate demonstration, which also identified valuable learning opportunities that will inform the station's respose to emergencies.
On 10 November Mr Rollinson, (Environment Agency Nuclear Regulator) and the NII Site Inspector inspected the AETP and observed that the station was progressing areas for improvement identified during a previous joint visit in March. The regulators are currently considering a recent letter from the station, which sets out its long-term strategy for sustaining improvements to the AETP.
NII continues to maintain close liaison with the station and British Energy on the issue of BCU integrity. Regular monitoring indicates that the BCUs continue to behave as expected. British Energy has embarked upon an extensive programme to develop addtional techniques to further quantify the condition of BCU components. The station intends to deploy these techniques during forthcoming outages commencing with Reactor 2 refuel in spring 2007.
Commisioner John Spanswick visited the station on 12 December. Mr Spanswick is charged with promoting the construction industry's participation in delivery of the Commission's strategy and programme for safety in the work place. He expressed particular interested in the station's approach to Point of Work Risk Assessment, which he is keen to promote and develop in the construction industry. He shared with the station his own views on the role of human behaviour in securing safety in the work place and the importance of open reporting to maximise the learning following incidents.
A meeting was held on 12 December 2006 between the licensee and NII inspectors to discuss and agree the proposals for work on Reactor 8 during the next outage, due to commence in April 2007. This outage will last 60 days, which will allow significant additional work to be undertaken as part of the efforts by the licensee to improve the material condition of the plant. Inspection of the preparatory phase for the outage has revealed no safety concerns.
A meeting was held with BE staff to review progress against areas for improvement identified following the successful demonstration emergency exercise held in May 2006. NII asked BE to look into the long-term suitability of the radio communications system used on site.
HSE fire surveyors conducted an audit under this newly enacted legislation. In many areas the arrangements made by Station to comply with the legislation were deemed to be adequate. However in the area of maintenance of emergency lighting areas for improvement were identified. The Site Inspector wrote to the Station Director requiring remedial action to be taken in relation to complying with British standards and in managing backlogs of plant defects.
NII site inspectors consider non-routine matters and events that have occurred on the site and examine the Licensee’s response to them. Licensees are required to have arrangements to respond to such matters and NII inspectors judge the adequacy of their response in taking appropriate remedial action and implementing necessary improvements. Matters of particular note considered during the current period include the following:
On 11 October the station reported that it had reduced load on Reactor 2 because measurements indicated a higher than expected temperature local to one of several instruments monitoring the underdome hot box surface metal temperature. The station has prepared a formal safety case, which confirms that the temperature has reduced and demonstrates that Reactor 2 may continue to operate safely at reduced power. The station has confirmed that it is conducting additional safety analysis and will prepare the necessary formal safety documentation to justify any change in operating conditions. The NII Site Inspector continues to monitor the station's response.
On 29 November the station reported that the preparations for routine maintenance of PVCW pumps incorrectly configured the electrical supplies to the in-service pumps in contravention of an operatin rule aimed at protecting against a cable fire. The error was revealed during restoration of the supplies following completion of the maintenance. The station immediatley restored the supplies to their correct configuration and commissioned an investigation to establish the root cause of the incident. The NII Site Inspector is monitoring the station response to this event.
A leak was detected on an underground section of pipework which forms part of an auxilliary cooling system to plant serving reactor 8. This pipework has been isolated and cooling water is being provided by a second installed pipe. Station has provided a safety case to cover this temporary situation whilst it designs and installs a replacement above-ground section of pipework. The new pipework will be commissioned during the planned outage in April 2007. NII will continue to monitor progress with this work.
In this quarter there have been four unplanned reactor shutdowns. Two were as a result of indications of degradation in the condition of bearings on both main electrical generators. The operators decided to manually shutdown each of the reactors in turn to investigate and then to effect necessary repairs. A further manual shutdown of reactor 7 was undertaken to repair a worsening steam leak from pipework in the turbine hall. Whilst repairing this pipework reactor 8 also shutdown automatically, as a result of an operative inadvertently turning off the wrong lubricating oil pump serving the main feedwater pump.
Three of the shutdowns were prudent measures taken by the operators to rectify degrading plant conditions. The circumstances surrounding the automatic shutdown of reactor 8 are still under investigation. Indeed a similar event occurred 12 years ago. NII will monitor the outcome of the investigation to ensure that any lessons emerging are learned by the staff in order to help prevent a further recurrence. During all four reactor shutdowns no operating limits or conditions were exceeded.Under Health and Safety legislation NII Site Inspectors, and other HSE Inspectors, may issue formal documents to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements.
As part of its regulation under nuclear site licence conditions HSE/NII issues regulatory documents, collectively termed Licence Instruments (LI) [1]. LI are formal documents issued under the licence conditions and arrangements, including Consents, Approvals, Directions, Specifications, Notifications, Agreements and Acknowledgements.
Two LI were issued to Heysham 1 during the quarter:
1 Licence Instruments are formal documents issued under the licence conditions and arrangements, including Consents, Approvals, Directions, Specifications, Notifications, Agreements and Acknowledgements.
HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate
Health and Safety Executive
Redgrave Court
Merton Road
Bootle
Merseyside
L20 7HS