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 sites available to the public. It is for distribution to members of the AWE Local Liaison Committee (LLC) and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at Aldermaston and Burghfield. 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 attend LLC meetings and will be happy to respond to any questions raised there by members. Any other person wishing to enquire about matters covered by this report may contact HSE’s Nuclear Directorate on 0151-951-3484/3290.
A total of 22 NII inspectors visited the Aldermaston and Burghfield sites during the quarter. The HSE Deputy Chief Executive (Policy) visited the AWE sites on 1 March 2007. There were visits from other HSE inspectors in relation to conventional safety, and explosives.
| January | 10,11,15, 22, 23, 24, 25, 30 and 31 |
|---|---|
| February | 1, 2, 6, 7, 19, 20, 21 and 22 |
| March | 1, 6, 14, 15, 19, 20, 21 and 22 |
Inspections are undertaken for the purpose of monitoring compliance with (i) the conditions attached by HSE to the nuclear site licences, and (ii) other relevant provisions of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, including the Ionising Radiations Regulations 1999. In this period routine inspections included:
The Deputy Chief Executive (Policy) visited the AWE nuclear licensed sites on 1 March 2007. A tour of the Aldermaston site was undertaken followed by brief visits to A45, Hydrodynamics area and Burghfield. A short meeting with representatives of the TU side and safety representatives was also held.
The NII has endorsed the AWE NESP which identifies to key stakeholders the principal areas of the forward programme that contribute to safety improvements and risk reduction. The purpose of the NESP is to define the sequence and relative priority of these activities which range from improvements to physical infrastructure to improvements to corporate management systems. A “flexible permissioning” approach is being adopted to ensure efficient delivery of the improvements. This is supported by early engagement between NII and AWE to enable future facilities, modifications to current facilities and the supporting Safety Cases to be developed with optimal process and engineered solutions.
To facilitate progress of company-wide regulatory issues NII together with AWE and other stakeholders have set up a monthly Corporate Issues Regulatory Interface Meeting. This forum prioritises and allocates issues to AWE and Regulator representatives for their resolution and subsequent endorsement by the meeting. This provides an auditable process for managing corporate issues in an effective and efficient manner.
NII completed assessment work in support of an AWE submission on contained hydrodynamic trials and issued a Licence Instrument consenting to the trial.
In accordance with its nuclear site licence, AWE submitted a Periodic Review of Safety (PRS) for A45 - one of its older operational facilities. The purpose of the PRS is to carry out an extensive review of the facility against modern standards and identify reasonably practicable improvements which should be carried out on a timely basis. The PRS submission was received in March 2007, significantly later than programmed. Assessment has commenced and a number of supporting documents have been requested in order to determine the adequacy of the submission. NII will complete its assessment of the PRS by March 2008 and make a decision on the suitability of A45 for future operations.
Assessment of the PRS is continuing.
AWE has submitted a proposal for the conditioning of Intermediate Level Waste into a passively safe form. The proposal encompasses supercompaction of the waste and its encapsulation using cement. The proposal has been made a regulatory requirement by the issuing of Licence Instrument No. 511 under the Nuclear Site Licence requiring 1000 feed drums to have been conditioned by February 2014. This supersedes Licence Instrument No. 49.
NII completed its assessment of the use of plasma arc cutting in decommissioning of the box bay line. A Licence Instrument was issued agreeing to the activity. Where the technique can be utilised it is anticipated that this will aid radiation dose minimisation by reducing cutting times and hence personnel exposure.
A number of meetings have taken place to agree the timing and scope of the demonstration emergency exercise which is planned to be held on the evening of 21 May 2007.
NII is continuing to examine the Burghfield PRS submission and AWE’s proposals for remediation work.
As part of its regulation under the nuclear site licences NII issues formal regulatory documents called Licence Instruments. These utilise the primary licence condition powers of `Consent', 'Approval', 'Direction', 'Specification', 'Notification' and 'Agreement' as well as those powers derived from the licensee's arrangements. The following documents have been issued during the period of this report:
Licence Instrument No 504: Agreement to Implement the Trident modified disassembly process.
Licence Instrument No 509: Agreement to commence size reduction operations using Plasma Arc cutting equipment in the Box Bay Line
Licence Instrument No 510: Consent to the Monroe SCP12 Trial
Licence Instrument No 511: Specification of type and form of Intermediate Level Radioactive Waste accumulated or stored on site.