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 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 inquire about matters covered by this report should contact the HSE’s Nuclear Directorate on 0151-951-4103.
Nuclear Safety Directorate
Health and Safety Executive
Redgrave Court
Merton Road
Bootle
Merseyside
L20 7HS
A total of 22 NII inspectors visited the Aldermaston and Burghfield sites during the quarter. There were visits from other HSE inspectors in relation to conventional safety and explosives and visits by Nuclear Directorate administrative support staff.
NII inspections were made on the following dates:
| April | 12, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 24, 25, and 27 |
|---|---|
| May | 2, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 21, 22 and 29 |
| June | 7, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 19, 20 and 27 |
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:
NII inspectors met with AWE to discuss issues we had identified during assessment of recent submissions addressing Periodic Review of Safety (PRS) for facilities on both the Aldermaston & Burghfield sites. A number of learning points were identified which AWE agreed to consider during the internal review of the PRS process.
NII regulatory reviews have highlighted issues regarding the quality of safety cases submitted by AWE. As part of the process to address these NII hosted a team from AWE at a safety case meeting in May to ensure NII and AWE had a common understanding of the issues and agree an action plan for their resolution.
A legal requirement on all nuclear licensees is that they demonstrate their emergency arrangements periodically to show that they continue to be effective. Such a demonstration exercise took place at Aldermaston on 21 May. The exercise was witnessed by a team from NII and MoD’s Nuclear Weapon Regulator. The exercise was to demonstrate the Aldermaston Emergency Response Arrangements in real time outside core working hours. Whilst some aspects of the emergency arrangements were adequately demonstrated some elements were not. In particular notional play prevented the demonstration that staffing levels were sufficient to respond adequately to the communications requirements of such an event. A meeting with AWE has been planned for July to discuss NII issues and to consider what reasonably practicable improvements can be implemented such that response to an out of core hours event can be fully demonstrated before the end of the calendar year.
Assessment is continuing and NII expects to complete its assessment of the PRS by March 2008 and make a decision on the scope and duration of future operations for A45.
Assessment of the PRS is continuing, however NII is not in possession of all of the information it requires to complete its deliberations by the decision date of October 2007. It may be necessary to consider an interim decision at that time.
NII has advised AWE of some issues as a result of assessment of the Hydrus Preliminary Safety Report and is seeking clarification. A meeting has been arranged for August to discuss these.
NII is continuing to examine the Burghfield PRS submission and AWE’s proposals for remediation work. However, NII has written to AWE stating that the decision regarding the adequacy of the safety review to support future activities on the Burghfield licensed site will be an interim decision, subject to a number of agreed work packages and demonstration that risks from operation of the facility continue to be ALARP.
A further two agreements to the limited ongoing use of the current process for weapons assembly/disassembly have been given by NII.
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: