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 SSG and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at Dungeness B Power Station. 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 usually attend SSG meetings and will respond to questions raised there by members of the SSG. Any other person wishing to enquire about matters covered by this report may contact the HSE’s Nuclear Directorate on 0151-951-3484/3290.
Nuclear Safety Directorate
Health and Safety Executive
Redgrave Court
Merton Road
Bootle
Merseyside
L20 7HS
The Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (HMNII) 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. During the period a Specialist Inspector carried out an inspection of the station’s arrangements for the control and management of radioactive waste. These arrangements, and their implementation, were assessed to be adequate. Familiarisation visits were made to the site by staff from HSE’s Nuclear Policy Division and by the Chair of the Health & Safety Commission. A routine, periodic visit was made to the site by a Deputy Chief Inspector of Nuclear Installations.
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 incidents, operations, maintenance, projects, modifications, safety case changes and any other matters which may affect safety. The licensees are required to make and implement adequate arrangements under the conditions attached to the licence in order to ensure legal compliance. Inspections seek to judge both the adequacy of these arrangements and their implementation. In this period routine inspections at Dungeness B covered:
In general the arrangements made and implemented by the site 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 inspector will monitor progress during future visits. Where necessary, formal regulatory enforcement action will be taken to ensure that appropriate remedial measures are implemented to reasonably practicable timescales.
2.1 Meetings attended
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. The Level 1 Emergency Exercise Review meeting was attended. The purpose of this meeting was to review the status of actions arising from exercise ‘THAILAND’ in May 2007 and to establish the key features for the 2008 level 1 emergency exercise. A routine bi-annual meeting with the Trades Unions Safety Representatives was held to discuss general safety matters. The SSG meeting was attended in November and a meeting was held with the Environment Agency to discuss matters of common regulatory interest and agree a joint inspection programme.
Licensees are required to have arrangements to respond to non-routine matters and events. HMNII inspectors judge the adequacy of the licensee’s response including actions taken to implement any necessary improvements.As part of their planned inspection site inspectors examine safety-related events that have occurred and the Licensee’s response to them. Matters of particular note considered during the current period include the following.
3.1 Leak of carbon dioxide gas
Following uncontrolled releases of Carbon dioxide (CO2) on 26 March; 02 April; 10 September and 26 September 2007, HMNII carried out a formal investigation into these events. The findings from this investigation were subjected to an Enforcement Management Assessment and resulted in an Improvement Notice being served on British Energy at Dungeness B. The Improvement Notice requires Dungeness B to carry out improvements to the CO2 plant to return it to a state where all risks arising from its operation are controlled, and to improve arrangements for the maintenance of the plant. Dungeness B is required to comply with the requirements of the Improvement Notice by 31 January 2008. A subsequent progress meeting has been held with the station where progress against complying with the Improvement Notice was seen to be satisfactory.
Under Health and Safety legislation HMNII Site Inspectors, and other HSE Inspectors, may issue formal documents to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements. Under nuclear site licence conditions HSE/HMNII issues regulatory documents, which either permission an activity or requires some form of action to be taken; these are collectively termed Licence Instruments (LI). In addition inspectors may issue enforcement notices to secure improvements to safety.