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 GE Healthcare Ltd Grove Centre Local Liaison Committee (LLC) and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at the site. Site Inspectors of HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) 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 0151-951-4382.
Nuclear Safety Directorate
Health and Safety Executive
Redgrave Court
Merton Road
Bootle
Merseyside
L20 7HS
NII inspections were made on 18–20 and 25–26 April 2007. (Inspections are also made at GE Healthcare Ltd’s nuclear licensed sites at Cardiff (the Maynard Centre) and Harwell. Where these are relevant to the Grove Centre they are included below. For instance, the sites have many arrangements in common for compliance with the conditions attached to their site licences).
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:
Issues arising from these and previous inspections are being pursued.
Waste Strategy: GE Healthcare Ltd has submitted an Integrated Waste Strategy. This was first the subject of a tripartite meeting, at Harwell, and then of a joint letter to the company by the Environment Agency and NII.
Operating Rules: All GEHL nuclear sites were represented at a meeting with NII at the Grove Centre to discuss how the licensee derives and expresses operating rules (conditions and limits necessary in the interests of safety), and how operations are controlled in compliance with them.
Cyclotron Interlocks: One of NII’s specialist inspectors in control and instrumentation visited the site to discuss the recently revised safety cases for the interlocks that prevent access to the cyclotrons when they are operating.
Visit by French Regulators: NII arranged and hosted a visit to Amersham by four French nuclear regulators. The Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire members (who included a Commissioner) wished to compare the Amersham plant with its French equivalent at Saclay.
Local Liaison Committee: The site inspector attended the 6-monthly meeting of the Local Liaison Committee.
As part of its regulation under the nuclear site licence NII issues formal regulatory documents, which include Consents, Approvals, Directions, and Licence Instruments1. No such documents were issued in this quarter.
No other issues have arisen that have required formal regulatory action.
1 Licence Instruments are issued: to acknowledge receipt of specified documents, eg proposals for a new or modified plant; to stipulate whether the Inspectorate intends to examine these documents; or to agree to the start of a particular phase of construction, commissioning, modification, or decommissioning.