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 URENCO (Capenhurst) Ltd Local Liaison Committee and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at the URENCO (Capenhurst) Ltd Nuclear Licensed Site. 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 normally attend LLC meetings and will be happy to respond to questions raised there or subsequently by members of the LLC. 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
The site was visited by NII inspectors on:
Each NII Site Inspector has an inspection programme to inspect compliance of operations on the site with the 36 Nuclear Site Licence Conditions (LCs). During this quarter particular attention has been paid to compliance by the licensee to licence conditions:-
LC 11 Emergency arrangements &
LC 21 Commissioning.
No issues arose from the compliance inspections undertaken during this period that required formal regulatory action.
The NII site inspector, accompanied by an NII specialist emergency arrangements assessor, participated in the Emergency Planning Consultative Committee meeting. This reviewed progress against actions arising from the previous Level 2 emergency exercise “Eagle” and ongoing changes to the licensee’s emergency arrangements. It is planned to hold a further Capenhurst Level 2 emergency exercise in 2008. An NII specialist inspector participated in the planning meeting for this exercise, which will test the licensee’s off site emergency arrangements.
The site inspector participated in a meeting with the licensee in August, to inspect progress against the actions arising from the ‘silent hours’ shift emergency exercise held at Capenhurst in July. Discussions were also held on the scope of the licensee’s forthcoming Level One (on site) demonstration emergency exercise, to be observed by NII in the final quarter of 2007.
The licensee recently sent NII the Pre-Commencement Safety Report and the Safety Commissioning Schedules safety documentation, for an extension to an enrichment facility. Two NII inspectors subsequently inspected the licensee’s activities, at the enrichment facility, in August. During this site inspection, NII requested the licensee to quantify the potential benefits of installing additional radiological shielding at the plant. Some additional shielding was subsequently installed by the licensee. The potential radiological impact of the plant extension is being assessed by an NII specialist inspector, prior to NII permissioning the active commissioning of the plant extension.
There remain proposals to lease Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) owned land and facilities, yet to be presented to NII by Sellafield Limited – Capenhurst Works. The land is currently licensed to Sellafield Limited – Capenhurst Works and is proposed to be leased to Urenco (Capenhurst) Limited. The plan is to eventually reconfigure the boundary between the two licensed sites. The proposals cover areas of the site associated mainly with electrical distribution and fire fighting water supply facilities.
Discussions have continued with the licensee regarding the forthcoming commissioning of additional raft storage areas for uranium hexafluoride cylinders on the site. The licensee has prepared the Pre-Commencement Safety Report for the project and an associated ALARP justification document. An NII specialist inspector is currently assessing the on and off site radiological impact and associated ALARP justification of the licensee’s raft storage proposals. Regulatory advice was provided by NII during a site inspection of the new storage raft in August.
An enrichment plant criticality alarm was actuated on the morning of 26th June.
Plant alarm detector heads were being routinely tested, shortly after which the criticality alarm was actuated. The alarm was established to be false within about twenty minutes of actuation, (by radiation monitoring around the enrichment facility and its environs). Plant staff were mustered to the site criticality mustering point. The Emergency Control Room and Emergency HQ were duly manned. The decision was taken to test the site roll call, which had been correctly initiated. The site inspector has requested the licensee to provide reports on both the cause of the false alarm and a report on the adequacy of the site mustering. The licensee has provided an interim technical report addressing the cause of the false alarm.
No regulatory enforcement action was necessary in this quarter.
The Inspectorate has powers under the licence to issue Consents, Approvals and Directions. In addition, the Inspectorate uses Licence Instruments to issue Specifications, Acknowledgements and Agreements under either the conditions attached to the Licence, or arrangements made by Urenco (Capenhurst) Limited for complying with those conditions.
No Consents/Approvals/Directions and Licence Instruments were issued during this quarter.
Urenco (Capenhurst) Limited NII Site Inspector.
October 2007.