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 Heysham Power Stations’ Local Community Liaison Council (LCLC) and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at Heysham 1 & 2 Nuclear Power Stations. 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 (NII) attend LCLC meetings and will respond to questions raised there by members of the LCLC. 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 Directorate
Health and Safety Executive
Redgrave Court
Merton Road
Bootle
Merseyside
L20 7HS
The Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) Site Inspectors and other inspectors made inspections at Heysham on the following dates during the quarter:-
Heysham 1
| Apr 2008 | 4, 11, 16, 21 & 28 |
|---|---|
| May 2008 | 1, 6, 7, 9, 16, & 21 |
| Jun 2008 | 5, 10, 11, 12, 13, 18, 23, & 26 |
Heysham 2
| Apr 2008 | 2, 3, 4, 16 & 17 |
|---|---|
| May 2008 | 6, 7, 14, 15, 16 & 29 |
| Jun 2008 | 11, 12, 25, 26 & 27 |
Inspections at Site: 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 licensee is 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 on site covered:
In general the arrangements made and implemented by the stations 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 inspectors will monitor progress during future visits. Where necessary, formal regulatory intervention action may be taken to ensure that appropriate remedial measures are implemented to reasonably practicable timescales.
Both Heysham 1 reactors remain shutdown due to the BCU issue that was reported under ‘Incidents’ in the previous quarters LCLC reports. A BCU recovery project is still on-going and the issue continues to receive close scrutiny by NII. Specific regulatory holds are in place for the restart of both reactors, which means NII permission will be required before the return to service of either reactor.
A team of NII inspectors observed the Heysham 2 annual demonstration emergency exercise on 7 May 2007. NII concluded that the Station had given an adequate demonstration of its emergency preparedness arrangements. Some learning opportunities were also identified and these points were communicated in a letter to site. Station has decided to further rehearse the arrangements for mustering and accounting for staff and for casualty rescue as it decided that these were areas for particular improvement. NII will observe this further demonstration.
A meeting was held on 29 May 2008 between the licensee and NII inspectors to discuss and agree the proposals for work on Reactor 7 during the next outage, due to commence in September 2008. This outage is planned to last for 53 days, which will allow time for both the routine maintenance work and significant additional work to be undertaken as part of the efforts by the licensee to improve the material condition of the plant. Inspection of the preparatory phase for the outage thus far has revealed no significant safety concerns.
An event was reported to NII on 16th April 2008 for both Hartlepool and Heysham 1 when a shortfall in the Turbine Disintegration Safety Case was revealed. This shortfall, regarding the amount of turbine lubrication oil that may be released during a turbine disintegration event, will need to be resolved prior to return to service of either reactor.
Plant operators discovered a steam leak in a small drain pipe which was not isolatable whilst reactor 8 was on load. Station decided to shut the reactor down on 27July in order to effect repairs in a safe manner. During the shutdown no plant operating limits or conditions were exceeded. In addition Station decided to refuel the reactor whilst shutdown and undertake other plant maintenance and repair work which required a shutdown reactor. NII was content with the actions taken by Station.
Under Health and Safety legislation NII Site Inspectors, and other HSE Inspectors, may issue formal documents to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements. Under nuclear site licence conditions NII 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.
Two LI were issued to Heysham during the quarter: -
No enforcement notices were issued during the reporting period.