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 Amersham plc, Grove Centre Local Liaison Committee (LLC) and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at the site. These reports are distributed quarterly. Site Inspectors of HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate attend LLC meetings and will be happy to respond to questions raised there by members of the LLC. Any other person wishing to inquire about matters covered by this report should contact the HSE, Nuclear Directorate Information Centre on 0151 - 951 - 4103.
Visits by the NII to the Grove Centre site were made on 25 - 26 July, 20 - 22 August and 24 - 25 September 2002.
The Grove Centre Site Annual Emergency Exercise was held on 25 September 2002 and witnessed by the NII. Overall the exercise was judged to provide an adequate demonstration of the site emergency arrangements although a number of areas for improvement were noted.
Inspection visits have been made to look at progress being made with the decommissioning of Labs 1 and 2 and D bench. Satisfactory progress is being made in making preparations for the start of decommissioning Labs 1 and 2. The decommissioning of D bench has been successfully completed with no significant events occurring and worker doses being kept below low target levels.
Amersham submitted a Periodic Safety Review Report covering the Grove Centre as required by Site Licence Condition 15. The purpose of a Periodic Safety Review is to determine, by means of a comprehensive assessment, whether the plants, processes, management, operations and facilities covered by safety cases are safe, as judged against modern standards, at the time the review is carried out, and that ageing and other time related phenomena will not render them unsafe. NII has assessed the report and concluded that subject to continuing satisfactory results from the routine monitoring and demonstration of safety required under the nuclear site licensing arrangements and the satisfactory completion of the ongoing rolling programme of plant reviews, it expects the site to be able to continue to operate safely.
Routine compliance inspection of plant was carried out to the inspection plan and parts of the site have been inspected by the site inspector on each of his visits. The following topics were covered; suitably qualified and experienced persons, recording and investigation of events, training and radiological protection.
No statutory reportable radiological incidents have been notified to the NII this quarter.
No legal instruments were issued during the quarter.
Published on the HSE web site 10 February 2003