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 14 - 16 October and 17 - 19 December 2002.
The main thrust of NII activity during the period of this report has been regulatory compliance and decommissioning progress.
A planned six monthly meeting was held with safety representatives. Areas of regulatory interest and safety issues were discussed. No major safety issues were raised.
Amersham submitted safety documentation to support it's proposal for organisational change at the Amersham Health and Biosciences UK nuclear licensed sites. Organisational changes which may affect safety are controlled by Nuclear Site Licence Condition 36 (Control of Organisational Change). NII assessed the safety documentation and was of the opinion that the proposed organisational change introduced clarity and clear lines of responsibility for delivering nuclear safety on the sites but further detail on the role and resourcing of an independent nuclear assurance group was requested. NII was satisfied with the further information supplied but imposed a proviso for Amersham to seek NII agreement to the outcome of the review of the organisational change planned to take place after 6 months from implementation. Two Licence Instruments were issued to allow the changes to be implemented (see paragraph 4).
The annual meeting to discuss safety matters with the Chief Executive of Amersham Health, Dr Padfield was held in October. The NII was represented by the Superintending Inspector and Site Inspector. Three main topic areas were discussed covering Waste and Decommissioning, Operating Rules and QA issues. For the Grove Centre site NII emphasised the following; the importance of making the safe operating envelope of the plant explicit in plant safety cases so that operators are aware of the key safety considerations for their operations, the importance of continuing to decommission historic liabilities to programme and the requirement to control safety health and environment arrangements within a quality assurance system. Dr Padfield noted the NII issues and emphasised that Amersham was committed to carrying out it's operations safely.
A meeting was attended by the Superintending Inspector and Site Inspector to discuss progress against the site decommissioning programme. These meetings are held 6 monthly. The significant achievement of completing the decommissioning of a redundant facility known as D Bench was noted. NII was satisfied that adequate progress was being made against the current plan but the importance of continuing to decommission historic liabilities to programme was stressed.
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. Particular attention has been paid to the compliance by the licensee with Licence Conditions 12 (Duly Authorised and Other Suitably Qualified and Experienced Persons) and 28 (Examination, Maintenance, Inspection and Testing). Full compliance with Licence Condition 28 could not be shown and the Site Inspector has written to the Site Director requiring steps to be taken to remedy this. The fundamental requirements needed for compliance with Licence Condition 12 was noted.
No statutory reportable radiological incidents have been notified to the NII this quarter.
Licence Instrument 6, an acknowledgement of receipt of safety documentation and notice of intent to examine the documentation was issued on 29 October 2002 under the arrangements made for the purposes of licence condition 36(1). This acknowledgement was in respect of the licensee's proposal for organisational change.
Licence Instrument 7, an agreement to organisational change was issued on 18 November 2002 under the arrangements made for the purposes of licence condition 36(1). This agreement was in respect of the licensee's proposal for organisational change.
Published on the HSE web site 16 April 2003