HM NUCLEAR INSTALLATIONS INSPECTORATE

BAE SYSTEMS MARINE LIMITED, BARROW IN FURNESS

Quarterly report for 1 January 2002 - 31 March 2002

Inspections
Routine Matters
Non Routine Matters
Regulatory Activity

FOREWORD

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 BAE SYSTEMS Marine Ltd Local Liaison Committee (LLC) and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at the Barrow nuclear licensed site. These reports are distributed quarterly. 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, Nuclear Directorate Information Centre on 0151-951-4103.

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1. INSPECTIONS

NII's main objective over the period of this report continues to be to confirm compliance with site licence conditions. There are virtually no nuclear materials on the site, but inspections were part of the regulatory process aiming to allow BAE SYSTEMS Marine Ltd (BAES) to perform nuclear work at Barrow when required and to be ready to receive nuclear fuel for ASTUTE class submarines in 2003.

Visits are made to the site for the purpose of undertaking routine plant and project inspections or meeting site management or safety representatives. Joint inspections with the naval regulator, CNNRP, are also undertaken where there are areas of mutual interest. Four NII inspector-days were spent on the site as follows:

1 February
26 February
19 March

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2. ROUTINE MATTERS

2.1 Training

An inspection of training arrangements was carried out with assistance from an NII specialist inspector. This showed that plans for targeted training were in place. NII will be leading a joint inspection with NNRP in the middle of 2002.

2.2 Organisational change.

NII carried out an inspection of LC36 organisational change arrangements. The submission of arrangements by BAES Marine has been delayed by a major business review within the BAES Sea Systems group, and this has produced the delay. BAES have made progress with systematic identification of roles and responsibilities and have a draft company procedure incorporating a change proforma which has been used in processing actual changes.

2.3 REPPIR.

Information required by the Radiation (Emergency Planning and Public Information) Regulations 2001 has been submitted by BAES Marine to HSE and this is currently being evaluated.

2.4 Safety Cases

NII attended a joint inspection with the MOD Regulator NNRP. This was part of NNRP's audit strategy leading up to authorisation of the site. The inspection was at a high level addressing arrangements for producing safety cases and internal stakeholder and independent reviews. The safety case process was considered satisfactory, however there will need to be further routine inspections carried out by NII to confirm that the correct processes are being carried out and recorded.

2.4 Regulators' Interface Forum

In conjunction with BAES Marine and NNRP, a series of meetings has been implemented to discuss ongoing issues related to the Astute submarine programme. The intent is to maintain dialogue so that potential problems could be dealt with at a working level. The meetings so far have included the topics of the safety case programme and regulatory inspection planning. A series of technical meetings will also take place, linked to the interface forum where possible.