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 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 (NII) 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.
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, currently programmed for 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, NNRP, are also undertaken where there are areas of mutual interest. 11 NII inspector-days were spent on the site as follows:
29 - 31 July 2002Additional time has been spent at off-site meetings directly related to site regulatory matters.
A joint inspection of training arrangements was made with the MoD naval regulator NNRP. BAES are moving from a training regime which has been prescriptive to meet MOD requirements to one with a competence-based training framework. The process is in early stages of development, however a Nuclear Training Requirements Plan has been produced and a database is being developed which will assist the company to manage its competence and resource needs. The findings of the inspection provided further guidance to the Company and NII will be monitoring the development and implementation of the training system.
Additionally, an inspection was carried out into specific training in place for personnel carrying out primary circuit fabrication activities. Evidence of training and qualification was satisfactory, supported by adequate records accessed on the Company's database.
An inspection of the arrangements for the Nuclear Safety Committee (NSC) was carried out. This was part of the NII planned inspection programme, however it also advised NII with respect to changes to the NSC Terms of Reference proposed by BAES and subject to Approval by NII. The arrangements were found to be satisfactory and there were satisfactory records regarding the qualification and experience of members of the committee.
The NII Deputy Chief Inspector and Superintending Inspector attended a site visit and annual review meeting at Barrow at which a number of site-related topics were discussed, including organisational issues and the Astute submarine programme.
BAES called an extraordinary meeting of the Local Liaison Committee to discuss the Radiation (Emergency Planning and Public Information) Regulations 2001 (REPPIR). This was attended by the NII Site Inspector and a colleague. Under REPPIR, the local authority is responsible for the off-site emergency plan. A presentation given by the Cumbria County Council Emergency Planning Officer was followed by discussion on the requirements of the regulations. The County Council and the Company are in consultation regarding information which needs to be provided in order to comply with the regulations. NII explained the process for advising the extent of the emergency planning zone, which is subject to generic information provided by MoD for all submarine-related sites.
These meetings were implemented for BAES Marine, NII and NNRP to discuss ongoing issues related to the Astute submarine programme. The intent is to maintain dialogue so that potential problems can be dealt with at a working level. Although there were joint meetings held to discuss specific topics, an Interface Forum meeting was not held in this quarter because of the ongoing work by BAES on the Astute programme. The frequency of meetings in the future will be dependent on the submarine programme and activities on the site.
Nothing to report.
NII issues formal regulatory documents called Consents and Approvals, together with licence instruments where these are called for under conditions attached to the site licence. Directions may also be issued at the discretion of NII. During this period work was being carried out to assess changes to the Terms of Reference of the Nuclear Safety Committee prior to issuing Approvals, and this was nearing completion at the end of September.
Published on the HSE web site 27 January 2003