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 Berkeley Power Station and Centre Local Community Liaison Committee, LCLC, and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at Berkeley Power Station and Centre. These reports are distributed quarterly. Site Inspectors of HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate attend LCLC meetings and will be happy to respond to questions raised there by members of the LCLC. Any other person wishing to inquire about matters covered by this report should contact the HSE, Nuclear Directorate Information Centre on 0151 - 951 - 4103.
1 The Site Inspector made three inspection visits to Berkeley Nuclear Licensed site during the period October to December. The visits were on:
15 October2 The site's Superintending Inspector attended the annual demonstration of the emergency arrangements on 19th November and visited Berkeley Centre on 18th and Berkeley Power Station on the 20th November.
3 Routine inspection has continued, matters arising from the general inspections have been identified directly to the appropriate members of staff and to the appropriate site manager for action to be taken.
4 Inspections completed this quarter were targeted at the needs of relicensing the site to BNFL, which took place on the 18th December.
5 The site completed the annual demonstration of the emergency arrangements this quarter. The outcome was satisfactory there being a clear improvement of the performance witnessed at the previous exercise and its repeat. The new fixed access control point and much improved decontamination and medical facilities were demonstrated to good effect reflecting the hard work of the teams in installing the facilities and training in their use.
6 A step wise change in the site management structure was agreed allowing minimal change on relicensing with a more significant change to amalgamate the management of the power station and the centre in early 2003.
7 There have been a number of incidents on site, these are regarded as minor in respect of nuclear safety. However, it is again disappointing to report that one event, an unauthorized modification to an irradiation facility, drew attention from the inspectorate.
8 The work to improve the fire precautions on site was inspected. The major part of the work was completed to meet the November deadline advised by the HSE's fire specialist inspector. There is confidence that the remaining work will be completed in the new year allowing the process of issuing a new fire certificate to commence.
9 The majority of the inspection activity this quarter was focused on the arrangements required to support the issue of a licence to BNFL for the site. In addition it was confirmed that the safety management prospectus and ensuring that adequate resource and arrangements for compliance with the conditions attached to the site licence were in place. Particular checks were made on the marking of the site boundary Licence Condition 2, ensuring that Consents granted under Licence Condition 3 were carried through to the new licence, and confirming other Licence Instruments required for continued operation of the site were correctly identified. The legal notices issued as part of relicensing are detailed in section 12 below.
10 It is noted here that as a consequence of relicensing the site to BNFL from Magnox Electric the majority of the staff working on the site who are employed by Magnox Electric, become in effect contractors.
11 The Inspectorate has power under the Licence to issue Consents, Approvals and Directions. In addition the Inspectorate uses Licence Instruments to issue Specifications and Agreements under the conditions attached to the Licence.
12 The Inspectorate issued a new licence for the site, Site Licence 70, coming into effect on 18th December. As part of the legal process six Specifications and six Approvals were issued; these were:
Approval no 1 under condition 13(2) - Nuclear Safety Committee Terms of Reference.Licence Instrument no 1 - Specification under condition 13(9) furnishing of nuclear safety and decommissioning committee documents.
Licence Instrument no 2 - Specification under condition 18(1) Notification level for average effective dose.
Approval no 2 under condition 13(11) - Nuclear Safety Committee arrangements for considering urgent safety proposals.
Licence Instrument no 3 - Specification under condition 11(2) Berkeley Power Station and Berkeley Centre emergency plan.
Approval no 3 under condition 11(2) - Emergency arrangements
Licence Instrument no 4 - Specification under condition 23(4) Berkeley Power Station and Berkeley Centre operating rules.
Approval no 4 under condition 23(4) - Operating rules
Licence Instrument no 5 - Specification under condition 28(4) Berkeley Power Station and Berkeley Centre maintenance schedule.
Approval no 5 under condition 28(4) - Preface to the maintenance schedule.
Licence Instrument no 6 - Specification under condition 36(2) Berkeley Power Station and Berkeley Centre control of organizational control.
Approval no 3 under condition 36(2) - Arrangements for control of organizational change.
Published on the HSE web site 26 August 2003