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 CHAPELCROSS Local Liaison Committee (LLC) and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at CHAPELCROSS. These reports are distributed quarterly. Site Inspectors of HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate attend LLC meetings and will be happy to respond to any 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.
1. The Site Inspector made the following planned visits during the period:
17-19 July 2002were carried out during the quarter. Such inspections are carried out throughout the year, and enable the Inspectorate to judge whether a Licensee is complying with the conditions attached to a site licence , the Ionising Radiations Regulations, and any other relevant statutory provisions on a sampling basis. The Site Inspector was satisfied from the sample inspections undertaken that Chapelcross had shown satisfactory compliance.
The NII investigation of this incident commented on some issues that were not specific to the fuel route and these were mentioned in NII's report of the incident. Mostly, these issues were already being dealt with as part of Chapelcross's longer term improvement programme; for example, adequacy of staffing. The NII carried out an inspection over 2 days to examine Chapelcross's progress in addressing these general issues. The inspection was carried out by 4 inspectors who examined Chapelcross's compliance with a number of its site licence conditions to judge whether it had made adequate progress. Overall, the NII was content with progress. In some areas, Chapelcross was still in the process of implementing improvements, and the NII will examine the effectiveness of these when they are in place.
The NII has been monitoring BNFL's implementation of recommendations arising from NII's investigation of the dropped discharge fuel basket incident, and is content that it has been meeting its commitments. Chapelcross completed Recommendations 1-8 of NII's investigation report of this incident. BNFL were required to complete these prior to the resumption of routine defuelling which began on 20 May 2002 after a period of recommissioning that had been agreed to by the NII. Recommendations 9, 10, 11 and 12 required work to be completed after the resumption of routine defuelling, and the NII has received responses from BNFL to Recommendations 9, 10 and 11. On Recommendation 12, BNFL has been making satisfactory progress. However, it has informed the NII that the review required by Recommendation 12 has had to take into account the implications for its defuelling strategy of the announcement that Chapelcross will cease power generation in 2005, but is committed to meeting the target date for completing the review. BNFL's programme of work to modify and improve the fuel route and enhance its safety arising from the recommendations in NII's investigation report will be monitored and regulated by NII's site inspector.
The management and records of events that happened at Chapelcross in the period covered by this report were inspected. Mostly, these were relatively minor, and those of concern to the NII Site Inspector were discussed with appropriate BNFL staff to ensure that they were being properly dealt with and lessons learnt. The Site Inspector was satisfied that for events identified, corrective actions to address the causes of the incidents had been taken or were being progressed satisfactorily.
The Inspectorate has powers under the Licence to issue Consents, Approvals and Directions. In addition the Inspectorate uses Licence Instruments to issue Specifications and Agreements under the conditions of the Licence. The following documents were issued during the period:
was issued on 12 July 2002 permitting Chapelcross to carry out a modification in the ponds to remove a sorting table and modify a bracket installation. The modification should reduce the potential for damage to the ponds from operations with spent fuel transport flasks.
was issued on 19 August 2002 permitting Chapelcross to install new diesel alternator and rectifier transformer units to replace the existing units. These units are used to provide electricity to essential reactor systems should normal grid supplies be lost. The new units should ensure that the reliability of this diverse electricity supply system continues to meet the requirements of the safety case.
was issued on 11 September 2002 permitting Chapelcross to operate Reactor 4 chargepans for the further 6 month period of operation sought by BNFL. The previous Quarterly Report described this issue which is due to ageing of the graphite core, and explained that BNFL had adequate safety cases to operate Reactors 2, 3 and 4 only until their next outages. During R4's outage, BNFL carried out inspections to underpin a safety case to justify its return to power.
Published on the HSE web site 6 June 2003