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 Harwell Local Liaison Committee (LLC) and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at Harwell. 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 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.
A key part of the planned work undertaken this quarter has been associated with the annual demonstration exercise and the benchmarking inspection on maintenance. The latter is a topic inspection that NII is undertaking at all UKAEA licensed sites. Both of these are described in more detail in this report.
The events relating to a release of radioactive material into a laboratory in B 220 has also been followed up. The follow up had not been completed at the end of the quarter and further work will be undertaken in the next quarter.
The Site Inspector visited Harwell on the following days:
| 2 October | - | 4 October | Site Inspection and annual demonstration exercise | ||
| 4 November | - | 6 November | Site Inspection | ||
| 18 November | - | 22 November | Maintenance benchmark inspection | ||
| 29 Nov | Site Inspection LLC | ||||
| 18 December | 20 December | Site inspection |
This quarter saw a significant regulatory presence because of the maintenance benchmark inspection and event follow up. The site inspector and colleagues spent a total of 38 man-days on site. In addition because of a conventional safety event involving and overturned excavator an inspector visited the site from the local area office of HSE's Field operations Directorate.
Regulatory work has also been undertaken corporately at Risley and use continues to be made of video conferencing facilities.
This proved to be a good demonstration of Harwell's emergency preparedness and highlighted the site's continuing commitment to improvements. It was clear that the programme of training and command and control has now fully "bedded in" with staff showing a familiarity and good understanding of control and leadership requirements. This was particularly evident at the incident scene and forward control point where the event was well managed
Mustering still remains an issue. UKAEA have developed a 3-ring tier approach to mustering as part of the corporate development of emergency arrangements. Demonstration of these revised arrangements was only partially successful. Accounting in the affected building and immediate vicinity was good, however, on this occasion tenants in the second ring were still not accounted for within the target timescale. Significant progress has been made but a fully satisfactory position has still not been established. NII will be examining the development of these revised arrangements in more detail during the year with the aim of full compliance with the revised arrangements at the next annual demonstration exercise.
There were some problems with the 0800 telephone number and the methods for providing information to staff. This is an important part of the emergency information system and part of the overall communications strategy that has been developed by UKAEA.
Previous inspections to the same format had been conducted at Dounreay and Windscale with the Winfrith inspection planned for the last quarter. The main headlines from the inspection are summarised below:
Overall NII was pleased with the outcome of the inspection, as there was evidence of a willingness to learn from parts of the site where implementation of arrangements was more effective. A letter has been sent to the site setting out our main findings and a more detailed internal report being prepared. The aim is to prepare a UKAEA wide report so that maintenance actions can be progressed corporately and as part of the planned inspection programme for 2003 - 2004.
The inspection also provided additional information concerning UKAEA's arrangements for control of tenants on the licensed site an aspect that formed part of the current inspection plan.
In the LLC report for the last quarter it was reported that the timetable for this project has gone back. This has not had any impact on the B 220 exit plan and NII is continuing to review progress on this plan with particular attention being paid to the arrangements for hazard reduction and maintaining adequate levels of safety related posts throughout the transition phase.
UKAEA submitted a commissioning report to NII in respect of the Harwell work and a licence instrument for full operations has been requested. A similar licence instrument has been received in respect of Winfrith. The outstanding issues in connection with the safety case at Winfrith have not been fully resolved. However, NII believed that commissioning operations could be extended and a licence instrument was issued to allow a further series of moves to take place. Discussions continued concerning the Winfrith issues. There are no outstanding issues at Harwell.
Regular dialogue continues to take place with the local Environment Agency Inspector. One formal liaison meeting took place during the quarter. Reactive work prevented any joint inspection.
NII has completed its assessment of the UKAEA submission and a report has been prepared and sent to UKAEA.
During operations in a glove box on 6 November 2002 the over pressure alarm for the glove box went into alarm. The operators evacuated and shortly afterwards the airborne activity monitors also went into alarm. The building emergency arrangements for airborne activity alarms was initiated to ascertain the source and to manage the operations. Subsequent investigations by UKAEA confirmed that a release of radioactive material outside the containment had occurred. UKAEA's initial conclusion was that there has been a failure in the vacuum system. A small number of personnel received intakes, though initial assessments indicate that doses are no more than 25% of the current dose limit (20 mSv.)
UKAEA initiated arrangements to monitor for radioactive material in the laboratory and arrange for decontamination. A management investigation was initiated to determine the cause. In addition local investigations were carried out to examine the ventilation arrangements within the facility. There was no release of radioactive material outside the laboratory and its ventilation system. During the quarter NII monitored the investigation, reviewed the findings and examined the event for generic implications. The ventilation arrangements in the laboratory and adjoining corridor were the cause of some concern. Arrangements were put in hand for an NI ventilation specialist to examine the system in more detail in early January. At this stage NII's investigation is continuing and no decision will be made on further action until this inspection has been undertaken.
As part of operations associated with the cross-site sewer project an operator working for a contractor, (McNicholas) was utilising an excavator to perform an operation to move a trench box from an excavation. One of the wheels of the excavator overran the hard standing area and sank into the soft ground causing the excavator to overturn. Only the driver and banksman where in the vicinity and there were no injuries. No radioactivity was involved.
These operations are covered by the CDM regulations with HSE's Field operations Directorate having responsibility for inspection. An inspector from the Basingstoke Office, attended the site inspected the scene and gave approval for the use of a crane to right the excavator. He also issued two Improvement Notices on McNicholas regarding the planning and execution of lifting operations and the regular inspection of lifting equipment between examination.
UKAEA carried out it's own investigation to learn lessons from the event and did not allow operations to restart until it was satisfied with the arrangements for the use of excavators by McNicholas. The improvement notices have been complied with and operations restarted.
NII view the NSC as a key safety committee in any organisation Licence Condition 3). NII and UKAEA have been in discussion or some time concerning the terms of reference of this committee and membership. The arrangements for "fast track procedures" and terms of reference are now acceptable and consents were issued during the quarter.
During the period of the report, no Directions under conditions attached to the Site Licence were issued.
The following consents were issued:
Lease of Building 146 Harwell International Business Centre Didcot Oxfordshire OX11 0RA dated 18 October 2002.
Lease of part of Building 150 Thompson Avenue Harwell International Business Centre Didcot Oxfordshire OX11 0RA dated 30 October 2002
Lease of part Building 424 Harwell International Business Centre Didcot Oxfordshire OX11 0RA dated 25 November.
Lease of Land for Diesel Fuel Tanks adjoining Building 401.8, Harwell International Business Centre Didcot Oxfordshire OX11 0RA dated 16 December 2002.
Approval of the terms of reference of the Harwell Nuclear safety Committee as set out in Annex 1 of the document entitled:
"Nuclear safety Committee(s), ref UKAEA/STD/002 Issue 1 dated 19 November 2002
Approval of the arrangements for the consideration of, or advice on, urgent safety proposals as set out in Annex 2 of the document entitled:
"Nuclear safety Committee(s), ref UKAEA/STD/002 Issue 1 dated 19 November 2002.
Lease of Building B528.3 Harwell International Business Centre Didcot Oxfordshire OX11 0RA dated 16 December 2002
Lease of Building B 477 Harwell International Business Centre Didcot Oxfordshire OX11 0RA dated 18 December 2002
The following License instruments were issued:
Agreement under arrangements made to comply with condition 22 of schedule 2
Agreement to extend active commissioning trials on the dragon fuel receipt at Harwell.
Published on the HSE web site 31 March 2003