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 Hinkley Point Local Community Liaison Council (LCLC) and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at Hinkley Point B Power Station. These reports are distributed quarterly. Site Inspectors of HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate normally attend LCLC meetings and will be happy to respond to any questions raised there or subsequently 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.
The HMNII Site Inspector made the following planned visits during the period:
1 - 5 July 9 - 13 September 24 - 26 SeptemberSpecialist Inspectors visited the site during the quarter to discuss the inspection results associated with the statutory outage of reactor 4.
A team from HMNII carried out an enhanced inspection associated with the management of worker's fatigue during the reactor 4 outage.
Routine inspections have continued throughout the period to ensure that the site is operating in compliance with the conditions attached to the Nuclear Site Licence.
The management and recording of events which occurred on the station during the period were inspected. Most of these were relatively minor and those of concern to the HMNII Site Inspector were discussed with the appropriate company staff. HMNII was satisfied with the actions taken.
On 4/7/2002 the annual meeting was held with BEGL's Safety Representatives. The meeting was followed by a joint conventional safety inspection on the site.
The Emergency Planning Consultative Meeting was attended on 12/9/2002 where some changes to the Terms of Reference were discussed.
There were no Level 1 Emergency Exercises held during the quarter, however exercise "BARRIE" was set up on 2/7/2002 to demonstrate improvements introduced after the Level 1 Exercise "BERNARD" on 5/12/2001. A team from HMNII witnessed exercise "BARRIE" and was fully satisfied with the demonstration. British Energy's Announcement to the Stock Exchange
Following British Energy's 5 September announcement to the Stock Exchange that it had entered into talks with the Government on refinancing and restructuring, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Nuclear Installations, Laurence Williams, stated: "British Energy's nuclear site licences and the conditions attached to them remain in force. The duties to comply with licence conditions therefore continue, together with the duties to comply with other health and safety legislation. My inspectors will continue to check BE's compliance with their licence conditions and other relevant safety regulations and will not hesitate to take any appropriate action to ensure nuclear safety and the protection of the public is maintained."
Site Inspectors for British Energy power stations have since contacted the Station Directors and site Safety Representatives to inform them that NII will continue to inspect the sites' nuclear safety management during this period, to ensure that their focus on nuclear safety is maintained. They have also held joint inspections with their Environment Agency/Scottish Environment Protection Agency counterparts, to ensure that the licensee is appropriately managing any potential safety or environmental issues arising from the announcement.
A team from the HMNII undertook an enhanced inspection associated with the management of fatigue during the reactor 4 outage. The team concluded that significant improvements had been made to the arrangements for managing fatigue during outages. Some of these improvements had been built upon the lessons learned from the work undertaken to introduce 12 hour shifts.
The Inspectorate has powers under the Nuclear Site 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 Site Licence.
was issued on 6/9/2002. The Agreement permitted the replacement of obsolete equipment used in the Dropped Stringer Reactor Trip System. This latter system is used to trip a reactor if a fuel stringer is dropped during refueling with the reactor on load.
Published on the HSE web site 11 November 2002