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 Hunterston B Local Liaison Committee and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at Hunterston B Nuclear Power Station. These reports are distributed quarterly. Site Inspectors of HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate normally attend LLC meetings and will respond to any 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.
Hunterston B was visited for site inspections on four occasions during this quarter, the visits having both a routine element and reactive element. The dates were as follows:
7 - 10 July;A significant number of additional inspections involving specialist NII staff were also carried out.
The routine inspections for this quarter, covering a range of plant operation, maintenance, and management matters were completed. Where necessary, reactive inspection has been carried out, with the more significant items reported below. In areas where opportunities for improvement were identified, remedial work has been agreed with station management, with the intention of achieving improvements to current station arrangements in those areas.
An NII specialist inspector attended site, with the site inspector, to review monitoring work carried out on the core of reactor 4 during its periodic shutdown. The Superintending Inspector for Hunterston B and three NII specialist inspectors visited site to attend the reactor 4 start-up meeting with the site inspector. The NII conventional safety specialist and the site inspector attended site to carry out an investigation into events involving work undertaken in confined spaces. Following the investigation an Improvement Notice was issued to Hunterston B in respect of the site arrangements for confined space working. Some of these matters are referred to in greater detail in the following sections of this report.
The following non-routine events were considered during visits to the station and at other meetings:
During the reactor 4 periodic shutdown, events were reported involving loss of containment of CO2 while work was being undertaken. During August the NII conventional safety specialist inspector visited site, with the site inspector, to conduct an investigation into the events. On conclusion of the investigation an Improvement Notice was issued requiring improvements to site arrangements for confined space work, including control & supervision, identification & control of hazards (particularly CO2), risk assessment and emergency rescue aspects. The remedial work required by the notice must be completed by 1 November 2002.
The station management initially provided an interim statement on the continued operation of the coolant gas circulators at Hunterston B, following the event involving circulator vibration at Torness NPS. All 16 circulators at Hunterston B are routinely monitored to detect unusual levels of vibration. In addition the temperature of each of the rotor bearings is monitored, with oil condition also checked during operation. The company have now produced a Modification Submission which justifies the continuing operation of the gas circulators at Hunterston B.
The reactor 4 periodic shutdown concluded on 29 July 2002. A start-up meeting had been held on the 23 July, where progress to complete outage related work was reviewed. A list of actions required prior to start-up was agreed following the meeting, and these were confirmed completed before permission to start-up reactor 4 was requested by the company. The Consent to re-start reactor 4 at Hunterston B was granted on 29 July 2002.
Visit to Hunterston B by Mr L G Williams, UK Chief Inspector and Director of ND and Mr A-C Lacoste, Head of the French Nuclear Regulatory Body (DGSNR)
On the 9 July 2002 Mr Williams and Mr Lacoste visited Hunterston B NPS. The visit included an opening meeting, continued with a site inspection and closed following a meeting between Mr Williams and the site safety representatives.
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.
Consent No: 5 for the start-up of Reactor 4 at Hunterston B, following the periodic shutdown, was granted by NII.
An Improvement Notice requiring improvements to the site arrangements for confined space working was issued to BEG(UK)L at Hunterston B NPS.
Published on the HSE web site 20 January 2003