Health and Safety
Executive / Commission
Nuclear
LLC reports
The 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 Capenhurst District Liaison Committee and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at Capenhurst. These reports are distributed quarterly. Site Inspectors of HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate normally attend DLC meetings and will be happy to respond to questions raised there or subsequently by members of the DLC. 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 site was visited by NII inspectors on 2, 9 and 17 January, 27 February and 27 March.
Dr Turton ceased to be the nominated inspector on 31 March 2002 and the nomination of his successor is awaited.
During this period particular attention has been paid to compliance by the licensee with licence conditions: 11, Emergency Arrangements and 34, Leakage and Escape of Radioactive Material and Radioactive Waste. An adequate level of compliance with these conditions was noted.
The two licensees at Capenhurst wish to modify the boundary between the sites. This exercise will require new nuclear site licenses to be granted and preliminary work has been undertaken. No significant issues of principle have been identified at this stage and it is expected that the new licenses will be granted towards the end of this year provided that an adequate Management Prospectus is submitted to NII. (See 2.3 below.)
The need to review the resources available for the management of the site has been drawn to the attention of the licensee. The adequacy of these resources will be assessed by NII during the relicensing process (see 2.2 above).
These regulations came into force in September 2001 and require, amongst other things, that operators make an assessment of the risk of a radiation emergency. The report of this assessment has been sent to the NII and found to be adequate. No major changes are proposed to the existing emergency arrangements for Capenhurst but minor modifications will be made to the on-site plan which is formally approved by NII using the powers under licence condition 11.
The report following the licensee's review of decommissioning has been sent to the NII. This document will be assessed in the coming months.
At Capenhurst there is a single on site emergency plan with a unified response from both the licensed sites but hitherto there have been two site emergency exercises per year. Following the provision of a fully manned site fire service, improvements to the site fire station and successful demonstrations in recent emergency exercises it may be appropriate to reduce the frequency of on site emergency exercises to one per year. The licensees are preparing proposals to this effect and these will be assessed by NII in due course.
The Approved Dosimetry Services at Capenhurst have been re-assessed by an NII specialist inspector during this quarter. The co-ordination and record keeping service has been recommended for re-approval and improvements to the internal dosimetry service are being made so that it can be recommended for approval.
The licensee is implementing a programme for the production of continued operations safety reports on all significant plant. The first report will be for the E22 Centrifuge Enrichment Plant. This report will be assessed by NII when it is received.
No incidents or accidents affecting nuclear safety have been notified to NII in this period.
No consents, approvals or licence instruments have been issued in this period.
Published on the HSE web site 7 May 2002