Health and Safety
Executive / Commission
Nuclear
LLC reports
Inspections
Routine Matters
Non Routine Matters
Regulatory Activities
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 Power Station. These reports are distributed quarterly. Site Inspectors of HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate normally attend LLC meetings and will be happy to 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.
The HMNII Site Inspector made the following planned visits during the period:
3 April
7 - 9 April
22 - 25 April
12 - 16 May
10 - 13 June
Specialist Inspectors visited the site during the quarter to witness the Level 1 emergency exercise in April, to undertake a follow up inspection on training and to gather information concerning human performance in preparation for an enhanced inspection.
Routine inspections have continued throughout the period to check compliance with the conditions attached to the Nuclear Site Licence. The station continued to improve their arrangements for complying with the conditions, and improvements made during the quarter will assist in demonstrating compliance with the conditions.
The management and recording of events that 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. A series of events occurred which were attributed to human performance. This matter is covered further in the Sections below.
The R4 Start Up Meeting was held on 23/4/2003 where the results from the reactor's statutory outage were considered. BNFL reported that, due to the series of events mentioned above, a request for a Consent to start up R4 would not be made until remedial measures had been put in place.
The Level 1 Emergency Exercise "ZETA" was held on 8/4/2003 to demonstrate the effectiveness of the arrangements, produced by the Station under Licence Condition 11, to deal with nuclear emergencies. A team from HMNII witnessed the exercise and judged that the exercise was an adequate demonstration of the emergency arrangements. There were several learning points and another team from HMNII will witness an exercise in the future, to ensure that these learning points have been addressed.
As a follow up to an inspection undertaken in August 2002, in May a team from HMNII examined the arrangements that cover training. The team concluded that improved, auditable arrangements were in place to cover training, and further improvements were being introduced. Some queries arose on the level of training delivery which were pursued with BNFL during the quarter.
As a result of the series of events mentioned above, a team from HMNII collected information during June in preparation for an enhanced inspection on human performance. The aim of the inspection was to give confidence that the remedial measures proposed by BNFL will be effective. Assessment of the information collected during June led to a widening of the inspection scope. The inspection will be carried out during the next quarter.
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.
No formal documents were issued during the quarter.
Published on the HSE web site 3 November 2003