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 Dungeness Local Community Liaison Council and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at Dungeness B Nuclear Power Station. Site Inspectors of HM Nuclear Instal-lations Inspectorate (part of the Health and Safety Executive's Nuclear Safety Direc-torate) attend LCLC meetings and will be happy to respond to any questions raised there by members of the LCLC. Any other person wishing to inquire about matters covered by this report should contact the HSE's Nuclear Directorate Informa-tion Centre on 0151 951 4103.
1. The Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) Site Inspector and/or his assistant visited Dungeness 'B' on the following dates during the quarter covered by this report:
1-3, 7-10 and 22-23 April,
19-22 May, and
9-12 and 23-26 June.
2. Other NII inspectors with specialist technical expertise also visited site during the period so as to support the Site Inspector by performing inspections on licence condition compliance and compliance with the power station's nuclear safety case.
3. Compliance Inspections: During the visits listed above the Site Inspector, and assistants, carried out planned inspections of the licensee's compliance with: (i) the conditions attached to the Site Licence; (ii) the Ionising Radiations Regula-tions; and (iii) other relevant health and safety legislation.
4. Emergency Arrangements: A team of NII inspectors supported the Site Inspector when witnessing a Level 1 Emergency Exercise on 21 May 2003. The exercise demonstrated that the site's emergency arrangements could cope with a major event, however, some aspects fell short of the expected standard and therefore British Energy offered to re-demonstrate these to the NII within 4 months. At a formal Exercise Review meeting on 26 June a scenario, ground rules and date were agreed for the re-demonstration exercise.
5. Periodic Shutdown of Reactor 21: NII inspectors considered the content of the periodic shutdown, assessed the results of the work carried out during the shutdown, attended a Start-Up meeting on 23 April and, having established that all necessary work was completed, issued a start-up consent for Reactor 21.
6. Local Community Liaison Committee Meeting: The Site Inspector attended the LCLC meeting on 10 April 2003.
7. Incidents on Site: As part of routine, planned inspections the Site Inspector examined the licensee's arrangements for the recording and investigation of incidents at the power station and, where appropriate, undertook independent investigations to the extent that was warranted by the significance of the incident.
8. Team Inspection into the Management of Safety-Related Events at Sites: In response to an observed overall increase between 2001 and 2002 in the number of safety-related events reported from British Energy sites, inspectors visited each site to see whether there were any common themes and to look into the licensee's management of such events. In general, they found that the number of events in 2002 was similar to the average for the earlier years, whereas 2001 had witnessed an improvement that has not been sustained at all sites. Nevertheless, the Inspectorate would prefer to see a downward trend (while not wishing to disturb the open reporting culture that was found at all the sites) and expects to be able to make recommendations to the licensee to help them achieve that, largely through better use of Operational Experience Feedback. At Dungeness B the inspectors found that the increase in the number of events was mainly due to plant unreliability and failure to comply with operating instructions. During the recent outages the company has invested heavily in plant and therefore reliability should now improve. Currently the site is reviewing and reformatting Station Operating Instructions so as to make them more user friendly. It is also revamping the Identified Operating Instructions and Operating Rules into Technical Specifications. These improvements, and raised awareness of human performance issues, should improve operating instruction compliance. Consequently, NII anticipate that the number of reportable events will reduce over the coming year and no regulatory action is proposed other than to monitor progress through normal site inspection arrangements.
9. Joint Inspections with Other Regulators: A joint NII-Environment Agency inspection took place on 10 April. The NII and OCNS site inspectors carried out an inspection with the HSE Fire Surveyor on 26 June so as to solve various matters that have arisen as a consequence of conflicts between security matters and fire certificate requirements. The joined up approach resulted in most of the issues being resolved relatively easily.
10. British Energy Headquarters: British Energy Generation (UK) Ltd announced on 2 July 2003 its intention to close its Peel Park office in East Kilbride and transfer a number of operational jobs to its Barnwood office in Gloucester. The location of a Licensee's offices is a matter for the Licensee, but NII will need to be fully satisfied that the safety implications of the proposed move are properly addressed. British Energy has confirmed that its proposal falls within the scope of Licence Condition 36, 'Control of Organisational Change', and that it will be controlled using the arrangements made to comply with the Licence Condition. NII has told British Energy that it will not be allowed to implement this proposal until it has submitted the safety case and NII has assessed this and agreed that nuclear safety will be maintained.
11. The NII has powers within the standard Nuclear Site Licence Conditions to issue Consents, Approvals and Directions. In addition NII uses Licence Instruments to issue Specifications and Agreements under the conditions attached to the Licence. In accordance with formal regulatory procedures under Site Licence No. 61 the NII issued the following:
Consent No 14, dated 29 April 2003, consented to the start-up
of
Reactor No 21.
Published on the HSE web site 1 April 2004