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 Hartlepool Local Community Liaison Council and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at Hartlepool Power Station. These reports are distributed quarterly. Site Inspectors of HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (part of the Health and Safety Executive's Nuclear Directorate) attend LCLC meetings and will be happy to respond there to questions raised by members of the LCLC. Any person wishing to inquire about matters covered by this report should contact the HSE, Nuclear Directorate Information Centre on 0151 951 4103.
The site inspector visited the site on six occasions during the quarter:
10th JanuarySpecialist NII inspectors also visited the site during the period to inspect arrangements for closure of Periodic Safety Review work, release of "go live" for the work management project (WMP) and assessment of structural integrity safety cases for the boiler spines and heat exchanger tubes. The responsible Superintending Inspector also visited site for the station's annual Safety Review Meeting on 28th January.
As part of their routine work NII inspectors inspect for compliance against the requirements of the Station's Nuclear Site Licence, the Health and Safety at Work Act and other relevant safety legislation. They monitor events, plant operations, projects, modifications and safety case changes and any other matters which are important to safety. Planned inspections during the quarter included the station's arrangements for safety mechanisms, devices and circuits, intentions for the statutory shutdown of Reactor 2 in May, control and operation of auxiliary systems, control and operation of gas turbines, and control of asbestos. The site inspector also held a routine meeting with safety representatives and attended the EPCC meeting on 6th March.
In general the station's arrangements were found to be satisfactory, with a commitment to accommodate the improvements identified.
Together with specialist colleagues, the site inspector inspected the station's progress with the implementation of WMP during February and concluded that there was no safety impediment to the station adopting the processes. This enabled him to release the hold he had applied on "going live" following deficiencies found in earlier inspections. The site inspector will continue to monitor WMP to ensure that any safety related matters are identified and properly resolved.
In order to comply with the requirements of Licence Condition 15 the station is required to re-evaluate the state of the plant and associated safety cases at ten year intervals. This is an extensive process which involves a substantial amount of effort both by BE and NII. An inspection of the status of the project in January concluded that the work arising from the current PSR was substantially completed at the planned date of end December 2002. There is a small amount of modification work remaining to be implemented and timescales and management controls to ensure prompt completion were agreed.
This is a formal meeting held annually to enable strategic issues relevant to safety to be explored and any relevant actions to be placed. This year it was held on 28th January. The station's commitment to developing the current safety position on issues such as structural integrity and fuel integrity was affirmed and detailed actions were placed to ensure sound progress where relevant.
As part of their planned inspection site inspectors examine safety related events that have occurred and the Licensee's response to them. Generally the Licensee's internal system for following up events is robust and the appropriate actions are implemented. During the quarter the site inspector investigated several events in detail. The position on two of the more significant this is summarised below.
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The cause of the trip was moisture ingress to a control cabinet and appropriate steps were taken by the station to prevent a repeat of this initiating cause. The event identified some longer term actions by the station, which the site inspector will continue to pursue in future inspections. One of the improvements which the station is progressing is the provision its own control room simulator for training and development purposes, rather than having to share a facility at Heysham.
British Energy have recently been developing the safety case for reheat cracking in some of the boiler spine welds, which were repaired during manufacture. As part of this process thermocouples are being installed to measure temperatures at relevant welds. On 27th March 2003 BE reported that one of the recently installed thermocouples at Hartlepool was indicating temperatures slightly above the then current safety case. At the time it was considered by NII that this result indicated possible uncertainty regarding the validity of the case in similarly repaired and, as yet, un-instrumented boiler spine welds at both stations.
The results of other work already in hand by BE to improve the margins in the case were cited by them as justification for continued operation at Hartlepool. Following discussion with NII inspectors this work was formalised by BE into a revised interim safety case for both stations in early April. Subsequent work, including fitment of thermocouples to appropriate boilers, has continued to elaborate the position for all similar welds at Hartlepool and Heysham. A consolidated long term safety case, which is anticipated to confirm that considerable margins are available, is due to be submitted to the Nuclear Safety Committee in July.
BE has applied for the re-licensing of its stations at Hunterston B and Torness to bring the whole of its UK nuclear sites under a single licence, as this will simplify its internal operations. As part of this process, which will take some time, BE has proposed and implemented with NII agreement reorganisation of some of its central support functions under a unified management structure. This will result in some cross-licensee working for which formal arrangements are in place to ensure that each licensee continues to take proper responsibility for nuclear safety.
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. The following regulatory documentation was issued during the reporting period:
(i) Licence instrument number 45, allowing the station to install bursting discs in the gas filter safety relief valve housings under Licence Condition 22 and(ii) Licence instrument number 46, agreeing to proposals for cross-licensee working under Licence Condition 36.
Published on the HSE web site 31 July 2003