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 Hinkley Point Local Community Liaison Council (LCLC) and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at Hinkley Point B Power Station. These reports are distributed quarterly. Site Inspectors of HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate normally attend LCLC meetings and will be happy to respond to any questions raised there or subsequently by members of the LCLC. Any other person wishing to inquire about matters covered by this report should contact the HSE, Nuclear Directorate Information Centre on 0151-951-4103.
This has been a relatively quiet quarter of steady operation for Hinkley Point B, from NII's regulatory point of view. Routine inspections continued in accordance with our annual plan and no significant nuclear safety issues arose.
The HMNII Site Inspector made the following planned visits during the period:
20 - 24 January10 - 14 February
10 - 14 March
HMNII's policy is for site inspectors to remain on a particular site for a period of about three years. The handover of inspection responsibility to a new site inspector was completed during this quarter, with several planned visits being carried out by both inspectors as part of the handover arrangements.
Specialist Inspectors visited the site during the quarter as part of a review of the Hinkley Point B probability safety assessment (PSA). They were accompanied by an international team of contractors who are assisting NII in a long term project of reviewing the PSA and comparing it against international practice.
Routine inspections have continued throughout the period to ensure that the site is operating in compliance with the conditions attached to the Nuclear Site Licence. 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.
The management and recording of some events which 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. HMNII was satisfied with the actions taken.
Although not due to an incident on the site, the Station emergency control centre (ECC) was put into operation as a precautionary measure on 13/3/03 when a rail engine derailed while shunting a wagon containing an empty Magnox flask into the Bridgwater railhead. Additionally, as the closest site, Hinkley Point B dispatched Health Physics staff to the scene, who confirmed that there were no radiological consequences. The NII Inspector visited the ECC during the management of this event and noted that all appropriate arrangements appeared to have been put in place.
On 23/1/2003 Mr Williams, HMNII's Chief Inspector, and Dr Hall, HMNII's Division 1 Deputy Chief Inspector, visited the site. They attended meetings with the Executive Team, Trades Union Safety Representatives and other station staff and visited a number of plant areas.
On 13/3/2003 the Station Review Meeting was held. This is an annual meeting which reviews key aspects of safety performance in the preceding year, as well as issues such Station initiatives to improve plant condition or reduce numbers of non-essential defects. This was also attended by NII's Superintending Inspector and the opportunity was taken by him and the Site Inspector to carry out an inspection of the site. No significant issues arose. Outline plans for the statutory outage of R3 this coming year were discussed and matters that will require completion before the return to service of R3 at the end of this outage were clarified.
BE applied for the re-licensing of Hunterston 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 proposed and implemented with HMNII's agreement the reorganization 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.
An Agreement (Licence Instrument No 38) was issued on 28/3/2003. The Agreement, issued under BEGL's arrangements for complying with Licence Condition 36, covers the reorganization mentioned above.
Published on the HSE web site 31 July 2003.