Health and Safety
Executive / Commission
Nuclear
LLC reports
Inspections
Routine
Matters
Non Routine Matters
Regulatory Activity
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 Berkeley and Oldbury
Local Community Liaison Council and covers activities associated with
the regulation of safety at Oldbury Nuclear 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 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, Nuclear Directorate
Information Centre
on 0151 - 951 - 4103.
The HMNII Site Inspector for the Oldbury site and other Specialist Inspectors visited on the following dates:
| 13 -15 October 2003 | 27 - 29 October 2003 | |
| 4 - 6 November 2003 | 11 - 12 November 2003 | |
| 1 - 3 December 2003 |
In this quarter-year period NII undertook planned compliance inspections against the following licence conditions (LCs):
- Essential Electrical Systems LCs 23, 24, 25 and 26 covering Operating Rules, Operating Instructions, Operational Records, and Control and Supervision; and
- Quality Assurance LC 17 across the site.
The Site Inspector judged that the station was adequately complying with all these licence conditions.
An NII Specialist Inspector also undertook follow-up inspections against the Ionising Radiations Regulations on contamination control and radiation protection equipment. The station is generally complying with these regulations, but some shortcomings were identified and the station has agreed to address them.
An HSE field inspector also inspected the arrangements on site for managing asbestos. These were found to be good.
In October 2003 a team of six NII inspectors observed Oldbury's annual "Level 1" emergency exercise, this year called "Napoleon". The purpose of this exercise is for the Station to demonstrate how it adequately implements the Oldbury Emergency Plan and Arrangements in accordance with Licence Condition 11.
This was a testing scenario and Oldbury gave an overall adequate demonstration of its emergency arrangements. There were several very good features, in particular protection of the plant and public, security control and contamination control. However, accounting for missing persons and casualty rescue were less secure and this detracted from an overall good performance. Next year NII is planning to focus its attention on these areas.
NII continues to monitor all safety-related events on site. There are no significant events to report this quarter.
Very significant progress has been made in modifying the plant to ensure that the control block can withstand seismic events to modern standards. NII is satisfied that the work will be completed early in 2004.
NII is satisfied that the station has successfully completed its seismic structural modifications to the irradiated fuel storage ponds building and has issued a licence instrument, effectively closing the project.
The station has started a large programme of work to strengthen
some masonry walls. This is to ensure that there is adequate
post-trip cooling following the unlikely event of a large hot gas
release from the reactor pressure circuit. It is expected that this
work will be completed in the next few months.
3.4 Minimum Safety Related Plant
In the last quarterly report NII reported that some improvements
identified under the station's last Periodic Safety Review
relating to configuration control of safety-related plant had not
been implemented. The station is now undertaking these improvements
and NII will be inspecting the modifications in early 2004 to ensure
that that the station is doing all that is reasonably
practicable.
NII has completed its assessment of the updated Oldbury graphite core safety case and will be discussing its findings with Magnox Electric early in 2004.
The Inspectorate has power under the 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 licence.
The table below summarises the formal Directions, Consents, Approvals and Licence Instruments (LI) issued during the quarter:
| Date | Type | No. | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23 October 2003 | Approval | 11 | Approval to the revised Oldbury Power Station Emergency Plan |
6 October 2003 |
LI | 34 | Agreement under LC22 to structural modifications to achieve seismic qualification of Cooling Ponds Building - Final Report |
| 3 November 2003 | LI | 35 | Agreement under LC22 to installation of an electronic control system to the Gas Turbines - Final Report |
Published on the HSE web site 23 February 2004