Health and Safety
Executive / Commission
Nuclear
LLC reports
Inspections
Routine
Matters
Non Routine Matters
Regulatory Activity
The 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 Capenhurst District Liaison Committee and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at Capenhurst. These reports are distributed quarterly. Site Inspectors of HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate normally attend DLC meetings and will be happy to respond to questions raised there or subsequently by members of the DLC. Any other person wishing to inquire about matters covered by this report should contact the HSE, Nuclear Directorate Information Centre on 0151 951 4103.
Three site inspection visits were made to the UCL site during this period on 27 January, 4 February and 10/11 March 2003.
The main themes were compliance inspection against site licence conditions based upon NII's Integrated Enforcement Strategy (IES) and acceleration of the Quinquennial Review Project.
ROUTINE MATTERS
A compliance inspection was undertaken in one of UCL's process plants against LC27 - Safety Mechanism, Devices and Circuits. UCL staff were unable to satisfactorily identify key parts of the process equipment having safety significance and UCL have agreed to undertake a site wide review of these systems. A repeat inspection will be undertaken in the next period.
Shortfalls in LC17 compliance (Quality Assurance) identified in NII's last report have been thoroughly reviewed by UCL. NII welcomes this response and is monitoring implementation of improvements to these systems.
NII has launched a project internally aimed at accelerating NII's review of UCL's Quinquennial Review Report. The aim is to complete assessment work and to publish a report before the end of 2003 - this follows a similar pattern of work with other licensees. A project meeting was held with UCL staff to identify key supporting documents which are in the process of being supplied to NII for review.
2.3 Radiation Emergency Preparedness and Public
Information
Regulations 2001
Nothing to report for this period.
Nothing to report for this period.
A routine meeting of the Capenhurst Emergency Planning Consultative Committee was attended on 20 January 2003. UCL's arrangements in the event of fire brigade union strike action continue to be noted and are welcomed.
An inspection of emergency arrangements on the hex storage rafts revealed a number of deficiencies which fell short of good practice. UCL agreed to review their procedure and implement NII's advice to improve local arrangements.
Construction activity on the new E23E production plant has started. NII co-ordinates the regulation of conventional safety with other Divisions/Directorates within HSE. In practice the NII site inspector is likely to be the first point of contact and may seek specialist assistance where necessary. A review of UCL's control and supervision of construction contractors has been undertaken and it was concluded that these arrangements were generally satisfactory.
An incident occurred on site involving the failure of lifting equipment used in the handling of uranium hexafluoride cylinders. The incident was reported to HSE under the RIDDOR arrangements. HSE has welcomed UCL's full investigation of the incident and the site inspector will follow-up the local inquiry as part of normal regulatory site contacts. No person was injured but as a result UCL have introduced new arrangements for lifting cylinders to avoid a reoccurrence.
There have been no consents, approvals or licence instruments issued during this period.
Published on the HSE web site 24 November 2003