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 also for distribution to members of the Wylfa Power Station Local Community Liaison Council and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at Wylfa Power Station. Site Inspectors of HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate attend LCLC meetings and will be happy to respond to questions raised there by members of the LCLC. Any other person wishing to enquire about matters covered by this report should contact the HSE, Nuclear Directorate Information Centre on 0151 - 951 - 4103.
Visits to Wylfa Power Station were made by HMNII inspectors on the following occasions during the period:
14 - 17 July 2003
6 - 7 August 2003
8 - 10 September 2003
17 September 2003
23 - 25 September 2003
Throughout the period, the site inspector has continued to carry out a programme of planned inspections of the licensee's compliance with relevant health and safety requirements, in particular the conditions attached to the nuclear site licence and the Ionising Radiations Regulations. Overall BNFL's compliance arrangements were found to be satisfactory. Some areas for potential improvement were brought to the attention of the Wylfa management team, but none of these was significant enough to merit the consideration of enforcement action.
HMNII continues to closely monitor BNFL's completion of engineering work outstanding from the 1994 Long Term Safety Review. A number of significant milestones were met by BNFL during the quarter, with the completion of some significant plant modifications. This enables the safety benefits associated with the modifications to be formally claimed, thereby enhancing the safety case.
Having completed a comprehensive review of the Wylfa safety case,
BNFL submitted the results of this Periodic Safety Review (PSR) to
HMNII on 29 September 2003. HMNII will now carry out an assessment
of the PSR. This will take up to 12 months, leading to a decision on
whether BNFL should be permitted to continue the operation of the
Wylfa reactors beyond September 2004. The review of the safety case
by BNFL has identified a number of areas where the existing safety
case can be enhanced. BNFL has already commenced
work on implementing these enhancements, with some having been
completed already. It is BNFL's intention to complete all of the
enhancements before September 2004. Any further safety enhancements
arising from HMNII's assessment of BNFL's PSR will be
implemented on a timescale to be agreed with the licensee.
3. NON-ROUTINE MATTERS
During the course of planned visits to site, the site inspector has monitored BNFL's recording and investigation of events which occurred during the quarter and where appropriate has carried out some independent investigations to an extent warranted by the significance of the event. In general the site inspector is content with the way in which BNFL has responded to events during the quarter. One event during the quarter, which was provisionally rated as INES 1 by BNFL, involved the unintentional isolation of the fire detection and protection system in one plant area for a short period of time, during some planned maintenance activities on the system. The Site Inspector has reviewed the event and the investigation carried out by BNFL and has concluded that BNFL's response to the event was appropriate and hence no further regulatory action is proposed.
As reported previously, during the planned periodic shutdown of Reactor 1, a number of defects were discovered in a small number of boiler support brackets. Following discussions between the Inspectorate and BNFL, some further inspections were carried out to determine the extent and nature of the problem. These inspections were carried out to the Inspectorate's satisfaction and Reactor 1 returned to service. HMNII raised the issue of the implications for Reactor 2 of the defects found on Reactor 1. BNFL made a prudent decision to shutdown Reactor 2 and carry out an inspection of the boiler support brackets. This confirmed the absence of any defects in the Reactor 2 brackets and hence it was returned to service.
The Inspectorate has powers under the Nuclear Site Licence to issue Consents, Approvals and Directions. In addition the Inspectorate uses Licence Instruments to issue formal Agreements and Specifications under the conditions attached to the Licence. During this period, the Inspectorate used these powers as follows:
Approval No 15 was issued on 24 September 2003 agreeing to a small number of minor changes to the Wylfa Maintenance Schedule.
Licence Instrument No 72 was issued on 7 July 2003 agreeing to the modification of a batch of masonry walls in connection with enhancement of the seismic safety case.
Licence Instrument No 73 was issued on 22 September 2003 agreeing to the extension of Maintenance Schedule intervals, when these are carried out in accordance with agreed arrangements.
Published on the HSE web site 24 November 2003