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 Bradwell Power Station's Local Community Liaison Council and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at Bradwell Nuclear Power Station. These reports are distributed quarterly. Site Inspectors of HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate normally attend LCLC meetings and will 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.
1.1 Bradwell was visited for inspections, meetings and investigations on five occasions during this quarter, the inspections containing both a routine element and a reactive element. The visits were made on the following dates:-
1.2 In addition to the site inspector's planned inspection activities, a number of additional activities were carried out, two of which involved teams of HMNII specialist inspectors and one which involved a team comprising HMNII and other HM Specialist Inspectors. These were concerned with the station's annual demonstration emergency exercise, and inspections into the station's management of asbestos containing materials. A joint investigation with the Environment Agency was also commenced into the incident which resulted in the loss of active liquid from a decontamination bay sump.
There was one routine inspection carried out in this quarter, covering a range of aspects concerned with the Ionising Radiation Regulations 1999. The station's arrangements in the areas inspected were seen to be adequate.
These arrangements are intended to control the design and construction of new buildings. Now that Bradwell has commenced decommissioning, new buildings will be required to retrieve, treat and store operational radioactive wastes. Whilst Bradwell's arrangements in this area are mature and robust and contain multiple controls, checks and balances, they were originally designed to cater for an operational station and are, therefore, not adequate to manage new build projects. The station has accepted this and has undertook to produce and implement improved arrangements which will give more secure management and control of the design and construction processes for new build projects associated with decommissioning.
The station held it's annual demonstration emergency exercise as required by HMNII. The station failed to demonstrate that their arrangements could be adequately implemented during this exercise. HMNII has agreed with the station that the demonstration exercise will need to be re-run.
HMNII observed the assessment by the Liabilities Management Unit (LMU) of Bradwell's Near Term Work Plan. Requirements were placed on Bradwell by LMU concerning the station's interface with the regulators.
An inspection of the station's arrangements for Records of Decommissioning found that there were deficiencies in those arrangements. A programme of improvements to the arrangements was agreed with the station.
A bi-annual meeting was held with the Trade Union safety Representatives. Current issues of concern to the Safety Representatives and to HMNII were discussed.
3.1 Two investigations and two specialist inspections were carried out this period. The details are given below under Regulatory Activities.
There were no Licence Instruments issued during the period.
Currently at Bradwell nuclear power station, asbestos is being stripped from the turbine hall. The work is being carried out by Kitson Environ-mental European Ltd. under contract to BNFL Environmental Services. Work has been ongoing since July 2003. Following allegations of sev-eral unsafe working practices made by an ex-employee of Kitson, HSE and Health & Ssafety Laboratory (HSL) asbestos specialists from Nor-wich and Luton carried out an investigation. The three asbestos spe-cialist inspectors were accompanied by two inspectors from HMNII, the nominated site inspector for Bradwell and a conventional safety spe-cialist.
Six bags of stripped asbestos were removed from a skip. On examina-tion, dry asbestos was found in each bag. Whilst it was evident that procedures had been used to inject the asbestos with penetrant as part of the removal process, this system was found to be inadequate. HSE took possession of samples of the dry asbestos.
An Improvement Notice was served on Kitson Environmental European
Ltd. under Regulation 10 of the Control of Asbestos at Work
Regula-tions on Friday 18th March 2004. The Improvement Notice placed
re-quirements on training, control & supervision and maintenance
of wet stripping operations. Kitson were given twenty-one days to
comply. Kitsons were also given a verbal direction not to carry out
any asbestos stripping activities until the Improvement Notice has
been complied with. The Bradwell station manager was asked to give
this undertaking in writing to Field Operations Directorate (FOD) and
HMNII.
Whilst inspecting the asbestos stripping activities, a number of
deficiencies were noted in the 415v, 240v and 110v temporary supplies
in the turbine hall. At the request of the HMNII inspectors, these
supplies were isolated. This immediately stopped asbestos stripping
work within the turbine hall as some of these supplies fed the
asbestos decontamination units. The station manager was informed and
proposals for remedial actions requested.
A further inspection carried out by inspectors from HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate, in response to concerns raised by Trades Unions safety representatives, of the care and maintenance arrangements for asbestos containing materials in the boiler houses took place on 31 March 2004. This inspection revealed several deficiencies in Bradwell's arrangements. An Improvement Notice was served on Magnox Electric plc on 05 April 2004 requiring the rectification of these deficiencies. This Improvement Notice placed requirements on Bradwell power station to assess and manage the risks to health and safety of persons entering the boiler houses from asbestos containing materials. The notice required Bradwell to comply by 21 May 2004. A verbal direction was also issued to Bradwell nuclear power station to restrict casual access to the boiler houses until such a time as the area asbestos risks are assessed and any remedial action is completed. The station has complied with this direction.
Two investigations were started during the period. The first involved an incident which resulted in an injury to the finger of a contractor on site. This investigation showed that the station had carried out a comprehensive investigation of its own into the incident.
An investigation was also commenced into the incident which resulted in the loss of water from a decontamination bay sump. This is a joint investigation with the Environment Agency. This investigation is not yet complete and will be reported on in a future quarterly report.
Published on the HSE web site 2 July 2004