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 Capenhurst Local Stakeholder Group (LSG) 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 LSG meetings and will be happy to respond to questions raised there or subsequently by members of the LSG. 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 site was visited by NII inspectors on :-
April 27th
June 7th, 9th & 23rd
On 1st April Mr. I. Gibson replaced Dr. D. Simister as the nominated NII Site Inspector for BNFL Capenhurst Site
Each NII Site Inspector has an inspection programme to inspect compliance of operations on the site with the 36 Nuclear Site Licence Conditions (LCs). During this quarter the new site inspector has concentrated on site familiarisation and other regulatory activities. Licence condition compliance inspections will recommence in the next reporting period.
A presentation was made to NII & Environment Agency (EA) site inspectors on the recent work undertaken British Nuclear Group on the Site Land Characterisation project which forms part of the overall site decommissioning project. The project team outlined the initial results of the survey which has identified some areas of metal/organic/radioactive ground contamination across the site. However the initial results indicate that no areas of significant levels of radioactive ground contamination have been identified. Further presentations on this ongoing programme of work are planned.
British Nuclear Group have updated the NII and EA site inspectors on the proposals to transfer the responsibility for the operation of the overall site drainage and sewage system to URENCO.
A meeting was held between British Nuclear Group, Department of Trade & Industry LMU, NII & EA to review the options for the management structure of the British Nuclear Group site post 1.4.05 when the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) comes into existence. The purpose of the meeting was for the various stakeholders to discuss the various options in an open forum. Only a limited number of options were considered feasible for the 1.4.05 deadline. All these options had British Nuclear Fuels plc remaining as licensee with varying management reporting structures through BNFL/British Nuclear Group structure. Further meetings are planned between the various stakeholders.
Meetings have been held to discuss the safety documentation relating
to the next phases of the B300 decommissioning project. British
Nuclear Group indicated that all the issues previously raised by NII
had now been addressed. It was concluded that suitable evidence was
available to allow British Nuclear Group to make a submission to NII
for the granting of an agreement to commence the active commissioning
work on the plant and equipment required to progress the next stage
of decommissioning.
Capenhurst Local Stakeholder Meeting
The NII site inspector attended the Local Stakeholders Group meeting held on 23.6.04
In May British Nuclear Group notified NII of an event relating to a "missing/mislaid" sealed radioactive source, which was used for instrument calibration. British Nuclear Group carried out a comprehensive, but ultimately unsuccessful, search for the source and cannot rule out that the source has not gone off site as part of the standard waste movements. British Nuclear Group have set up a formal inquiry into the specific event and the associated wider loss of control aspects. (The missing sealed source is of very small activity/low hazard i.e. significantly below that of the sources used within domestic smoke detectors). NII & EA will follow up this event after the British Nuclear Group investigation team has reported.
Regulatory Actions taken during the quarter -
None
The Inspectorate has powers under the licence to issue Consents, Approvals and Directions. In addition, the Inspectorate uses Licence Instruments to issue Specifications, Acknowledgements and Agreements under either the conditions attached to the Licence, or arrangements made by BNFL for complying with those conditions. The Consents/Approvals/Directions and Licence Instruments issued during the quarter were -
None
Published on the HSE web site 23 August 2004