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 Dungeness Local Community Liaison Council and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at Dungeness B Nuclear Power Station. These reports are distributed quarterly and are available on the HSE web site (hse.gov.uk/nuclear/llc/2004/index.htm). 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's Nuclear Directorate Information Centre on 0151 951 4103.
1. The Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) Site Inspector and/or his assistant visited Dungeness 'B' on the following dates during the quarter covered by this report:
19-22 January,
2-5 and 24-26 February, and
22-25 March.
2. Other NII inspectors with specialist technical expertise also visited British Energy establishments during the period so as to support the Site Inspector by performing inspections on the power station's nuclear safety case.
3. Compliance Inspections: During the visits listed above the Site Inspector, and assistant, carried out planned inspections of the licensee's compliance with: (i) the conditions attached to the Site Licence; (ii) the Ionising Radiations Regulations; and (iii) other relevant health and safety legislation.
4. Review Meeting: At regular intervals NII meets formally with the licensee's Station and Headquarters staff to review the last period of operation, to discuss future plans and to ensure progress on outstanding issues is satisfactory. As part of this ongoing dialogue, the Site Inspector, his Superintending Inspector and other NII colleagues attended a Dungeness B power station Review Meeting on 25 March 2004.
5. Emergency Arrangements: An NII team supported the Site Inspector when witnessing a Level 1 Emergency Exercise on 25 February 2004. This exercise was judged by NII to provide adequate demonstration that the site's emergency arrangements could cope with a major event.
6. Emergency Planning Consultative Committee Meeting: The Site Inspector attended the EPCC meeting at Dungeness on 21 January 2004.
7. Incidents on Site: As part of routine, planned inspections the Site Inspector examined the licensee's arrangements for the recording and investigation of incidents at the power station and, where appropriate, undertook independent investigations to the extent that was warranted by the significance of the incident.
8. Change of NII Site Inspector: At the end of this quarter there was a change of Dungeness B power station, NII Site Inspector. It is NII policy that NII Site Inspector appointments should last no longer than 3 to 4 years.
9. The NII has powers within the standard Nuclear Site Licence Conditions to issue Consents, Approvals and Directions. In addition NII uses Licence Instruments to issue Specifications and Agreements under the conditions attached to the Licence. In accordance with formal regulatory procedures under Site Licence No. 61 the NII issued the following:
Licence Instrument No 57 was issued on 25 March 2004 giving HSE agreement to continued operation of the Dungeness B reactors on the basis of the Three-Yearly Outage Safety Case.
Approval No 16 was issued on 2 April 2004 so as to approve amendments to the Dungeness B power station Maintenance Schedule Preface.
Licence Instrument No 57 and Approval No 16 between them give permission for Dungeness B to move to a three year interval between major outages, rather than the previous two year interval. This brings Dungeness B into line with the rest of the Advanced Gas Reactor (AGR) fleet that is owned and operated by British Energy.
Published on the HSE web site 31 August 2004
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