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 URENCO (Capenhurst) Ltd Local 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 LLC meetings and will be happy to respond to questions raised there or subsequently by members of the LLC. 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 :-
October 5th, 11th, 12th, 15th, 20th
November 4th, 15th, 25th
December 1st, 15th
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 site inspector has concentrated on other regulatory activities. Licence condition compliance inspections will recommence in the next reporting period.
The NII/URENCO (Capenhurst) Ltd (UCL) Annual Review of Safety Meeting was held on 4.11.04. UCL gave a number of presentations on the review of safety and environmental performance, production/project matters over the last year and outlined their future plans and projects. NII gave a short presentation on the findings of the NII inspections at UCL over the past year.
The arrangements at UCL for compliance with the Ionising Radiation Regulations 1999 with regard to the arrangements for dealing with sealed sources have been inspected. Specifically compliance with Regulation 27 (leak lests etc), Regulation 28 (accounting, quality and location) & Regulation 29 (keeping and moving of sources) were inspected. This inspection was undertaken as part of the NII programme of inspections on various licensed sites commissioned as a response to the loss of a source event on the BNFL Capenhurst Site earlier this year. No major issues/concerns were identified from the inspection however a number of minor areas for improvement were identified and discussed.
The first and second meeting of the Exercise Planning Group for the Level 2 Exercise "Eagle", due to be held on 19.4.05, were attended by NII. The overall scenario will be developed to include a number of additional events/injects to allow the incident timescales to extend such that the new Silver and Gold Command Centres are adequately tested.
The latest meeting of the Capenhurst Emergency Planning Consultative Committee (EPCC) was attended.
The latest meeting of the UCL Local Liaison Committee Meeting held on 25.11.04 was attended.
Further discussions have been held to discuss UCL's plans to build a Tails Management Facility. The discussions were focused on discussing whether there are any licensing implications for this proposal and the other UCL proposals for producing Hex of increased enrichment up to 10% U235 and for enriching reprocessed Uranium.
Discussions have been held on the submission to NII seeking issue of a consent for a lease for Building 806 to Enrichment Technology (UK) Ltd. This building, at the entrance to the site, is currently being upgraded for use as office accommodation for Enrichment Technology (UK) Ltd. Following the completion of the outstanding actions etc a consent was subsequently issued.
Meetings have been held between BNFL, UCL, EA and NII to discuss the proposals to transfer the sewage farm complex operations from BNFL to UCL. The discussions reviewed a number of options relating to the transfer to ascertain their effect on the current discharge authorisations and the legal/licensing aspects of the proposed transfer. The range of options for the transfer were reviewed and it was agreed that the option to progress was the one which involved the sale of the land and buildings and some adjacent land to UCL with a lease arrangement set up between UCL and BNFL to operate the facility. It is anticipated that the draft lease documentation, which will be subject of a Licence Condition 3 consent, will be submitted to NII in early 2005.
UCL have outlined to NII their current thinking regarding a future site relicensing programme. UCL indicated that they may submit a relicensing application in Jan 06. As outlined above UCL plan to take responsibility for the site sewage and drainage systems from BNFL Capenhurst and would thus seek in the future to take the sewage farm area onto the UCL licensed site from the BNFL licensed site. UCL indicated that a future relicensing submission may include taking other areas of the BNFL Licensed site onto the UCL Licensed site. The opportunity to delicense some of the areas of the site close to the main gate may also be included in the relicensing package proposals.
UCL have updated NII on a revised management of change proposal for the appointment of a Radioactive Materials Transport Manager. This was an outstanding action arising from the joint NII/Department of Transport inspection carried out earlier in 2004. UCL indicated that they had recently altered the proposed management reporting structures from that indicated to the inspection team at the time of the inspection. UCL indicated that they believed the revised structure addresses the concerns raised during the inspection in a more robust manner. UCL stated that they would forward to NII the relevant management of change documentation as part of a submission to finally close out the actions arising from the inspection.
The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) has published a review of the decommissioning strategy for the UCL site - otherwise known as the Quinquennial Review (QQR). The report of the HSE's findings is available publicly on the internet on the HSE/ND website, www.hse.gov.uk/nuclear/uclqqr.pdf. The report concludes that UCL has a well developed and comprehensive set of site specific strategies for managing its redundant facilities and the process by-product of uranium enrichment. It is expected that on-going radioactive waste management issues will be addressed as part of the normal regulatory requirements under the nuclear site licence conditions. The strategies, so far as they are defined are considered sufficiently flexible to take account of changing circumstances. The NII will progress issues from the QQR with UCL as part of future routine regulatory work. A presentation of the HSE report was given to the UCL Local Liaison Committee at the November 2004.
Discussions have been held with UCL regarding the incident on site where it was discovered, in late October (approximately 3 weeks after they were issued), that the film inserts for the quarterly film badge issue for the Capenhurst site had been irradiated before issue. On discovery of the problem new badges were issued to staff. A NII specialist Inspector has visited the site to consider the measures taken by UCL to assign estimated doses to the classified and monitored workers on site for the 3 week period in question ie the steps taken to ensure compliance with Reg. 22 of the Ionising Radiations Regulations (IRRs). The arrangements made by UCL were examined and considered adequate. The Site Inspector has also had discussions with UCL regarding the investigation into the cause of the event and the steps undertaken to prevent a reoccurrence of a similar event in the future. A draft copy of the investigation report was reviewed and although the exact means of the exposure has not been established it was considered that the recommendations for the changes of mail processing of packages of X -ray sensitive material should significantly reduce the likelihood of such events occurring in the future.
Regulatory Actions taken during the quarter -
| Date | Description |
|---|---|
| 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 UCL for complying with those conditions. The Consents/Approvals/Directions and Licence Instruments issued during the quarter were -
|
Date |
Type |
No. |
Description |
|
20.12.04 |
Consent |
500 |
Licence Condition 3 Consent to lease of Building B806 to Enrichment Technology UK Limited |
HM Principal Inspector (Nuclear Installations)
Published on the HSE web site 08 February 2005