HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate
AWE ALDERMASTON AND BURGHFIELD
Quarterly report for 1 January to 31 March 2005
CONTENTS
FOREWORD
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 sites available to the public. It is for distribution to members of the AWE Local Liaison Committee (LLC) and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at Aldermaston and Burghfield. These reports are distributed quarterly and are available also from the Internet at http://www.hse.gov.uk/nuclear/index.htm. Site Inspectors of HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate attend LLC meetings and will be happy to respond to any questions raised there by members. Any other person wishing to enquire about matters covered by this report may contact HSE’s Nuclear Directorate Information Centre on 0151-951-4103.
Introduction
1. A total of 22 NII inspectors visited the Aldermaston and Burghfield sites during the quarter. In addition there were visits from other HSE inspectors in relation to conventional safety, and explosives. The Deputy Director General of the HSE, and the Chief Inspector of NII made separate visits to AWE for familiarisation and to meet the AWE senior management. NII admin staff visited site in order to extract historical information from the AWE database on abnormal events. NII inspections were made on the following dates:
Aldermaston
10 – 14 January
25 – 27 January
31 January – 2 February
8 – 10 February
21 – 25 February
28 February – 4 March
9 – 10 March
14 – 18 March
Burghfield
11 January
26 – 27 January
9 February
22 February
10 March
15 March
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ROUTINE MATTERS
Inspections are undertaken for the purpose of monitoring compliance with (i) the conditions attached by HSE to the nuclear site licences, and (ii) other relevant provisions of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, including the Ionising Radiations Regulations 1999. In this period routine inspections included:
- Provision and assessment of safety cases and compliance with arrangements made under licence conditions.
- Management of facility operations and maintenance.
- Proposals for new plants.
- Emergency arrangements.
- Decommissioning of redundant facilities.
- Waste management.
- Operating rules, operating instructions, and operational records.
- Arrangements for the control of modifications to existing plants.
- Arrangements for the notification, recording, investigation, and reporting of incidents on the sites.
- Managing of contractors.
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NON-ROUTINE MATTERS
Corporate
- HSE Deputy Director of Operations visit.
The DDG visited Aldermaston. AWE’s Directors provided presentations of the key work of the site as well as their views on the need for NII to be suitably resourced to permission and regulate their work. He visited two key facilities and met some of the site safety representatives. He fed back his views on key issues to the Director Assurance at the closeout meeting.
- Chief Inspector visit
The acting (now confirmed in post) Chief Inspector of NII visited Aldermaston and saw some of the older facilities. He met the site Directors and safety representatives. His overall view was that the site was overdue investment to modernise older facilities in order to assure their continued compliance with regulatory requirements.
- Review Learn and Improve/Operational Experience Feedback Inspection The NII report on team inspection on RLI/OEF at AWE has now been completed. As expected, a wide range of practice was identified with some areas being very good and others where improvements could be made. One of the activities recommended for improvement in the corporate area was the weakness in the quality of root cause analysis; any failure to identify the correct root cause(s) could undermine the effectiveness of corrective actions. However, overall the licensee was judged to be operating at an acceptable standard.
- Safety Case Standards and Methodologies
The AWE Design Basis Accident Analysis standard used for areas of safety case fault analysis has been discussed with AWE. Although a number of areas of concern had been addressed in recent revisions, there remain issues regarding AWE’s current approach. This methodology is seen as fundamental to the safety case approach, which is why NII has commented on it in detail. The licensee indicated that it would consider NII comments and may rewrite the standard when these are taken into account.
Another topic under this area is the use of probabilistic analysis to support criticality assessment. A meeting on criticality PSA revealed that AWE could see the benefits of adopting this approach for some safety cases and is considering how this could be implemented.
- Fire Service Organisation
NII reviewed a proposed change to the organisation of the fire service at both Aldermaston and Burghfield sites. The LC 36 case was considered acceptable and, subject to clarification of minor points, NII has advised AWE that the proposal will not be examined any further. NII notes that the Unions were consulted about the change.
- Licence Compliance Inspection
As part of routine compliance inspection,weaknesses in AWE’s arrangements for complying with the nuclear licence conditions for change control, operational records and warning notices were found in a number of facilities. Although the response of each Facility to NII comments has been broadly positive, corporate action is being pursued to address these shortfalls.
- FoD Interaction
A meeting was held with the construction inspector allocated to AWE to discuss ways of working between NII and FOD.
- AWE Proposal to Re-use Waste Stores
AWE is proposing to re-use an old waste store for accumulation of low and intermediate level wastes (mostly LLW material in oils, with some ILW oil). NII has discussed with AWE the need for a clear long-term strategy for the disposal of some of these materials. NII judgement on reasonable practicability of improvements currently made to these stores will be influenced by the proposed duration of their use, and will be resolved before the stores are re-used.
- AWE Core (Generic) Decommissioning Safety Case (CDSC)
AWE attended a meeting at Bootle with NII Inspectors and Assessors to present the approach that they are taking to develop a generic (core) decommissioning safety case. The CDSC is effectively a methodology (a compendium of assessments and issues) that can be drawn upon when preparing a safety case for decommissioning a specific facility. The Infrastructure Safety Case (ISC) for the first decommissioning facility to which the CDSC is being applied, was also presented. The overall approach appears sound in principle. NII is assessing the CDSC and this ISC in order to identify potential advantages and problems before this template is rolled out more widely.
- Aldex Level 2
The Aldex05 Level 2 demonstration emergency exercise took place in this quarter. The level 2 exercise predominantly challenges the off-site participants. The NII site inspection team played both on the site and at the Offsite Centre at Kidlington, and an NII team observed the play. The exercise was considered to be an acceptable demonstration.
- Radioactive Material Survey
There have been a small number of events involving the discovery of legacy RA material that has not been previously accounted for, although safely controlled within facilities. In the more distant past this non-fissile material was not classified as accountable material. NII has agreed a strategy with AWE for it to survey all facilities within both sites to identify any further such material. The strategy includes an amnesty on material so discovered but once included under the AWE control umbrella NII has indicated that further instances of the discovery of similar material will not be viewed sympathetically.
Aldermaston
- Pangbourne Pipeline
The PPL officially closed on 16 March 2005. The replacement disposal route, the new waste treatment plant, is still undergoing commissioning and has not yet gone active. NII continues to monitor the situation.
- Gaseous Process Plant Safety Case
A number of NII assessment inspectors attended a presentation on the approach AWE is proposing to take when preparing a revised facility safety case. This meeting is part of the early involvement initiative to enable NII inspectors to engage with their AWE counterparts at an early stage.
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REGULATORY ACTIVITY
- As part of its regulation under the nuclear site licences NII issues formal regulatory documents, which include Consents, Approvals, Directions, and Licence Instruments.
- Consent No. 503 Commencement of Routine Operation of Bays 3 & 4.
- No other issues have arisen that have required formal regulatory action.
Licence Instruments are issued to acknowledge receipt of specified documents, eg proposals for a new or modified plant; to stipulate whether the Inspectorate intends to examine these documents, or to agree to the start of a particular phase of construction, commissioning, modification, or decommissioning.
Licence Instruments are issued to acknowledge receipt of specified documents, eg proposals for a new or modified plant; to stipulate whether the Inspectorate intends to examine these documents, or to agree to the start of a particular phase of construction, commissioning, modification, or decommissioning.
