HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate
AWE ALDERMASTON AND BURGHFIELD
Quarterly report for 1 OCTOBER TO 31 DECEMBER 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
A total of 27 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. In November the head of HSE’s Hazardous Industry Directorate, and Chief Inspector of Explosives visited the Aldermaston and Burghfield sites for familiarisation and topical discussions. NII inspections were made on the following dates:
| Aldermaston |
Burghfield |
| 10/10/2005 |
10-14/10/2005 |
| 12-14/10/2005 |
19/10/2005 |
| 17-20/10/2005 |
14-17/11/2005 |
| 31/10/2005 |
30/11/2005 |
| 1-2/11/2005 |
12-15/12/2005 |
| 15-17/11/2005 |
|
| 28-30/11/2005 |
| 1/12/2005 |
| 14/12/2005 |
| 16-17/12/2005 |
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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
- Management Structures:
Following on from the work associated with the recent Improvement Notice (see Tritium IN below), work is continuing with AWE to ensure that a more fundamental review of their management structures is properly conducted. The scope of work has been agreed with AWE and will be carried out over the course of the next year. The findings may have significant implications for the way in which facilities are managed.
- AWE Senior Management Changes:
AWE has appointed new directors for the posts of Director of Assurance and Director of Major Projects. The director assurance has been appointed from within AWE. The director of major projects has been seconded from the Managing Agent (Jacobs) who was appointed to assist in the current investment programme. Under licence condition 36 arrangements NII has confirmed that it is satisfied with the appointments.
- Training, Nuclear Licence Condition 10:
Compliance inspections of two facilities on the AWE sites identified a need to improve arrangements for recording and assessing training records. This is in contrast to a recent inspection of training at another facility where good examples of modern training practices were found. This is indicative of a lack of consistency in promulgation of good practice across the sites. These training aspects are being pursued as part of an inspection planned in January 2006, looking at training issues and corporate competency.
- Development of Intelligent Customer Capability:
NII met with AWE to discuss their progress towards developing a corporate position with regard to arrangements for the control of contractors and to maintain intelligent customer (IC) oversight of projects.
AWE’s conclusions about its IC requirements appear to be broadly consistent with those of ND. However, AWE indicated that under the new integrated project delivery organisation, Jacobs (Managing Agent) and AWE staff will be indistinguishable, and therefore any of them could exercise the IC role.
Aldermaston
- Intermediate Level Waste Specification:
In March 2000 NII issued a Specification, Licence Instrument number 48. AWE has been advised that NII is satisfied that the requirement of the Specification dealing with the type and form of intermediate level waste stored on site, has been met. In the area of legacy waste this has been achieved by monitoring and reclassification as low-level waste, LLW.
- Uranium Processing Facilities:
Discussions are ongoing between AWE and NII concerning future requirements for Uranium processing. A team of NII specialist assessors has visited AWE to discuss NII’s safety expectations for demonstrating the continued safety of existing facilities or the design of a replacement facility.
- Periodic Reports on Safety:
Periodic safety reports are a requirement under the nuclear site licence. AWE are currently engaged in work to support a 10 yearly PRS programme. A facility specific PRS has been submitted to NII for assessment. AWE said the initial work on seismic is complete and indicates the building will generally meet 1 in 1000 year criteria and in some cases the 1 in 10000 year. There are some improvements to be considered for internal structures.
- Decommissioning Programmes:
A visit to AWE took place at which assessors discussed issues associated with decommissioning of the box bay line and visited the plant. The visit was informative, and NII staff were encouraged to see the approaches that AWE is taking to reduce personnel exposure to hazards.
- Tritium Improvement Notice:
Discussions took place over AWE’s response to the recent Improvement Notice. AWE’s response has been excellent. They have implemented a detailed radiological protection awareness-training programme and have put over 3000 (AWE and contractors) through this course. A randomised assessment survey was completed after training and this demonstrated a good level of learning from the training. Instructions on dealing with legacy finds have been promulgated and briefed to all facilities, and good progress has been made in producing safety statements for lower hazard category facilities. The notice was closed out ahead of the target date of 31st December 2005.
Burghfield
- MSER/Nuclear legislation approach:
During the familiarisation visit by HSE’s Chief Inspector of Explosives, the differences in legislative approach between the manufacture and storage of explosives regulations (MSER), and the frequency consequence approach adopted by NII for nuclear risks was raised by AWE. CI HID indicated that a quantity/ distance approach should be the starting point for an explosives facility design.
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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.
- No Licence Instruments were issued in this period.
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.
