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 Barrow-in-Furness Local Liaison committee (LLC) and covers activities associated with the regulation of nuclear safety at BAE SYSTEMS Marine Limited (BAESM). 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.
This report will be put onto the HSE Website at http://www.hse.gov.uk/nuclear/index.htm.The majority of sites inspected by HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) a part of the Health and Safety Executive, are licensed by NII under the Nuclear Installations Act 1965 (as amended). This report summarises the inspection and regulatory activities associated with the Barrow-in-Furness licensed site. In accordance with the HSE commitments to open government, this report will also be placed on the Internet.
Visits are made to the site for the purpose of undertaking routine plant and project inspections or attending formal meetings with site management or safety representatives. Routine inspections by NII are undertaken primarily to check compliance with licence conditions made under the Nuclear Installations Act, but are also made against provisions of the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974, and regulations made under that Act such as the Ionising Radiations Regulations 1999. The site inspector visited site on:
18-19 January 2005 10 February 2005
27 January 2005 1 March 2005
1-3 February 2005 7-10 March 2005
8 February 2005 14 March 2005
Other NII inspectors visited site on
27 January 2005
2 February 2005
14 March 2005
Matters covered in this section are those being pursued with the site as part of ongoing site inspection activity and dialogue including project work and any generic or topical work relevant to all licensees.
As part of the routine inspection programme for the sites NII check compliance with licence conditions made under the Nuclear Installations Act and other Regulations such as the Ionising Radiation Regulations 1999.
BAESM continues the amendment of its arrangements made to comply with the licence conditions to reflect current thinking and industry good practice. Progress with this work is satisfactory, and no significant issues in relation to the licensee’s arrangements were raised during the quarter.Emergency Arrangements
The demonstration of the arrangements for the evacuation, mustering and accounting of personnel on the licensed site at Barrow was repeated on 14 March 2005. All personnel were accounted for within 45 minutes of the start of the site evacuation, and the NII and Naval Nuclear Regulatory Panel observers judged the repeat to have been a very satisfactory demonstration of the arrangements.
Quality Assurance Issues
NII, in close cooperation with the Naval Nuclear Regulatory Panel, continues to monitor BAESM’s response to the shortfalls in the quality assurance of components destined for installation in the ASTUTE Class submarines nuclear reactor plants. NII is content that the strategy agreed between BAESM and the vendor for the first phase of this work offers an appropriate process for demonstrating the fitness for purpose of safety significant components. The strategies for addressing all other components and for ensuring similar problems are not encountered during future procurement are being developed.
RC Bulkhead Penetrations
Problems were discovered with welds on some penetrations in the reactor compartment bulkheads on ASTUTE. BAESM suspended work on the penetrations until the causes of the problems have been identified and technical solutions developed.
NII issues formal regulatory documents called Consents and Approvals, together with licence instruments where these are called for under conditions attached to the site licence. Directions may also be issued at the discretion of NII. Regulatory responsibility for authorising discharges and disposal of radioactive wastes from the sites lies with the Environment Agency.
No formal regulatory documents were issued by NII for the Barrow site during the quarter.
Barrow-in-Furness Site Inspector
HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate