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:
4-6 October 2005
11 October 2005
26 October 2005
15-17 November 2005
6-8 December 2005
21-22 December 2005
In addition, the NII superintending inspector visited the site on 26 October 2005, and other NII inspectors on 15-17 November 2005 and 7 December 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.
Inspections in this quarter focused on BAESM’s compliance with licence conditions covering the keeping of documents and records, and safety mechanisms. Overall, compliance was considered adequate for the current situation on site, but some improvement will be needed before fuel is brought on site, and some more before the start of active commissioning of the submarine’s reactor plant. Implementation of these improvements will be controlled and monitored through the hold point management process.
NII inspectors in conjunction with inspectors from MoD’s Naval Nuclear Regulatory Panel (NNRP) carried out a team inspection in November to benchmark BAESM’s processes for producing safety cases. The team found some areas considered to be examples of relevant good practice and others that could be improved. BAESM has been asked to produce an improvement action plan, which NII will monitor for progress, offering advice and guidance as required.
Inspectors from NII and NNRP observed the annual demonstration of BAESM’s on site emergency arrangements on 7 December 2005. The inspectors considered the exercise scenario provided an adequate demonstration of the arrangements. They observed a good performance overall by the participants in the exercise.
Two further events involving failures to follow the prescribed procedures for radiography on Astute were reported during the quarter. The NII site inspector accompanied a radiation specialist inspector from HSE’s Field Operations Division on a visit to site on 21 December 2005 to review the events and the actions subsequently taken by BAESM. The inspectors found that BAESM had responded appropriately to both events and had completed a comprehensive and searching investigation into the circumstance behind them. The investigation had identified the causal factors leading to the events, including some systemic issues concerning the control of work, and recommended the actions necessary to remedy them. BAESM provided assurances that it had accepted all of the actions and was in the progress of developing a resourced plan to implement them. None of the events involved significant exposure to radiation, and the inspectors considered that BAESM had responded appropriately and was taking the actions needed to correct the causal factors and issues identified during its investigation. Therefore, following the guidance in HSE’s Enforcement Management Model (http://www.hse.gov.uk/enforce/emm.pdf), the inspectors decided that detailed investigation and formal enforcement action by HSE was unnecessary on this occasion. However, BAESM has been formally advised it is likely that HSE would take formal enforcement action should any similar events occur in the future.
HMNII issues formal regulatory documents called licence instruments where these are called for under conditions attached to the nuclear site licence. Regulatory responsibility for authorising discharges and disposal of radioactive wastes from the sites lies with the Environment Agency.
The following licence instruments were issued during the quarter
No. 501: Approval of revised terms of reference for the Barrow Nuclear Safety Committee.
No. 502: Withdrawal of approval of the arrangements for consideration of urgent safety proposals.
Barrow-in-Furness Site Inspector
HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate