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 GE Healthcare Ltd Grove Centre Local Liaison Committee (LLC) and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at the site. These reports are distributed quarterly and are available also from the Internet at www.hse.gov.uk/nuclear/llc/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.
NII inspections were made on 18–20 October 2005. (Inspections are also made at GE Healthcare Ltd’s nuclear licensed sites at Cardiff (the Maynard Centre) and Harwell. Where these are relevant to the Grove Centre they are included below. For instance, the sites have many arrangements in common for compliance with the conditions attached to their site licences.)
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:
Issues arising from these and previous inspections are being pursued.
Annual Safety Review Meeting: The meeting for 2005 was held at the Maynard Centre but covered all four nuclear licensed sites. It was well supported by GE Healthcare Ltd; site directors of all its licensed sites attended, with their supporting managers. The licensee’s safety performance and plans were discussed, and NII indicated a number of topics that would be given particular regulatory attention in the coming year.
Organisational change: As part of its arrangements for compliance with Licence Condition 36, on control of organisational change, GE Healthcare Ltd is in the process of producing a Baseline, which is a justification of the current organisational structure, resources and staff competencies available to carry out those functions that may affect safety. A draft of this document was submitted to NII this quarter, and a meeting was held to discuss NII’s assessment of it.
The director of safety has resigned. His successor has visited NII to discuss proposed organisational changes to the group that he will head, as well as the forthcoming changes to the GE Healthcare Ltd board consequent on the chairman’s retirement in the new year.
Interlocks:One of NII’s specialists in control and instrumentation inspected the two plants in which exposure of workers to high radiation dose rates is prevented by interlocks on doors. A programme was agreed for the integrity of one of these interlocks to be reassessed. The director of manufacturing wrote to explain how operations will be controlled while this reassessment is going on.
As well as attending the Local Liaison Committee, NII’s site inspector took part in a meeting between the Environment Agency and officers of Chiltern District Council to discuss various radiological issues at the site affecting all three parties.
No statutorily reportable radiological incidents were notified to NII in this quarter.
As part of its regulation under the nuclear site licence NII issues formal regulatory documents, which include Consents, Approvals, Directions, and Licence Instruments (1). No such documents were issued in this quarter.
No other issues have arisen that have required formal regulatory action.
1. 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.