Health and Safety
Executive / Commission
Nuclear
LLC reports
The 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 Hinkley Point A Power Station’s Local Community Liaison Council (LCLC) and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at Hinkley Point A Power Station. These reports are distributed quarterly. Site Inspectors of HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate normally attend LCLC meetings and will be happy to respond to questions raised there or subsequently by members of the LCLC. Alternatively, any other person wishing to enquire 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 www.hse.gov.uk/nuclear/ home under “Local Liaison Committee Reports”.NII Inspectors (including visits by the site inspector and specialist NII assessment inspectors) made the following visits to Hinkley Point “A” in the period covered by this report:
11 th & 12 th, 17 th to 19 th and 24 th to 27 th January 2005.
22 nd to 24 th February 2005.
15 th to 18 th, 21 st and 22 nd March 2005.
Compliance inspections. The site inspector’s main priorities for 2005/2006 and possibly into the next year are the Life Cycle Baseline Plans & Near Term Work Plans. As a result of this, fewer compliance inspections will be undertaken. During this quarter, inspections were made of the licensee’s incident investigation arrangements, (in accordance with licence condition 7), following two separate events when live cables were cut during decommissioning project work, although nobody was injured in these events; emergency arrangements, (in accordance with licence condition 11); the licensee’s site reorganisation, for the transition into the decommissioning phase of site operations, (in accordance with licence condition 36); also, the licensee’s processes for planning decommissioning project work, in accordance with licence condition 35 arrangements and funding proposals from the shareholder’s Liabilities Management Unit, (the precursor to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, (NDA), which was established on 1 st April 2005). The licensee’s radiation dose uptake control measures, during the ongoing radiologically challenging defuelling verification project work at Reactor One Pond, have been reviewed satisfactorily by NII. Site inspections in this quarter have included the Turbine Hall, the Access Control Point, the Emergency Control Centre and Reactor One Pile Cap. The NII inspections included participation by safety representatives on the site.
Future decommissioning plans. NII advised on the compilation of a regulatory schedule, (part of the Near Term Work Plan required by NDA), to agree likely regulatory interactions for forthcoming decommissioning projects. In the Near Tem Work Plan, the licensee declared the intention to containerise rather than encapsulate solid ILW within the proposed ILW Store. This revised strategy has not yet been agreed by NII and this has been made clear by NII, to both the licensee and NDA, including at the NDA review of the Near Term Work Plan. The licensee has proposed presenting an outline safety case, to justify containerisation rather than encapsulation of solid ILW, by mid 2005. In a similar vein, the licensee is now proposing to recover fuel element debris from the magnox vaults without an argon fire fighting system. Both the licensee and NDA have been informed that this has not yet been agreed by NII and a safety case to justify this changed approach is anticipated from the licensee during 2005.
Revised site safety case for the Decommissioning Phase. NII has continued its ongoing assessment of the site safety case, sufficient to be able to endorse the licensee’s transition to the Re Baselined Post Defuelling Safety Case, which has been agreed by NII to be appropriate for the Decommissioning Phase. NII assessment resources remain limited, so assessment of aspects of the safety case is not yet complete, e.g. the radioactive waste management safety case is still undergoing NII assessment, early assessment findings having been discussed with the site. This assessment is planned to be copmpleted in 2005. The licensee had also submitted the Periodic Safety Review in 2004, in accordance with the programme agreed beforehand with NII, to meet the ten year review date. NII’s resource constraints have similarly delayed the completion of NII’s assessment of this Periodic Safety Review.
Licensee’s corporate reorganisation. The licensee’s (Magnox Electric Ltd) parent companies (BNFL and British Nuclear Group) continue to undergo considerable corporate reorganisation. NII currently continues to have a team of specialist inspectors assessing the adequacy of the developing organisational changes within BNFL and British Nuclear Group, in particular, addressing the safety related aspects of these changes, to guard against any adverse impacts on the licensed sites. The organisational structures for the sites are still being developed by the licensee and these are being assessed by NII. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority took ownership of the licensed site on 1 st April 2005. The name of the site licensee company at Hinkley Point “A” changed from Magnox Electric plc to Magnox Electric Limited on 1 st April 2005.
Licensee’s site reorganisation. The licensee’s major site reorganisation for the tarnsition from defuelling to decommissioning was inspected in considerable detail by NII. This has recently resulted in significant reductions in the number of people working at the site, (now that the reactor vessels have been defuelled and the site has entered the decommissioning phase). Several site inspections were undertaken, including by NII specialist assessment inspectors, to evaluate the llicensee’s organisational transition measures and to test the adequacy of the new decommissioning site organisation. Following these site inspections, the NII was content with the new organisational arrangements.
Emergency arrangements. The site has implemented further agreed changes to the emergency arrangements, commensurate with the reduced site hazard, now that the reactor vessels have been defuelled and the organisational transition from the defuelling to the decommissioning phase has been completed. The licensee proposed changes to the approved emergency arrangements, to reflect the reduced hazard from the site, placing a greater reliance on support from the local emergency services. In accordance with the nuclear site licence arrangements, this latest change was assessed beforehand by NII and a demonstration “silent hours” emergency exercise was undertaken on the evening of 25 th January 2005, being observed by a team of NII inspectors. This demonstration emergency exercise enabled NII Approval to be given to the revised emergency arrangements, which are considered to be appropriate for a decommissioning reactor site and are consistent with corresponding emergency arrangements at other decommissioning reactor sites.
Change of NII Site inspector. In accordance with the NII policy to rotate site inspection postings regularly, Mr J Burrows replaced Mr D Daniels as the site inspector for Hinkley Point “A” on 1 st April 2005.
None arising during this quarter.
Site Licence: The Inspectorate has powers under the Nuclear Site Licence to issue Licence Instruments, including Consents, Approvals, Directions, Specifications and Agreements, under the conditions attached to the Site Licence. Two site specific Licence Instruments have been issued in this period.
Licence Instrument No. 500 was issued on 10 th February 2005, being an Approval of the new Emergency Plan for the site. This Approval was issued under Licence Condition 11, following the successful demonstration to NII of the new Emergency Plan.
Licence Instrument No. 501 was issued on 18 th February 2005, which was a Withdrawal of the approval of the defuelling operating rules. This Withdrawal was issued under Licence Condition 1, following NII assessment of the safety case for the withdrawal of the eight approved operating rules, (which had governed the safe defuelling of the reactor vessels).
Two generic corporate reorganisation Licence Instruments were also issued in this period.
Licence Instrument No. G508 was issued on 7 th February 2005, which was an agreement, under Licence Condition 36 arrangements, to the formation of British Nuclear Group Reactor Sites Organisation.
Licence Instrument No. G509 was issued on 30 th March 2005, which was an agreement, under Licence Condition 36 arrangements, to the formation of a new BNFL Group Organisation Structure at 1 st April 2005.
Additionally, a Variation, (Variation No. 1) to Licence Condition 3, attached to the site licence, was issued on 24 th March 2005, for implementation on 1 st April 2005. The Variation was introduced to reflect the change in site ownership, (to the NDA), on 1 st April 2005. This Variation also enabled the Civil Nuclear Police Authority to occupy parts of the site without the need for a separate Consent from NII.
Health and Safety Executive
HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate
St Peter’s House
Bootle
Merseyside
L20 3LZ
April 2005