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 Hinkley Point Local Community Liaison Council (LCLC) and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at Hinkley Point B 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 any questions raised there or subsequently by members of the LCLC. 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 www.hse.gov.uk/nuclear/index.htm
under ‘Local Liaison Committee Reports’.
Nuclear Directorate
Health and Safety Executive
St. Peter's House
Bootle
Merseyside L20 3LZRoutine inspections continued in accordance with our annual plan. The HMNII Site Inspector made the following planned visits during the period:
4 – 8 and 18 – 19 April
16 – 20 May
20 - 23 June
During this quarter the Hinkley Point B reactors had a fairly steady period of operation but there was one short unplanned shutdown of Reactor 4 when there was a perturbation on steam pressure following a grid disturbance. This was later attributed to faults on the steam turbine governor system.
Compliance with Site Licence Conditions
Routine and reactive inspections have continued throughout the period to confirm that the site is operating in compliance with the conditions attached to the Nuclear Site Licence. In areas where opportunities for improvement were identified, remedial work has been agreed with station management, with the intention of achieving improvements to current station arrangements in those areas.
Specialist NII inspectors also visited the Station to undertake inspections in relation to the cast iron pipework replacement project and electrical systems.
Incidents on Site
The management and recording of some events that occurred on the station during the period were inspected. Most of these were relatively minor and those of concern to the HMNII Site Inspector were discussed with the appropriate company staff. HMNII was generally satisfied with the actions taken.
During May there was a minor event involving the lifting grab in the irradiated fuel dismantling cell. It subsequently came to light that, during recovery operations, a Nuclear Safety Requirement1 was potentially breached when a related emergency cooling fan was electrically isolated. While there were no consequences from this event, I was not satisfied that it had been appropriately categorised within British Energy’s event reporting system. I raised the issue with the Station Director and have since written to Station asking for clarification of a number of aspects related to the use of Technical Specifications.2
During June there was a further minor event during which a Nuclear Safety Requirement limit was marginally exceeded. There were no consequences, but again, after investigation, I was not satisfied that the event had been appropriately categorised within British Energy’s event reporting system and appropriately notified to NII. My conclusions have been discussed with the Station Management Team.
These events may have some implications for the way in which Technical Specifications are used or interpreted and this remains under discussion with British Energy.
In my previous quarterly report, I described that during February there had been two events of uncontrolled release of clean carbon dioxide gas from the storage and processing plant. The site inspector investigated these events and NII wrote to Station asking for a safety review and a programme of improvement aimed at preventing similar carbon dioxide releases in future. An appropriate reply has now been received and NII will continue to monitor British Energy’s improvement programme.
Response to Improvement Notice
In my report for Quarter 2 of 2004, I described that I had issued a formal Improvement Notice that required Hinkley Point B to review and revise its arrangements for the management of defects and the monitoring of compliance with the safety case. The required completion date for the Notice was 30 April 2005. During this latest Quarter, I inspected the actions that the Station has put in place in response to this Notice. A significant number of improvements have been implemented and others are underway, though by their nature they will take some time to complete. Overall, I accepted that progress achieved by the Notice completion date was satisfactory.
Safety case for cast iron cooling system pipework
A number of technical meetings and inspections have been undertaken on the project to replace the cast iron cooling water pipework at the Station. NII are content that the safety case for the existing pipework is adequate for the interim period until it is replaced. The replacement programme has suffered delay but should be largely complete before October 2005. The replacement work is reliant on installation of two temporary cooling systems and NII have been assessing their adequacy. We have agreed to installation of one; and agreement to the second is imminent. This will allow the programme of pipework replacement to commence.
Under Health and Safety legislation the Site Inspector, or other HSE Inspectors, may issue formal notices to secure improvements to safety. No such notices were issued during the reporting period.
As part of its regulation under nuclear site licences NII issues regulatory documents, collectively termed Licence Instruments.3 One Licence Instrument was issued to Hinjkley Point B during the quarter, viz:
An Agreement (Licence Instrument No 502)was issued on 11 April 2005. The Agreement, issued under BEGL’s arrangements for complying with Licence Condition 22, allows the reactor Temperature Monitoring Units (part of the reactor protection system) to be changed from the original and obsolete design to a modern equivalent.1Nuclear Safety Requirements (NSRs) are the “top-tier” of operating limits and conditions which must be adhered to during operation of the reactors. They are formally Approved by NII and they cannot be changed by British Energy without further NII Approval. Non-respect of the limits and conditions identified in the NSRs would constitute a breach of Licence Condition 23.
2Technical Specifications sit beneath the NSRs and are the routine operating limits and conditions used by the reactor operators.
3Licence Instruments are formal documents issued under the licence conditions and arrangements, including Consents, Approvals, Directions, Specifications, Notifications, Agreements and Acknowledgements.