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:
19 – 22 July
24 and 25 August
5 – 9 and 25 – 29 September
During this quarter the Hinkley Point B reactors had a mixed period of operation with two unplanned manual trips of Reactor 4 and an unplanned automatic trip of Recator 3 all occuring in July. The Reactor 4 trips were due to minor plant issues. The Reactor 3 trip is further discussed at para 3.1 below.
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. These included inspections of Licence Conditions 2, 4, 6, 7, 14, 15, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 30, 32 and 34. In general the arrangements were found to be satisfactory. 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, control of radioactive contamination and inspection plans for the forthcoming outage. NII’s Superintending Inspector visited Hinkley Point B in September, on a familiarisation visit having recently taken responsibility for all British Energy sites.
Meetings attended
As the reactors age, programmes of inspection and ageing management and revisions to safety cases are often required. Much of the inspection work is undertaken during reactor outages which take place every three years. The extent of the inspections is normally agreed with NII well before the shutdown, in what is known as the Outage Intentions Meeting. There will be a planned outage of Reactor 4 during October, November and December 2005 and the Outage Intentions Meeting was held in July 2005.
On 8 September I attended the Emergency Planning Consultative Committee Meeting, which covers the detailed liaison between those groups involved in the Emergency Plans for the A & B Stations. This included members of A & B Station staff, Environment Agency, Police, Fire Service, Somerset Council, Health Authority etc.
I attended the Emergency Exercise Annual Review Meeting on 21 July. This reviews, for example, progress made on addressing the lessons learned from the previous demonstration emergency exercise; and discusses the proposals for the next demonstration exercise, which will be held in December 2005.
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.
There was an unplanned automatic trip of Reactor 3 on 31 July due to an error in following the refuel preparation procedure. This was an avoidable event that arose through human error, and poor communication and supervision during the repair of a defect on the refuel equipment. The follow-up actions include acceleration of the planned additional training on human performance, plus additional task observation and coaching of staff.
In my previous quarterly reports, I described that during February there had been two events of uncontrolled release of clean carbon dioxide gas from the storage and processing plant. In response to investigations, British Energy put an improvement programme in place. However, during August, there was a further uncontrolled release, and it also came to light that some of the programmed improvements would be delayed. NII have again discussed this with British Energy and they have written to us extending the scope of a review of the CO2 plant and emphasisng their commitment to completion of the improvement programme.
Safety case for cast iron cooling system pipework
Further 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. This work is reliant on installation of two temporary cooling systems. NII have assessed their adequacy and they have now been installed. The replacement work has now started but the programme has suffered additional delay and will not complete until early 2006. NII have stated that we will wish to see adequate progress on this before Reactor 4 returns to service at the end of it’s planned shutdown in December 2005.
Joint Inspection with the Environment Agency
I work in liaison with the Environment Agency Inspector on matters where we have joint interest. A joint inspection was undertaken in September of compliance with Licence Condition requirements for the storage of radioactive waste. We were generally satisfied with British Energy’s arrangements, noting that some improvements have been made since our last inspection, and noting that a new safety case for the radioactive waste is soon to be issued.
COMAH Status
During summer 2005 the HSE introduced revised regulations for the Control of Major Accident Hazards (the COMAH Regs). These are aimed at sites that handle or store dangerous chemicals. The amounts and types of chemicals included in the regulations have been revised and I have been discussng the implications with British Energy for some time. The outcome is that Hinkley Point B is designated as a “Lower Tier” site and they have formally declared this to HSE. This Lower Tier status brings with it some regulatory requirements, but these are in-effect already covered by emergency arrangements that are required to exist and be exercised regularly under the nuclear site license.
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.1 One Licence Instrument was issued to Hinjkley Point B during the quarter, viz:
An Agreement (Licence Instrument No 503)was issued on 18 August 2005. The Agreement, issued under BEGL’s arrangements for complying with Licence Condition 22, allows a slightly modified material to be used in the fuel assembly stuctural support (called “tie bar”). This is being introduced as part of a development programme for modifications to the existing tie bar manufacturing route.1Licence Instruments are formal documents issued under the licence conditions and arrangements, including Consents, Approvals, Directions, Specifications, Notifications, Agreements and Acknowledgements.