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 Site Stakeholder Group and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at Hinkley Point B Power Station. These reports are distributed quarterly and are also available on the HSE’s web site. Site Inspectors of HM Nuclear Installations Inspec-torate normally attend Site Stakeholder Group meetings and will respond to any questions raised there or subsequently by members of the Site Stakeholder Group. Any other person wishing to inquire about matters covered by this report should con-tact the HSE, Nuclear Directorate on 0151-951-3484/3290.
This report will be put onto the HSE Website under ‘Local Liaison Committee Re-ports’ at www.hse.gov.uk/nuclear/llc/index.htm
Routine inspections continued in accordance with our annual plan. The HMNII Site Inspector made the following planned visits during the period:
4 – 6 and 18 – 21 October
31 October – 2 November
7 – 9 and 22 - 24 November
6 - 8 December
During this quarter both the Hinkley Point B reactors were shut down for planned routine maintenance. Reactor 4 had its major triennial planned shutdown (see be-low) that lasted 11 weeks. The NII Site Inspector was assisted by an additional in-spector to help share the addional work arising during this period. Reactor 3 had a two-week shutdown at the beginning of October, after which it returned to power and has operated steadily.
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 9, 10, 11, 12, 17, 22, 23, 26, 28, and 30. 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.
Additional NII inspectors also visited the Station to undertake inspections in relation to the ionising radiation regulations, emergency exercises, and the outage. NII’s Su-perintending Inspector also visited Hinkley Point B in November, to take part in a start-up meeting for the Reactor 4 periodic shutdown.
Meetings attended
As the reactors age, programmes of inspection and ageing management and revi-sions to safety cases are often required. Much of the inspection work is undertaken during reactor periodic shutdowns which are required by the Nuclear Site Licence every three years. The return to service of the reactor at the end of these shutdowns requires the Consent of the NII and in preparation for this a meeting (the “Start-Up meeting”) is held to review progress and issues arising. The Reactor 4 Start-Up meeting was held on 24 November.
On 21 October I attended the first of the new format Site Stakeholder Review Group meetings.
Reactor 4 Periodic Shutdown
Reactor 4 shut down for maintenance on 4 October. This was a planned periodic shutdown that is required by the Nuclear Site Licence at least every 3 years. Planned work includes essential maintenance such as inspection of the graphite core, the concrete pressure vessel and steel pressure boundary components. British Energy also chose this time to do other Station maintenance work such as replace-ment of parts of steam turbines and electrical transformers. NII keep this work under regular review and we undertake related inspections. As up to 1000 contractor staff can be involved on-site, conventional safety also receives close attention and British Energy put much effort into ensuring good standards were maintained throughout the shutdown. When NII were satisfied that the planned maintenance work was complete with satisfactory outcomes, we issued our formal Consent for re-start of the reactor.
Emergency Exercises
Annual Level 1 Emergency Exercises are held to demonstrate to NII the effective-ness of the arrangements, produced by the Station under Licence Condition 11, to deal with nuclear emergencies. In addition, shift exercises are conducted by the Sta-tion as part of their training programme, and these are also occasionally also wit-nessed by NII.
NII inspectors witnessed shift Emergency Exercise “BELIZE” on 19 October. This was judged to be an adequate demonstration, but it did not demonstrate improve-ments in specific aspects that had been expected compared to the last exercise in December 2004.
Level 1 Emergency Exercise “BALI” was held on during the night of 7 December and was witnessed by a team from HMNII. The exercise was judged to be an adequate demonstration of the emergency arrangements produced by the Station under Li-cence Condition 11, and we noted an improvement in performance in a number of aspects.
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.
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 re-placed. Much of this replacement work was undertaken during the Reactor 4 peri-odic shutdown. The programme is due to be completed during 2006.
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 is-sued during the reporting period.
The Inspectorate has powers under the Licence to issue Consents, Approvals and Directions. In addition the Inspectorate uses Licence Instruments to issue Specifica-tions and Agreements under the conditions of the Licence. These are all called Li-cence Instruments. 3 Licence Instruments were issued to Hinkley Point B during the quarter, viz:
An Agreement (Licence Instrument No 504) was issued on 21 October 2005. The Agreement, issued under BEGL’s arrangements for complying with Licence Condi-tion 22, allows modified electronic safety equipment to be fitted, associated with monitoring neutron levels within the reactor core and tripping the reactor if these reach a specified limit. This is being introduced as part of a programme to replace original control and protection equipment with more modern equivalents.
An Approval (Licence Instrument No 505) was issued under Licence Condition 23 on 18 November 2005 to amendments to the Nuclear Safety Requirements of the Technical Specifications, which govern the operation of the reactors. These were minor detailed amendments that were required in association with Agreement LI No. 504 for the control and protection equipment modifications discussed above.
A Consent (Licence Instrument No 506) was issued under Licence Condition 30(3) on 16 December 2005. This consented to the start up of Reactor No. 4 following its planned periodic shutdown.
HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate 13 January 2006
St Peter’s House
Stanley Precinct
Bootle
Merseyside
L20 3LZ