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 Hunterston A Power Station, Site Stakeholder Group and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at Hunterston A Power Station. These reports are distributed quarterly. Site Inspectors of HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate attend SSG meetings and will be happy to respond to questions raised there by members of the SSG. 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:
http://www.hse.gov.uk/nuclear/index.htm
under the heading: Local Liaison Committee ReportsThe Site Inspector and an NII Inspectormade the following visits associated with Hunterston A during the period January to March. These visits were:
| 10 February 2005 | Daresbury Offices of BNG | NTWP 2 Regulatory Schedule Meeting (NII Site Inspector) |
| 23-24 February 2005 | Hunterston A Decommissioning site | Level 2 Exercise “Persephone”, NTWP 2 Regulatory Schedule Meeting Re-licensing meeting. LC2 Boundary Inspection (NII Site Inspector) |
| 2-3 March 2005 | Hunterston A Decommissioning site | Compliance inspection visit concerning Licence Conditions 8 and 28. (NII Inspector) |
| 21-23 March 2005 | Hunterston A Decommissioning site | Formal Review Meeting with site and NDA to discuss Near Term Work Plan 2. Investigate collapse of temporary structure in Fuelling Machine vault. (NII Site Inspector) |
The site inspectors’ main priorities for 2005 are the Life Cycle Baseline Plans/Near Term Work Plans and site re-licensing. T he site has been re-licensed from BNFL to Magnox Electric. As a result fewer compliance inspections have been undertaken in the first quarter of 2005.
One routine inspection was been completed this quarter. Two reviews of decommissioning plans for the site were completed. These covered the NTWP2 and Regulatory Schedule.
Licence Compliance
With effect from 1 April 2005 the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) took ownership of Hunterston A site. One of the key outcomes is that each of the Magnox sites currently licensed to BNFL was re-licensed Magnox Electric Ltd. Initially the NDA has let a contract to Magnox Electric Ltd to operate Hunterston A on its behalf.
Licence compliance has been discussed as part of the re-licensing process. A specific inspection was done of the site licence boundary and associated warning notices. Licence Condition 2 - Marking of the Site Boundary.
Additional resource was provided from within ND to inspect the following licence conditions (LC) at Hunterston A, LC 8 - Warning Notices and LC 28 – Examination, Inspection, Maintenance and Testing.
The outcome of these inspections and meetings were in the main acceptable, the deficiencies were reported to the Licensee for attention
Plant Inspection
The NII Site Inspector and BNFL Site Manager inspected the site boundary and associated warning notices and fence line. Some issues were raised but these were cleared prior to the site being re-licensed.
Progress with the construction of the ILW store was inspected.
Routine inspection of the site found the general conditions and housekeeping continue to improve despite the increased level of decommissioning activity.
Introduction of pumping of concrete under the security fence has reduced the volume of traffic on the site.Project Inspection
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.Licence Instruments
Licence Instruments (Site Licence Sc. 16)
| Number | Date | Subject |
|---|---|---|
| 501 | March 2005 | Specification under LC 13(9). Where the Health and Safety Executive specified that the licensee shall furnish to the Executive, within 14 days, copies of any document or any category of documents considered at any meeting of the Hunterston A Nuclear Safety Committee. |
Consents / Approvals (Site Licence Sc. 16)
| Number | Date | Subject |
|---|---|---|
| 500 | March 2005 | The Health and Safety Executive, for the purposes of Condition 13(2) of Schedule 2 attached to Nuclear Site Licence No: Sc. 16, hereby approves the terms of reference of the nuclear safety committee set out in the document titled MAGNOX ELECTRIC HUNTERSTON A NUCLEAR SAFETY COMMITTEE TERMS OF REFERENCE. |
Generic Agreement
| 509 | March 2005 | Generic agreement to the restructuring of BNFL Group. |
HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate
St Peter’s House
Stanley Precinct
Bootle
Merseyside
L20 3LZ