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 Capenhurst Local Stakeholder Group (LSG) and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at the Capenhurst Works. These reports are distributed quarterly. Site Inspectors of HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate normally attend LSG meetings and will be happy to respond to questions raised there or subsequently by members of the LSG. Any other person wishing to inquire about matters covered by this report should contact the HSE, Nuclear Directorate on 0151-951-3484/3290.
This report will be put onto the HSE website at http://www.hse.gov.uk/nuclear/llc/index.htm under ‘Local Liaison Committee Reports’.The NII site inspector visited the site on the following dates:
31st January, 3rd February, 1st and 21st March.
A HSE Fire Safety Specialist Inspector also visited the site on 6th February.
Compliance with Conditions Attached to the Nuclear Site Licence
Each NII Site Inspector has an inspection programme, to inspect the licensee’s compliance against the 36 Nuclear Site Licence Conditions. During this quarter, a joint inspection was conducted with the Environment Agency of the implementation of the licensee’s licence condition 32 and 35 arrangements, (accumulation of radioactive waste and decommissioning) when inspecting the ongoing decommissioning work and the storage of uranic materials within the Bays of the former Diffusion Plant. The implementation of the licensee’s arrangements was found to be adequate. A compliance inspection was also made of the licence condition 6 arrangements, (documents, records, authorities and certificates), when inspecting the closure of a site safety case. The outcome was broadly acceptable. Licence Condition 33 (disposal of radioactive waste) was also inspected, during a plant inspection of the operation of the enriched uranium processing and disposal facilities. The licensee was also seen to be effectively using a mobile solid low level waste drum compaction facility, to crush and dispose of drums of solid low level radioactive waste; this had the positive effect of usefully minimising the volume of waste sent for disposal to the national low level waste repository at Drigg.
Fire Safety Specialist Inspection.
Following a number of minor fire safety related events on the site, involving hot cutting operations, in the latter part of 2005, arrangements were made for a HSE Fire Safety Specialist Inspector to visit the site on 6th February 2006. The licensee’s recently revised arrangements for “hot working” were inspected, with an acceptable outcome. ‘Hot Work’ arrangements now require additional review and the preparation of a fire risk assessment, by the licensee’s Senior Fire Advisor, (with the Industrial Safety Adviser as his deputy), before any ‘hot cutting’ operations may take place. Some alternatives to ‘hot cutting’ operations have been implemented, as a result of this improved approach.
Capenhurst Lifetime Plan.
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) initially required all of the sites, which came under their control in April 2005, to compile the long term and short term work plans for the site into two standard documents i.e. Life Cycle Baseline (LCBL) and Near Term Work Plan (NTWP) respectively. From April 2006, these two plans have been integrated into a singe ‘Life Time Plan’, (LTP). The site inspector participated in the licensee’s development of this ‘Life Time Plan’, (which is proposing some acceleration of decommissioning and hazard reduction on the site), as well as participating in the quarterly Regulatory Review meeting, involving NII, the Environment Agency, the licensee and NDA, in order to secure improvements to safety. Most notably, NII continues to actively press the licensee to explore options to bring forward the date for the commencement of processing the legacy “Hex Tails” uranic materials currently stored on site. NII had previously expressed disappointment that the policy, issued after the licensee’s review in mid 2005, had failed to advance the declared start date for the planned deconversion of “Hex Tails” to a more stable form, (from 2020). NII is encouraged that the licensee is actively engaged in reviewing options to address the “Hex Tails” legacy, with a view to reducing the potential hazard from this legacy material earlier than currently planned. NII will continue to press for progress to be made in reducing this medium term site hazard.
There are effective working relationships between the regulators, the licensee and the NDA at Capenhurst, which serve the interests of each party.
Meetings with Safety Representatives.
The site inspector continues to consult with the active site safety representatives during most visits to site.
None
No regulatory enforcement action was necessary in this quarter.
The Inspectorate has powers under the site licence to issue Consents, Approvals and Directions. In addition, the Inspectorate may use Licence Instruments to issue Specifications, Acknowledgements and Agreements, under either the conditions attached to the Licence, or arrangements made by British Nuclear Group Sellafield Limited, Capenhurst Works, for complying with those conditions. No Licence Instruments were issued in this period.
HM Principal Inspector (Nuclear Installations)
April 2006