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 Harwell Chilton Campus Local Stakeholder Group (LSG) and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at the UKAEA Harwell licensed site. 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 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 on to the HSE web site at www.hse.gov.uk/nuclear/llc.
[back to top]The Site Inspector made four planned visits to Harwell during the quarter. His inspections and discussions covered a number of regulatory topics including fire safety and the sale by AEA Technology Ltd of Waste Management Technology Ltd. He also witnessed a partial repeat of the 2005 level 1 Emergency Exercise, and participated in a Level 2 Emergency Exercise. Finally, he attended the routine Harwell Regulatory Forum which meets to consider and discuss matters relevant to the Life Time Plan. The Forum is also attended by UKAEA, The Vale of the White Horse District Council, EA (The Environment Agency), NDA (The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority) and OCNS (The Office for Civil Nuclear Security).
Further information on matters of interest is provided in the following sections of this report.
[back to top]As indicated in paragraphs 1 and 2 above, these covered licence condition compliance matters and other relevant safety related aspects of operations, maintenance and both technical and safety support. The inspections and discussions during the quarter revealed nothing of concern and compliance was judged to be adequate.
NII and the Environment Agency continued to meet with UKAEA on a monthly basis by videoconference. The meetings help maintain close contact with the site whilst reducing travel time and costs. They are not seen as a substitute for site inspection visits but they allow routine regulatory business to proceed while the Site Inspector is away from the site.
Discussions with UKAEA, that were first reported in Q3/05 report, continued regarding the means to facilitate an immediate evacuation of staff from the building upon hearing a fire alarm. UKAEA made good progress with upgrading the system and having retrained relevant staff, the company implemented the new fire evacuation arrangements on time, in June.
Following a Level 1 demonstration exercise in 2005 which revealed deficiencies in the way in which the site coped with accidental outside spillages of radioactive material, UKAEA drew up new arrangements that would secure the timely restoration of control of such spillages. The company demonstrated these in a partial repeat exercise, which was observed by the Site Inspector. The exercise demonstrated the arrangements were much improved and it was judged to have been generally satisfactory. The new arrangements will be revised to include all of the site’s facilities before they are reissued, taking into account the exercise findings. For the future, NII will continue to take an interest in UKAEA’s emergency arrangements, which are the subject of Condition 11 attached to the Nuclear Site Licence. As part of this ongoing process, NII will be observing the site’s 2006 demonstration exercise which is due to be held in November and for which preparations by the site are already being made.
Nuclear site licensees, as well as annually demonstrating their site emergency arrangements at Level 1 exercises, also participate in a less frequent programme of Level 2 exercises, which are arranged in accordance with the national exercise programme which may be found at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/nuclear/emergexprog.htm. Level 2 exercises are driven by a tabletop exercise which covers the unfolding events at plant level. The tabletop exercise in turn provides the scenario which tests the on- and off-site responses, including the interfaces between the site and what is termed the off-site facility. It is from this off-site facility that the county’s response is mounted to protect members of the public in the event of an off-site release of radioactivity. Harwell’s off-site facility is located in police HQ, Kidlington. This year’s Level 2 exercise at Harwell, in which NII participated, was based on a hypothetical small explosion and fire occurring in one of the intermediate level waste management buildings. A team of observers monitored the performance of the various organisations that participated and the learning points which the observers identified, together with those reported by the players themselves, will be reported back to the organisations concerned so that they can be considered and addressed for the future.
NII’s participation in Level 2 exercises tests its own procedures for responding to a nuclear emergency as well as supporting the exercise itself. Its role is to witness, monitor and record licensees’ actions; take enforcement action if appropriate; and provide advice as necessary to other government departments and the Government Technical Adviser (GTA). The procedures involve NII staffing up HSE’s Redgrave Court Incident Suite (RCIS) in Bootle, from where its response is coordinated. NII also provides a presence at the off-site facility as well as on the affected site. In both cases the purpose is to support the RCIS but additionally, the team at the off-site facility also advises as necessary both the GTA and the Strategic Co-ordinating Group assembled there, and is led by a Superintending Inspector. It is the Site Inspector who normally attends the site. The GTA and their support team are also provided by NII and attend the off-site facility. The GTA normally will be one of NII’s Deputy Chief Inspectors, who in a real emergency would be appointed for the purpose by The Department of Trade and Industry.
[back to top]NII has powers under Nuclear Site Licence Number 47 to issue Consents, Approvals and Directions. In addition, NII can issue Notifications, Specifications, Acknowledgements and Agreements under the conditions attached to the Licence, or under arrangements made by UKAEA for complying with those conditions.
A new numbering system was introduced on 1 October 2004 for site licence actions, and all such actions are now called Licence Instruments. No licence instruments were issued during quarter two.