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 Heysham Power Stations’ Local Community Liaison Council (LCLC) and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at Heysham 1 & 2 Nuclear Power Stations. These reports are distributed quarterly and are also available on the HSE’s web site at http://www.hse.gov.uk/nuclear/llc/index.htm. Site Inspectors of HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate attend LCLC meetings and will respond to questions raised there by members of the LCLC. Any other person wishing to inquire about matters covered by this report may contact the HSE’s Nuclear Directorate on 0151-951-3484/3290 .
1. The Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) Site Inspectors and other inspectors, including the Chief Inspector, visited Heysham during the quarter; inspections were made on the following days:
| Heysham 1 | Date | Heysham 2 |
|---|---|---|
| 4, 5, 6, 26 & 27 | April 2006 | 4, 5, 6, 7, 26 & 27 |
| 9, 10,12, 16 & 23 | May 2006 | 9, 10, 23, 24 & 25 |
| 20,& 21 | June 2006 | 13,14, 20,21 & 22 |
Routine inspections are undertaken for the purpose of monitoring compliance with (i) the conditions attached by HSE to the nuclear site licence, and (ii) other relevant provisions of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, including the Ionising Radiations Regulations 1999. This includes monitoring licensee’s actions in relation to station events, plant operations, site projects, plant modifications, safety case changes and other matters which may affect safety. In this period routine inspections of both stations covered:
In general the arrangements made and implemented by the stations in response to licence condition requirements were generally deemed to be adequate in the areas inspected. Where improvements were considered necessary, satisfactory commitments to address the issues were made by station and the site inspectors will inspect progress during future visits. Other aspects of particular significance of a routine nature are summarised below.
NII's observation of the scheduled Level 1 demonstration exercise "TESLA", held on 22 November 2005, found that the station had provided an adequate demonstration of its emergency arrangements but that Command and Control in the Emergency Control Centre (ECC) was not to the expected standard. The station agreed to undertake a re-demonstration of its arrangements and on 5th April a team of four NII inspectors observed exercise "POUND". The team concluded that the ECC team had provided a much-improved demonstration of the effective application of Command and Control. The team identified a number of learning opportunities, which the NII expects will inform further development of the station's arrangements for responding to incidents.
A team of NII inspectors observed the Heysham 2 annual demonstration emergency exercise in May 2006. This exercise was held outside normal working hours and involved calling in station staff from home to assist the shift staff. NII concluded that the Station had given an adequate demonstration of its emergency preparedness arrangements. Some learning opportunities were also identified and these points were communicated in a letter to site. As a result actions will be undertaken by BE staff to further enhance the Station’s response capability.
HM Chief Inspector of Nuclear Installations visited site in June. He undertook plant tours of both stations and met with managers and TU safety representatives as well as taking the opportunity to discuss current safety issues with a group of BE Site Directors. His overall impression was favourable in many areas, however he advised the Station Director: to ensure plant that may affect safety is adequately maintained; to continue enhancements to operator training; to focus on reducing defects and other backlogs; and to improve the performance of site based project teams.
NII site inspectors consider non-routine matters and events that have occurred on the site and examine the Licensee’s response to them. Licensees are required to have arrangements to respond to such matters and NII inspectors judge the adequacy of their response in taking appropriate remedial action and implementing necessary improvements. Matters of particular note considered during the current period include the following.
The station reported two incidents whereby operators performed below expectations during a start up of Reactor 2, following its scheduled refuelling outage. The station has investigated these incidents and proposed changes to both procedures and equipment aimed at improving operator performance and supervision of operations. Station took immediate action to prevent a recurrence of similar poor performance during the startup of Reactor 1 in June.
During the scheduled refuelling outage of reactor 1 in May, the Station completed additional inspections and modifications required to support implementation of the medium term safety case for the boiler closure units. Station expects to complete similar work on reactor 2 during its scheduled refuelling outage in August 06.
Shortly after returning reactor 1 to service following its refuelling outage, the moisture content of the reactor gas increased. An investigation traced the source to boiler 1B and the station concluded that water was entering the reactor via a leak in one of the many hundreds of boiler tubes. The Station took the decision to shutdown the affected boiler and to continue operating the reactor at reduced power. On 30 June reactor 1 was shut down to permit a repair, employing a technique sucessfully used previously to plug boiler tube leaks.
A number of incidents were reported to NII in May 2006 that gave cause for concern over complying with arrangements made to comply with licence requirements for operating and modifying plant. NII wrote to Site requesting a report into the circumstances surrounding these incidents. An investigation was conducted and several corrective actions identified to prevent a recurrence. These are mainly aimed at improving procedures and reinforcing the need for station staff to rigorously comply with the modifications procedure. NII was generally satisfied with the Station’s response and will continue to monitor these aspects of the arrangements.
NII issued an improvement notice (IN) in relation to Station’s failure to adequately maintain dampers required as part of the safety case for preventing fires challenging the integrity of nuclear safety fire barriers. There are some 266 such dampers in ventilation ducting at the station and the maintenance regime was not aligned to recognised standards or manufacturers’ recommendations. The IN formalises regulatory requirements to make improvements in this area. The Station has until August 2007 to comply with the IN.
12. As part of its regulation under nuclear site licences NII issues regulatory documents, collectively termed Licence Instruments (LI). 4 were issued in total for both stations during the quarter: -
LI 517 - Agreement to the use of fuel elements and stringer components made from graphite from a new source ie Bilbaina binder pitch, 25 April 2006.
LI 518 - Agreement to the Use of Fuel Elements and Stringer Components made from graphite produced from a new source ie Bilbaina binder pitch, 12 April 2006.
LI 519 – Notification to supply the final operational safety case for routine reactor refuelling; 25 April 06.
LI 520 – Consent to the operation of routine reactor refuelling, 25 April 06
13. Under Health and Safety legislation the Site Inspector, or other HSE Inspectors, may issue formal notices to secure improvements to safety. One such notice was issued during the reporting period: -
Improvement Notice (Ref I/2006/ND/RJC/001) issued on 20 June 2006 (see para 11 above for more detail).
Licence Instruments are formal documents issued under the licence conditions and arrangements, including Consents, Approvals, Directions, Specifications, Notifications, Agreements and Acknowledgements.