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 Torness Local Liaison Committee and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at Torness Power Station. These reports are distributed quarterly and are also available from the Internet at http://www.hse.gov.uk/nuclear/index.htm. Site Inspectors of HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (part of the Health and Safety Executive’s Nuclear Directorate) attend LLC meetings and will respond to any questions raised there by members of the LLC. Any other person wishing to inquire about matters covered by this report should contact the HSE’s, Nuclear Directorate on 0151-951-3484/3290
Nuclear Directorate
Health and Safety Executive
Redgrave Court
Merton Road
Bootle
Merseyside
L20 7HS
The Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) site inspector made visits to Torness on the following dates during this quarter:
Other members of the NII and specialist inspectors visited the Torness site during the period, to conduct inspections as follows.
The NII Superintending Inspector for BEGL sites, the Site Inspector and specialist NII Inspectors attended site to carry out routine inspection, an inspection of fire protection provisions, inspections associated with the periodic shutdown of reactor 2, inspection associated with other matters arising on Torness and to attend the reactor 2 start-up meeting .
As part of routine work NII inspects for compliance with the requirements of the Health and Safety at Work Act, its Relevant Statutory Provisions, the Nuclear Site Licence Conditions, the arrangements made under the conditions for each station and other safety regulations as appropriate. 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. Inspections of this type are usually planned in advance of the site inspection visit. Matters of particular note considered during the current period include the following .
Planned work this quarter covered inspections of a number of licence conditions including: incidents on site (LC7); training (LC10); duly authorised and suitably qualified persons (LC12); quality assurance (LC17); radiological protection (LC18); modification or experiment on existing plant (LC22); examination, inspection, maintenance and testing (LC28); periodic shutdown (LC30) and control of organisational change (LC36).
In general the arrangements made and implemented by station in response to licence condition requirements were 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 inspector will inspect progress during future visits. Other aspects of particular significance of a routine nature are summarised below.
The NII site inspector and several NII specialist inspectors carried out inspections during the periodic shutdown of reactor 2. In general Station carried out the planned and emergent work in line with established arrangements for such work, and where adverse plant conditions were identified took appropriate corrective action. The start-up meeting was attended by the NII Superintending Inspector, the Site Inspector and an NII Specialist Inspector to review progress with outage work and identify areas where work remained to be completed before returning the reactor to service for a further operating period. NII granted Consent to start-up reactor 2 in May 2006, following confirmation that Station had completed all necessary work prior to the restart of the reactor.
During preparations for the restart of reactor 2 as part of its trienniel periodic shutdown, an adverse condition was encountered on a gas circulator. Station investigated the circumstances of the event and concluded that lubricating oil supplies to a running circulator had been inappropriately isolated causing abnormal running conditions and indications of high bearing and oil temperatures. They decided that it was necessary to exchange the affected circulator for an alternative unit. Station suspended the preparations for start up, successfully completed the circulator exchange, which was additional to the routine exchange of two circulators, and then resumed the work required for start up of the reactor. This emergent work was carried out whilst reactor 2 remained on outage and resulted in an unplanned extension to the periodic shutdown of reactor 2.
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 NII site inspector and an NII specialist inspector conducted an inspection of the arrangements for maintenance of fire dampers deployed on the Torness site. The inspection identified that Station had arrangements implemented for maintenance of fire dampers, but that there were areas where improvement should be made. Station agreed to review the arrangements for fire damper maintenance, and NII has written to confirm the areas for improvement that they should address.
Station is carrying out a trial of 12 hour shift working for operations technicians as described in a document provided to NII in compliance with the arrangements to address LC 36 – Control of Organisational Change. Station wishes the trial to result in permanent implementation of the proposal, provided staff vote to accept it and the safety evaluation of the trial raises no significant safety issues. HSE specialist staff are overseeing station’s monitoring of the trial, and will need to be satisfied that the outcome from the safety evaluation is acceptable prior to implementation of the change .
NII has set up a team to follow-up an event that resulted in an unplanned power increase on reactor 2 at Torness during the night shift of 30 December 2005. Operators responded to the event by taking corrective action to restore normal core reactivity levels. NII requested British Energy to provide details of the corrective measures they proposed to address the areas for improvement identified from their investigations. Both Station and Company carried out investigations, and these identify that improvement to the training of Operators covering reactivity fundamentals is appropriate. Consequently British Energy is developing a programme of remedial work to address fully the findings from the investigations. NII is reviewing their proposals, and may make further interventions as appropriate.
Under Health and Safety legislation NII Site Inspectors, and other HSE Inspectors, may issue formal notices to secure improvements to safety.
NII has secured the necessary improvements to arrangements for conducting work on the station without the need to issue formal notices during the reporting period.
As part of the licensing regime enforced by HSE/ND the Inspectorate may issue Agreements, Approvals, Consents, Directions, Notifications and Specifications under the Site Licence Conditions, to permission licensees’ activities as appropriate. The following licence instruments have been issued this quarter in respect of Torness.
LI No: 504 Granted Consent under LC 30(3) to start-up reactor 2 after its 2006 trienniel periodic shutdown.