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 URENCO (Capenhurst) Ltd Local Liaison Committee and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at the URENCO (Capenhurst) Ltd Nuclear Licensed Site. These reports are distributed quarterly. Site Inspectors of HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate normally attend LLC meetings and will be happy to respond to questions raised there or subsequently by members of the LLC. 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 -The site was visited by NII inspectors on :-
April 4th, 5th
May 11th, 24th
June 5th, 22nd
Compliance with Conditions Attached to the Nuclear Site Licence
Each NII Site Inspector has an inspection programme to inspect compliance of operations on the site with the 36 Nuclear Site Licence Conditions (LCs). During this quarter particular attention has been paid to compliance by the licensee to licence conditions :-
LC 11 Emergency Arrangements
LC 12 Duly Authorised & Other Suitably Qualified & Experienced Persons
LC 24 Operating Instructions
LC 36 Control of Organisational Change
No issues were raised from the compliance inspections undertaken during this period that required formal regulatory action.
Shift Demonstration Exercise “Nightingale”
The UCL Silent Hours Shift Demonstration Exercise “Nightingale” was witnessed by NII. The scenario involved a fire in a storeroom in the UF6 building in E22. The scenario was focused on testing the local roll call, the establishment of a Forward Control Point, the procedures for dealing with contaminated casualties and procedures for dealing with the loss of radio communications. Overall the NII observers considered the exercise to be an adequate demonstration of the site emergency arrangements although as usual there were a number of minor points raised which have been communicated to UCL for action.
LC12 Duly Authorised & Other Suitably Qualified & Experienced Persons (DAPs & SQEPs) Inspection Follow up
The progress made by UCL in addressing the issues raised from the previous NII LC12 arrangements inspections was discussed with UCL. UCL outlined the new systems that are being introduced to improve the DAP& SQEP training record keeping across the site. In addition UCL outlined the revised procedures for staff annual reviews which will review the adequacy/currency of the DAPs and SQEPs experience and training. It is considered that these procedures, once they are fully implemented, will address the original NII concerns. One issue still to be resolved is the adequacy of the systems of how UCL monitor the SQEP status of contractors. This aspect will be followed up in future site visits.
UCL LC36 (Control of Organisational Change) Arrangements Inspection
Overall NII considered that the revised top-level UCL LC36 arrangements are adequate and consistent with arrangements at other licensees. The detailed UCL arrangements are implemented by a Safety Instruction document which has just been revised. UCL were informed that NII would carry out a further inspection in 6-9mths time to review how the new detailed arrangements had been implemented.
UCL LC24 (Operating Instructions) Arrangements Inspection
The overall finding from this inspection was that the LC24 requirements appeared to be covered by the top tier UCL arrangements. However UCL accepted that there was a need to draw together, within site-wide documentation, the procedures that are currently being utilised across the site to implement LC24 arrangements.
Fire & Rescue Service Teams Change Proposals Discussion
A meeting was held to discuss changes to the Management of Change (MoC) proposals for the Fire and Rescue Service (FR&S) teams on the Capenhurst Site which were outlined in the previous NII Report. UCL outlined that it now wished to utilise some of the F&RS staff to do work to address the site backlog of pump and oil decontamination work. UCL stated that the revised proposals did not affect the numbers in the FR&S immediate response teams and as all proposed work could be readily safely and immediately set aside in the event of a callout the response times of the full team would not be affected. Further discussions on this topic are anticipated when the proposals are formally submitted to NII.
B806 Area Delicensing Discussions
Discussions were held with UCL and Health Protection Agency (HPA) staff regarding UCL’s proposals to delicence part of the UCL site around B806 near the entrance to the site. The main objective of the discussions was to ascertain the extent of the sampling programme that NII will commission HPA to undertake as part of the delicensing assessment work.
Safety Case Methods Discussions
A wide ranging discussion of various aspects of the UCL safety case methodologies was undertaken with representatives from the UCL Production Dept, the UCL plant managers and HS&E Dept. Topics discussed included Operating Rule and Safety Mechanism identification methods and methodologies to help define the adequacy and sufficiency of protection systems. The UCL attendees indicated that the NII comments and guidance would assist UCL in compiling future safety documentation. UCL stated that they would be seeking further discussions with NII Specialist Inspectors on other safety case aspects eg seismic analysis methods, deterministic/risk criteria, ALARP justifications.
Raft Storage Discussions
Discussions were held with UCL regarding the current UCL Hex Storage and Cylinder Refurbishment Strategy. UCL stated that it believed that raft storage availability was currently still manageable but the availability of the new rafts will certainly assist with the logistics associated with the receipt, storage and export of cylinders.
Decontamination Facilities Discussions
A meeting was held to obtain further information on the backlog of vacuum pump decontamination work on the site and the UCL proposals to address the problems. UCL indicated that proposals were now being considered by the UCL management to move to a double day shift operation using the existing Decontamination Facility equipment. UCL has drawn up a 3 yr programme to deal with the backlog work. NII stated that is was keen that UCL embarked on the proposed programme to address the historic backlog of decontamination work and that NII would closely monitor progress made by UCL.
Tails Management Facility (TMF) Project Update
An update on the work being carried out on the TMF project was obtained from UCL. UCL intend to bring forward the Store project work such that the store can accept oxide by 2010. UCL also stated that it was considering having the cylinder wash facility operational by 2011 and the main deconversion plant operational from 2012.
Waste Handling Facility Project Discussions
Discussions were held regarding the UCL proposals to modify the C15 Building to become the central waste handling facility for the UCL site. The new complex will contain various separate areas which will included ventilated rooms and gloveboxes to deal with cylinder refurbishment and recharge of chemical absober traps etc, equipment to treat certain waste streams, a waste compactor and a possibly a waste drum monitor.
Other meetings
Safety Representatives Meeting - A meeting of the UCL Safety Representatives forum was attended. Items discussed included proposed changes to the Fire and Rescue Service (F&RS) teams additional work, the impact of the new noise regulations, the programme of recent Fire Safety Improvements undertaken across the site.
UCL Local Liaison Committee Meeting - The latest meeting of the UCL Local Liaison Committee was attended.
Miscellaneous Plant Visits –
During the report period a number of visits to plants across the site were undertaken including -
E23 & A3 Plant Visits - Visits were undertaken to E23 & A3 primarily to confirm that the actions undertaken by UCL to address the issues raised during the NII inspection on Contamination Control aspects, applicable to E23 & A3, had been implemented. It was considered that all inspection actions had been addressed.
B202 Site Monitors Office visit - The B202 Site HP monitors offices were visited to discuss the implementation of the revised procedures for the functional testing and calibration of the contamination monitoring equipment across site. The discussions indicated that UCL had adequately addressed the issues raised from the NII inspection on contamination control aspects.
Storage Raft Visits - An unannounced visit was undertaken to the various UCL storage rafts across the site. No immediate issues or concerns were raised from the visits however it was confirmed that additional cylinder storage space would be required.
E22 Plant Visit - An unannounced visit was made to E22. No major issues were raised from the visit.
Miscellaneous Matters
During the report period a number of miscellaneous topics were discussed including –
E22 Plant -Unit B Operational problems update
The investigation report into the observed minor deviations in the bulk product assays from the E22 facility Unit B cascades has been reviewed The report outlined the background to the event and detailed the enhanced cascade sampling regime that has been implemented to prevent any future occurrence of the problem. UCL agreed to update NII of any further information on the event.
Regulatory Actions taken during the quarter –
None
The Inspectorate has powers under the licence to issue Consents, Approvals and Directions. In addition, the Inspectorate uses Licence Instruments to issue Specifications, Acknowledgements and Agreements under either the conditions attached to the Licence, or arrangements made by UCL for complying with those conditions. The Consents/Approvals/Directions and Licence Instruments issued during the quarter were
DATE |
TYPE |
No |
DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12.4.06 | Acknowledgement | 504 | Acknowledgement under the arrangements made under LC19 (Construction or Installation of new plant) of the Preliminary Safety Report for Storage of Uranium Oxide (U308) in the Tails Management Facility at URENCO (Capenhurst) Site |
| 12.4.06 | Acknowledgement | 505 | Acknowledgement under the arrangements made under LC19 (Construction or Installation of new plant) of the Preliminary Safety Report for Deconversion of Depleted Uranium Hexafluoride (UF6) in the Tails Management Facility at URENCO (Capenhurst) Site |
| 2.5.06 | Acknowledgement | 506 | Acknowledgement under the arrangements made under LC22 (Modification or experiment on existing Plant) of the Preliminary Safety Report to enable enrichment of recycled Feed Material and Higher Enrichment on the URENCO (Capenhurst) Site |
I.K. GIBSON
HM Principal Inspector (Nuclear Installations)