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 Barrow-in-Furness Local Liaison committee (LLC) and covers activities associated with the regulation of nuclear safety at BAE SYSTEMS Marine Limited (BAESM). 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 Information Centre on 0151-951-4103.
This report will be put onto the HSE Website at hse.gov.uk/nuclear/index.htm.The majority of sites inspected by HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII), a part of the Health and Safety Executive, are licensed by NII under the Nuclear Installations Act 1965 (as amended). This report summarises the inspection and regulatory activities associated with the Barrow-in-Furness licensed site. In accordance with the HSE commitments to open government, this report will also be placed on the HSE Website.
Visits are made to the site for the purpose of undertaking routine plant and project inspections or attending formal meetings with site management or safety representatives. Routine inspections by NII are undertaken primarily to check compliance with licence conditions made under the Nuclear Installations Act, but are also made against provisions of the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974, and regulations made under that Act such as the Ionising Radiations Regulations 1999. The site inspector visited site on:
The Deputy Chief Inspector visited site on 2 July 2007 and 24 September 2007, the Superintending Inspector on 3 July 2007, 16-17 July 2007 and 24 September 2007, and other NII inspectors on:
Matters covered in this section are those being pursued with the site as part of ongoing site inspection activity and dialogue including project work and any generic or topical work relevant to all licensees.
As part of the routine inspection programme for the site, NII inspectors check compliance with licence conditions made under the Nuclear Installations Act and other regulations such as the Ionising Radiation Regulations 1999.
Inspectors from NII and the Defence Nuclear Safety Regulator jointly inspected BAE Systems’ arrangements for:
Programmes of existing work to rationalise, modernise and improve the arrangements were examined and progress confirmed as satisfactory. Any new opportunities for improvement identified during the inspections, and the actions necessary to achieve them, were discussed and agreed with BAE Systems.
In July, inspectors from the NII and the Defence Nuclear Safety Regulator jointly observed an exercise based on a submarine nuclear reactor accident, which provided the annual Level 1 demonstration of the on site emergency arrangements and the triennial Level 2 test of the off site emergency plan required by REPPIR 2001. We judged the exercise a satisfactory demonstration of the off site plan, but aspects of the on site arrangements were not demonstrated adequately. Consequently, we require the licensee to undertake a further Level 1 exercise to demonstrate the adequacy of its on site arrangements before the start of Astute Power Range Testing.
Matters involving NII’s response to incidents/events and to non-routine issues arising from operation of the site are covered in this section together with the outcome of any special/team inspections, investigations or audits.
Following a radiography incident onboard Astute, where two persons who were unconnected with radiography remained within the designated controlled area, we served an Improvement Notice on BAE Systems that requires the Company to introduce safe systems of work that ensure all reasonably practicable measures are taken to prevent similar events occurring in the future. The site inspector is monitoring the Company’s response to the notice to ensure timely compliance with the schedule of requirements.
We also completed our initial enquiries into an event involving inadequate accounting and storage of detectors containing very small amounts of radioactive material that will be used to measure reactor power. There was no harm to any persons or release of radioactive material to the environment on this occasion and the potential for either was, in any event, extremely small. BAE Systems’ own investigation has correctly identified the shortcomings that led to the event and its actions to remedy these and to prevent them from recurring are considered appropriate. NII does not intend to pursue this matter further subject to monitoring satisfactory progress by BAE Systems towards timely completion of the identified actions.HMNII issues formal regulatory documents called licence instruments where these are called for under conditions attached to the nuclear site licence. Regulatory responsibility for authorising discharges and disposal of radioactive wastes from the sites lies with the Environment Agency.
Regulatory activity during the quarter was limited to the reported inspection activities and no formal regulatory documents were issued by NII for the Barrow-in-Furness site.
Nuclear Safety Directorate
Health and Safety Executive
Redgrave Court
Merton Road
Bootle
Merseyside
L20 7HS