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 Capenhurst Local Stakeholder Group (LSG) and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at the Capenhurst Works. It is for distribution to members of the Capenhurst Local Stakeholder Group (LSG) and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at the Capenhurst Works. Any other person wishing to inquire about matters covered by this report should contact the HSE’s Nuclear Directorate on 0151-951-4382.
These reports are distributed quarterly and are available also from the Internet at http://www.hse.gov.uk/nuclear/index.htm.
Inspectors from NII visited the site on the following dates:
Meetings were also held at the NII office at Bootle on 15 and 26 November, with the licensee’s senior staff.
Each NII site inspector has an inspection programme, to inspect the licensee’s compliance against the 36 nuclear site licence conditions, over a period of time.
With regard to the licensee’s compliance with licence condition 36, (for the control of organisational change) discussions continue to be held regarding the need for the licensee to adequately justify the proposed organisational changes. This includes the need to retain adequate "core competence" and "intelligent customer" capabilities, in connection with the emerging proposals for the proportionate and ongoing reduction in the size of the site workforce, which the licensee is proposing. These proposed changes will follow the completion of the site decommissioning and waste disposal projects. Specialist NII inspectors have continued to provide extensive regulatory advice to the licensee, in support of the site inspector, during these meetings at site and at the NII office at Bootle.
NII had become concerned that the licensee had not adequately justified the organisational changes to NII. Meetings were arranged with the Head of Site and others, at the NII office in Bootle, on 15 November and 26 November, to enable the licensee to provide further evidence of compliance to NII. The licensee acknowledged the NII regulatory concern and has responded positively, providing additional safety documentation, which is being assessed by NII.
NII has now agreed an appropriate interim organisational change regulatory review process, in accordance with licence condition 36 arrangements.
It had previously been understood that the 'down blended' uranic residues were only to remain on the Capenhurst site for a limited period, pending further processing and recycling at another licensed site. The licensee is now proposing to store these materials at Capenhurst for an increased length of time, in response to practical processing durations and to permit contractual issues to be addressed with regard to the subsequent processing at another licensed site. The site inspector continues to press the licensee for improvements to the storage arrangements, to minimise the time for interim storage and to develop the interim storage safety case, in order to provide an improved demonstration of the safety of storage of these materials.
The licensee’s response to a minor powder spillage event, during decommissioning operations in December, was found to be adequately in compliance with the licence condition 7 incident investigation arrangements.
The site inspector continues to participate in the regulatory review meetings, held in October and December, involving NII, the Environment Agency, the licensee and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, reviewing the licensee’s decommissioning progress against the Lifetime Plan.
NII continues to actively press the licensee to develop the options to bring forward the date for the commencement of processing or disposition of the legacy "Hex Tails", uranic and other materials currently stored on site, taking account of wider developments. The licensee continues to provide the site inspector with visibility of the ongoing work to review acceleration options. NII was encouraged that the licensee was actively engaged in reviewing the options to address the "Hex Tails" legacy, with a view to reducing the potential hazard, earlier than currently programmed in the 2007 Lifetime Plan. NII will continue to press for tangible progress to be made by the licensee in the timely reduction of this medium term site hazard.
The site inspector continues to press for the timely disposal of solid low level and very low level radioactive wastes from the site by the licensee and for the timely despatch of uranic residues to another licensed site for processing and recycling.
Very low level solid waste disposals were reinstated in July, but no low level solid waste disposals have been made since the start of this financial year in April. The latter was partly due to the need to gain approval for a modified transport package by the Department for Transport, for which an acceptable application had still first to be presented by the licensee in early 2008, (the scope of which has been negotiated since 2006). Confirmed start dates are awaited from the licensee for the despatch of the uranic residues.
There continue to be effective working relationships between the regulators, the licensee and the NDA at the Sellafield Limited Capenhurst site, which serve the interests of each party.
The site inspector participated in the November Local Stakeholder Group meeting, reporting on NII inspection activities over the preceding six months.
The site inspector continues to consult with the active site safety representatives during site inspections.
None.
No regulatory enforcement action was necessary in this quarter.
The Inspectorate has powers under the site licence to issue Consents, Approvals and Directions. In addition, the Inspectorate may use Licence Instruments to issue Specifications, Acknowledgements and Agreements, under either the conditions attached to the Licence, or arrangements made by Sellafield Limited - Capenhurst Works for complying with those conditions.
No Licence Instruments were issued in this period.
Sellafield Limited (Capenhurst Works) NII Site Inspector
HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate
January 2008