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 Chapelcross Site Stakeholder Group (SSG) and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at Chapelcross Power Station. These reports are distributed quarterly and are also available on the HSE’s website at http://www.hse.gov.uk/nuclear/llc/index.htm . Site Inspectors of HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate normally attend SSG meetings and will be happy to respond to any questions raised there or subsequently by members of the SSG. 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 inspections on the following dates during the quarter:
Inspections are undertaken at site as part of the process for monitoring compliance with:
Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
This entails monitoring licensee’s actions on the site in relation to incidents, operations, maintenance, projects, modifications, safety case changes and any other matters which may affect safety. The licensee is required to make and implement adequate arrangements under the conditions attached to the licence in order to ensure legal compliance. Inspections seek to judge both the adequacy of these arrangements and their implementation. In this period routine inspections of Chapelcross covered:
In general the arrangements made and implemented by Chapelcross in response to safety requirements were deemed to be adequate in the areas inspected. However, where improvements were considered necessary, satisfactory commitments to address the issues were made by or are being sought from the licensee, and the site inspector will monitor progress during future visits. Where necessary, formal regulatory enforcement action will be taken to ensure that appropriate remedial measures are implemented to reasonably practicable timescales.
NII witnessed Level 1 Emergency Exercise 1 Gerda on 23 May 2007 and found that it did not provide an adequate demonstration of the sites emergency arrangements. As a result, NII required a further demonstration exercise. Emergency Exercise Hayley was held on 11 October 2008 and this time NII judged that it did provide an adequate demonstration of the site’s emergency arrangements.
The site is planning to start defuelling in spring 2008. NII had been monitoring progress towards this and has had several discussions with the licensee to ensure that the site understands the regulatory requirements to ensure that NII can agree to the start of defuelling.
The site is currently producing its Periodic Safety Review, a major review of safety that is undertaken every 10 years. NII has to make a decision on the adequacy of the PSR by 31 March 2009 and to allow this the licensee is expected to present its PSR and an improvement plan to NII by 31 March 2008. The licensee had advised NII that it will not submit these until August 2008.
Licensees are required to have arrangements to respond to non-routine matters and events. NII inspectors judge the adequacy of the licensee’s response including actions taken to implement any necessary improvements. There are no items of particular note during the current reporting period.
Under Health and Safety legislation NII Site Inspectors, and other HSE Inspectors, may issue formal documents to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements. Under nuclear site licence conditions HSE/NII issues regulatory documents, which either permission an activity or requires some form of action to be taken; these are collectively termed Licence Instruments (LI). In addition inspectors may issue enforcement notices to secure improvements to safety.
Two LIs were issued to the licensee during the quarter: -