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 Harwell Chilton Campus Local Stakeholder Group (LSG) and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at the UKAEA Harwell licensed site. These reports are distributed quarterly. Site Inspectors of HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate normally attend LSG meetings and will be happy to respond to questions raised there by members of the LSG. Any 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 on to the HSE web site at http://www.hse.gov.uk/nuclear/llc/index.htm
Nuclear Directorate
Health and Safety Executive
Redgrave Court
Merton Road
Bootle
Merseyside
L20 7HS
1. The Site Inspector made three planned visits to Harwell during the quarter. His inspections and discussions covered a number of topics including the forthcoming UKAEA reorganisation; compliance with Licence Condition (LC) 35, Decommissioning; the Lifetime Plan for the site; and radioactive waste strategy (in conjunction with the Environment Agency (EA)).
2. The Site Inspector was joined by Specialist Inspectors for discussions with UKAEA regarding project progress and safety cases associated with both the Waste Encapsulation Plant and Retrieval Machine 2 (RM2). He was also joined by a radiation protection Specialist Inspector for discussions on delicensing the North Gate Area and the Eastern Area Facilities, which were held in conjunction with EA.
3. Further information on matters of interest is provided in the following sections of this report.
Planned Inspections and Discussions
4. As indicated in paragraph 1 above, the various meetings and discussions largely focused on UKAEA’s future strategies and plans for the site. In the case of RM2, a visit to the plant to inspect RM2 ahead of further setting to work and inactive commissioning revealed no matters of concern.
Remote Contact Meetings
5. Because of the high workload associated with the two matters of LC 35 compliance and UKAEA reorganisation (both separately considered below), NII was unable to join the Environment Agency for routine video conferences with UKAEA. Under the circumstances and if necessary, UKAEA would keep NII informed of significant events through the arrangements it has made under LC 7 for the notification, recording, investigating and reporting of incidents on the site. Other informal communications continue normally.
Licence Condition 35, Decommissioning
6. As was reported for quarter two, NII continues to follow up UKAEA’s proposals to significantly cut back on its decommissioning programmes which it declared in LTP 06/07. NII is doing so with a view to determining whether the company has remained compliant with the requirements of LC 35, Decommissioning and, if not, then what enforcement action, if any, would be appropriate under the circumstances and in accordance with HSE’s Enforcement Management Model.
UKAEA Reorganisation
7. In July, UKAEA resubmitted a revised suite of documentation to support its proposals to reorganise Harwell and Winfrith into a single Site Licensee Company. Like its March predecessor, the submission is substantial and includes significant changes which will take some time to properly assess. NII will continue to discuss matters with UKAEA as necessary in order to complete its work and ensure the proposals are properly presented and managed to ensure the new Site Licensee Company will be both sustainable and competent from the outset of its formation.
8. NII has powers under Nuclear Site Licence Number 44 to issue Consents, Approvals and Directions. In addition, NII can issue Notifications, Specifications, Acknowledgements and Agreements under the conditions attached to the Licence, or under arrangements made by UKAEA for complying with those conditions.
9. A new numbering system was introduced on 1 October 2004 for site licence actions, and all such actions are now called Licence Instruments. No licence instruments were issued during quarter three.