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 AWE Local Liaison Committee (LLC) and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at the Aldermaston and Burghfield. These reports are distributed quarterly and are also available on the HSE’s web site at http://www.hse.gov.uk/nuclear/llc/index.htm . Site Inspectors of HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate usually attend LLC meetings and will respond to questions raised there by members of the LLC. Any other person wishing to enquire about matters covered by this report may 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
NII inspectors visited the Aldermaston and Burghfield sites on several occasions during the quarter being reported. There were visits from other HSE inspectors in relation to conventional safety and explosives; and, also the Deputy Chief Inspector NII made a routine visit to AWE in May.
NII inspections were carried out on the following dates:
| April | 14-18, 21,22 |
|---|---|
| May | 12-16, 20 |
| June | 4, 9-12,24 |
Inspections are undertaken for the purpose of monitoring compliance with
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 licensees/operators are 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 AWE Aldermaston and Burghfield included:
In general the arrangements made and implemented by AWE Aldermaston and Burghfield 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 AWE plc, and the site inspector(s) will monitor progress during future visits. Should we feel that progress is unsatisfactory in addressing any issue; the option to take formal regulatory enforcement action could be considered to ensure that appropriate remedial measures are implemented within reasonably practicable timescales.
NII observed SITEX(B) 2008 on 22 April 2008. The exercise intent was for AWE to demonstrate its ability to respond and deal with a major on-site emergency.
NII considered that this exercise adequately demonstrated the emergency arrangements at AWE(B), and many good points were noted during the course of the exercise. NII was particularly encouraged by the fact that the Learning Points that had been identified in previous exercises had been suitably addressed and included as part of the licensee’s emergency arrangements.
The Deputy Chief Inspector attended a routine Level 1 Meeting on 16 May 2008. This meeting covers high level regulatory matters and strategies for the sites and is attended by senior representatives from the Environment Agency, the Defence Nuclear Safety Regulator and Directors of AWE.
A joint commitment to meet the expectations of the recently launched Regulatory Nuclear Interface Protocol (RNIP) was confirmed.
NII provided an update in the last quarterly report on its assessment of the A45 Periodic Review of Safety (PRS).
NII has now completed this assessment and our decision was formally issued on 12 May 2008. NII confirmed to AWE that an adequate safety case had been demonstrated for the continued operation of the facility up to 31 March 2016, subject to satisfactory progress being made in completing an agreed improvement work programme. AWE accept that future operations will depend upon satisfactory results being demonstrated from the regular examination, inspection, maintenance and testing programme that support the normal operations of the facility.
Until a replacement facility becomes available, any operations beyond 2016 will need to be adequately justified to NII.
Although HEFF is a non-nuclear facility, in addition to satisfying the requirements of the Manufacture and Storage of Explosives Regulations 2005, AWE needed to demonstrate that there was no potential for this facility to pose an external hazard to other nuclear facilities on the Aldermaston site.
Following the submission of safety documentation to NII, we confirmed that AWE had adequately addressed our concerns by the inclusion of additional design provisions that will be provided to protect nuclear facilities from HEFF operation. In accordance with the flexible permissioning process NII’s agreement was given to proceed beyond this regulatory hold point
A joint NII and NWR trial readiness inspection of the Hydrodynamics (HD) facility was carried out. This inspection considered the AWE progress in addressing a number of actions raised from the previous trial in 2007. Agreement was given in accordance with the flexible permissioning process to clear the hold point to allow the second trial to proceed. The trial was successfully undertaken on 17 April 2008.
A joint workshop attended by AWE Aldermaston, HSE/NII and Local Authorities (West Berks, Reading, Wokingham, Hampshire, and Basingstoke and Deane) was held on 21 May 2008 at Wokingham Borough Council Shute End offices.
The workshop covered topics including Land-Use Planning and Local Development Frameworks, Demographic Siting Criteria in current usage, and the requirement for Nuclear Safeguarding Zones.
Emergency Preparedness and the arrangements for compliance with the Radiation (Emergency Preparedness and Public Information) Regulations (REPPIR) 2001; and the availability of resources for emergency response around the AWE Aldermaston and Burghfield sites were also discussed. The enduring high priority attached to effective interaction between: strategy and policy, emergency arrangements officers, and planning officers, and between Local Authorities, AWE and HSE/NII was reinforced at the workshop.
NII reported in the last quarter that on 3rd April 2008 we served an Improvement Notice to secure improvements in AWE’s licence condition 23 and 24 arrangements dealing with criticality control arrangements. These licence conditions deal with Operating Rules and Operating Instructions respectively.
NII Inspectors have held meetings with the licensee to establish the progress that is being made towards addressing the necessary improvement in criticality Operating Rules and Operating Instructions. The notice requires a number of key processes to be improved by January 19th 2009 and the progress to date is encouraging.
NII continues to be satisfied that there is no immediate risk from criticality at AWE. Our routine inspection aims to confirm that AWE ensures that the risks from all of its activities are maintained As Low As Reasonably Practicable.
Under Health and Safety legislation, NII Site Inspectors and other HSE Inspectors, may issue formal documents to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements.
As part of its regulation under the nuclear site licences NII issues formal regulatory documents called Licence Instruments. These utilise the primary licence condition powers of `Consent', 'Approval', 'Direction', 'Specification', 'Notification' and 'Agreement' as well as those powers derived from the licensee's arrangements. The following Licence Instruments were issued during the period of this report.
NII issued two Licence Instruments for the agreement of specified operations at Burghfield, based upon observations that AWE had done all that was reasonably practicable at the time to demonstrate adequate progress with remediation work and that the proposed operations were adequately safe.
No enforcement notices were issued during the reporting period that were not covered in our previous report.