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 Local Liaison Committee (LLC) and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at the Devonshire Dock Complex, Barrow-in-Furness. 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
The Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) Site Inspector made inspections on the following dates during the quarter:
8-10 January 2008
14 January 2008
21-24 January 2008
19-22 February 2008
3-4 March 2008
20 March 2008
26-27 March 2008
Other NII inspectors attended site on 24 January, 28 February, 3-4 March and 25-27 March.
Inspections are undertaken at site as part of the process for 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 inspections at the Devonshire Dock Complex covered:
In general the arrangements made and implemented by BAE SYSTEMS Marine Ltd 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 issued an Improvement Notice in the third quarter of 2007 which required BAE Systems to introduce safe systems of work that ensure all reasonably practicable measures are taken to prevent unconnected persons remaining within designated controlled areas during radiography. NII checked the adequacy of the improved systems of work during the reporting period and considered that they satisfied the requirements of the Improvement Notice. Additional improvements have been implemented to address other recommendations identified during the incident investigation.
As previously reported, inspectors from the NII and the Defence Nuclear Safety Regulator considered that aspects of the on-site emergency arrangements were not demonstrated adequately in July 2007 and so we required the licensee to undertake a further Level 1 exercise before the start of Astute Power Range Testing. This re-demonstration took place on 22 January 2008 and there was strong evidence that the areas for improvement from the previous exercise had been addressed. We considered the exercise to be a satisfactory demonstration of the site’s emergency arrangements.
NII has requested the licensee to consider a range of Safety Performance Indicators (SPI) as part of a project being undertaken across all Licenced Sites. The SPI’s submitted by BAE Systems were, in general, appropriate. NII held a meeting on 14th February 2008 with all defence licencees to discuss defence sector SPI issues and reporting arrangements. NII is awaiting a response from the Industry to proposals made in relation to progressing the SPI project through the Safety Director’s Forum of which BAE Systems is a member.
Licensees are required to have arrangements to respond to non-routine matters and events. NII inspectors judge the adequacy of the licensee’s/operators response including actions taken to implement any necessary improvements.
During the reporting period, there have been a number of emergent build quality issues. NII has monitored BAE Systems’ response to these and we are satisfied that appropriate controls have been put in place to ensure that nuclear safety is maintained.
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.
No Licence Instruments or enforcement notices were issued to the licensee during the quarter.