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 Bradwell Site Local Liaison Council (LCLC) and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at Bradwell Power Station. These reports are distributed quarterly. Site Inspectors of HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate usually attend LCLC meetings and will respond to any questions raised there or subsequently by members of the LCLC. Any other person wishing to inquire about matters covered in this report should contact the HSE’s Nuclear Directorate on 0151-951- 3484.
Nuclear Directorate
Health and Safety Executive
Redgrave Court
Merton Road
Bootle
Merseyside
L20 7HS
Bradwell was visited for inspection and meetings on three occasions during this quarter. The visits were made on the following dates:
Level 1Emergency Exercise Sigma was observed by an NII team in June. NII judged that this was an adequate demonstration but identified that the site’s performance in areas relating to Command and Control and dose awareness could be improved. Site subsequently implemented a re-training programme. The NII inspector observed a training exercise in August and judged that adequate improvements had been made.
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. The NII site inspector has inspected progress against the formal recovery action plan that was put in place following the ponds event in April 2008. The site inspector has informed the site team that progress is slow.
NDA’s competition strategy called for Magnox Electric Limited to be split into two site Licence Companies: Magnox North Limited and Magnox South Limited. This split took place on 1 October 2008, when Magnox North Limited became the nuclear site licence holder for Chapelcross, Hunterston A, Oldbury, Trawsfynydd and Wylfa and Magnox South Limited became the nuclear site licence holder for Berkeley, Bradwell, Dungeness A, Hinkley Point A and Sizewell A.
To achieve this split HSE worked closely with Magnox Electric Limited, NDA, other government Departments and other regulators (particularly EA and SEPA) for over two years. This project has delivered improvements in a number of areas.
One of these improvements is that each site, including Bradwell, has had to develop new arrangements to control its decommissioning programme. These arrangements give HSE greater regulatory control over changes to the programme where they have a significant impact on hazard reduction on site. For the most significant proposed programme changes the site will have to send a formal submission to NII providing a full safety justification for the proposed change and then will not be able to alter the programme until HSE has provided a formal permission.
The Inspectorate has powers under the Nuclear Site Licence to issue Consents, Approvals and Directions. In addition, the Inspectorate uses Licence Instruments to issue Specifications and Agreements under the conditions attached to the Licence.
The following Licence Instruments were issued during this quarter: