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 Capenhurst Local Stakeholder Group (LSG) and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at the Capenhurst Works. 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 usually attend LSG meetings and will respond to questions raised there by members of the LSG. 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
Inspectors from NII visited the site on the following dates:
Each NII site inspector has an inspection programme, informed by planned regulatory interventions. There are two key regulatory interventions for this site. The first is to ensure that the structure and resources available to the licensee remain adequate to ensure nuclear site licence compliance, as the hazard on the site reduces. The second relates to the acceleration of the disposition and ‘deconversion’ of the legacy uranium hexafluoride "Hex Tails", to the less hazardous oxide form of uranium.
With regard to the licensee’s compliance with licence condition 36, (for the control of organisational change) the licensee has continued to develop arrangements to adequately justifying the ongoing site organisational changes. This reflected the need to retain adequate “core competence” and “intelligent customer” capabilities, in connection with the developing proposals for the significant reduction in the size of the site workforce. These phased changes will follow the completion of the site decommissioning and waste disposal projects.
It had previously been understood that the ‘down blended’ uranic residues were only to remain on the Capenhurst site for a limited period, pending further processing and recycling at another licensed site. The licensee is currently proposing to store these materials at Capenhurst for an increased length of time, to permit contractual and processing capacity issues to be addressed, with regard to the subsequent processing at another licensed site. It is understood that the duration of interim storage may be up to 6 years, although this period could potentially be reduced. An inspection was made of the interim storage arrangements, accompanied by a safety representative, with an acceptable outcome, pending the development by the licensee of the interim storage safety case to justify the storage of these materials.
The licensee continues to actively commission a new facility, being used to empty and wash out some legacy uranium hexafluoride cylinders, with acceptable progress being maintained. This plant is a key facility for reducing the chemo toxic hazard on the site.
The site inspector continues to participate in the quarterly regulatory review meetings, involving NII, the Environment Agency, the licensee and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, reviewing the licensee’s decommissioning and waste disposals progress against the Lifetime Plan.
NII continues to actively press the licensee to develop the options to bring forward the date for the commencement of processing or disposition of the legacy “Hex Tails”, uranic and other materials currently stored on site, taking account of wider developments. The licensee continues to provide the site inspector with visibility of the ongoing work to review acceleration options. NII was encouraged that the licensee remains actively engaged in reviewing the options to address the “Hex Tails” legacy, with a view to reducing the potential hazard, earlier than currently programmed in the 2008 Lifetime Plan. NII will continue to press for tangible progress to be made by the licensee in the timely reduction of this medium term site hazard.
The site inspector continues to press for the timely disposal of solid low level and very low level radioactive wastes from the site by the licensee and for the timely despatch of uranic residues to another licensed site for processing and recycling. The licensee accelerated the disposal of some solid very low level waste earlier this year, which would otherwise have remained on the site for several decades. NII welcomed the licensee’s demonstration of this disposal route and continues to encourage the licensee to complete the timely disposal of this particular radioactive waste stream.
Very low level solid waste disposals have continued during the past quarter, further reducing the inventory of radioactive materials on the site, but no low level solid waste disposals have been made since March 2007. The latter was partly due to the need to gain approval for a modified transport package by the Department for Transport, this approval being received by the licensee in January 2008. The licensee proposes to reinstate low level solid waste disposals from the site to the Low Level Waste Repository in the latter half of 2008, aiming to complete these low level solid waste disposals by early 2010, which is acceptable to NII.
There continue to be effective working relationships between the regulators, the licensee and the NDA at the Sellafield Limited Capenhurst site, which serve the interests of each party.
The site inspector participated in the evening Local Stakeholder Group meeting held in Capenhurst Village Hall on 6th May and at the full Local Stakeholder Group meeting held at Capenhurst on 26th June 2008, in order to address queries regarding NII inspection and assessment activities.
The site inspector continues to consult with the active site safety representatives during site inspections. The positive initiatives encompassed within the Safety 1st programme, being led by the very active safety representatives, continue to make a significant contribution to the strong site safety culture.
None.
No regulatory enforcement action was necessary in this quarter.
The Inspectorate has powers under the site licence to issue Consents, Approvals and Directions. In addition, the Inspectorate may use Licence Instruments to issue Specifications, Acknowledgements and Agreements, under either the conditions attached to the Licence, or arrangements made by Sellafield Limited - Capenhurst Works for complying with those conditions.
No Licence Instruments were issued in this period.