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 Dounreay Site Stakeholder Group (DSSG) and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at Dounreay. These reports are distributed quarterly and are available also from the Internet at http://www.hse.gov.uk/nuclear/index.htm. Site Inspectors of HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate attend Dounreay SSG meetings and will respond to questions raised there by members of the Dounreay SSG. Any other person wishing to inquire about matters covered by this report should 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 Site Inspectors and Specialist Inspectors visited Dounreay on the following dates:-
Compliance inspections were undertaken against a number of the Licence Conditions. No major issues were identified. A large proportion of time during this quarter has been devoted to monitoring the safety performance of the Dounreay Restoration Limited (DSRL) shadow working organisation in preparation for relicensing.
The safety performance of the shadow working organisation for DSRL was closely monitored in preparation for relicensing.
An inspection of the readiness of the DSRL shadow organisation to become the Licensee for Dounreay was carried out by a team of four inspectors. No issues were identified during the inspection that would preclude licensing. Several minor issues were identified which UKAEA (now DSRL) have since responded to.
The new Nuclear Site Licence, number Sc17, was signed on 25 March coming into effect on 1 April 2008, at which time the previous Nuclear Site Licence number Sc6A, was revoked.
An inspection of DCP carried out at the end of March found it ready to start receiving liquor from the high active liquor store, subject to NII receiving documentation and agreeing that such transfers could recommence. Outstanding actions in connection with training are to be addressed before routine operations on a 24 hour continuous shift working pattern can resume.
The DCP Import Export Facility project was found to be progressing satisfactorily.
Inspections identified significant room for improvement in the display of warning notices at a number of facilities on the site. A large number of warning notices at the Marshall Laboratories were found to be missing, damaged or redundant and the building plan displayed for fire fighters entering the Uranium Recovery Plant needed to be replaced with a legible drawing. This was in spite of UKAEA management walkabouts that had previously identified some of the deficiencies and may be symptomatic of a wider resource issue which the site needs to address.
Decommissioning of the Pulse Column Laboratory was found to be proceeding satisfactorily.
On 7 January, a fire broke out in an office in the high active liquor store. The fire was detected automatically and extinguished promptly by the site fire brigade. An NII inspection confirmed that the effects of the fire had been confined to the office.
The site is making progress in developing a coherent, structured, integrated strategy for managing all the wastes at Dounreay. This will inform NII’s inspections of specific aspects of waste management on the site.
A benchmark inspection of the Dounreay site’s compliance with Licence Condition 23 (Operating Rules) took place during the week of 4th February. This inspection formed one of a series of 6 industry wide inspections comparing licensee’s arrangements with IAEA guidance. Several minor variances against expectations were observed which UKAEA are addressing. No issues of immediate safety concern were identified.
All the audit recommendations have been closed out by the NII and SEPA. The remaining work associated with the recommendations is monitored through site inspection activities.
In the last report, it was noted that an investigation was carried out into the breach of a criticality control at PFR. NII issued a letter to UKAEA requiring certain improvements to be made at PFR. These improvements have now been made.
The Inspectorate has powers under the licence to issue Consents, Approvals and Directions. In addition, the Inspectorate uses Licence Instruments to issue Specifications, Acknowledgements, and Agreements under either the conditions attached to the Licence, or arrangements made by UKAEA for complying with those conditions.
A nuclear site licence was granted to Dounreay Site Restoration Limited in respect of the Dounreay site. The new Licence(number Sc17) was signed on 26 March and came into effect on 1 April 2008 at which time the previous Licence(number Sc6A) was revoked. Licence Instruments issued under the new Licence Sc17, start from number 500.
NII issued the following Licence Instruments during the 1st quarter of 2008: Licence Instrument Number 501 under Sc17 was not used.
| Nuclear site licence number Sc6A | |
|---|---|
| LI 550 | Agreement to adopt the d2580 modern standards safety case |
| Nuclear site licence number SC17 | |
| LI 500 | Approval of the dounreay site restoration limited nuclear safety committee terms of reference |
| LI 502 | Approval of dounreay emergency plan |
| LI 503 | Approval of the dounreay site restoration limited nuclear safety committee arrangements for dealing with urgent safety proposals |