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 Dungeness SSG and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at Dungeness B Power Station. 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 SSG meetings and will respond to questions raised there by members of the SSG. 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 (HMNII) Site Inspector visited Dungeness B on the following dates during the quarter covered by this report:
Other NII inspectors with specialist technical expertise also visited Dungeness B and other British Energy establishments during the period to support the Site Inspector by performing inspections on specific aspects of the Licensee’s arrangements and nuclear safety case. During the period a Specialist Inspector carried out an inspection of the station’s arrangements for the compliance with the Pressure Systems Safety Regulations 2000. These arrangements, and their implementation, were assessed to be adequate. The Annual Review of Safety was attended by the Superintending Inspector. Progress against actions arising from this meeting will be monitored by HMNII as part of its normal regulatory business.
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 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 at Dungeness B covered:
In general the arrangements made and implemented by the site 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.
Meetings were held to discuss progress made by the Fuel Plug Unit (FPU) project. Meetings were also attended to discuss the station’s progress against closing out actions placed on it following the HMNII team inspection of LC 28: Maintenance, Examination, Inspection and Testing in September 2006. A meeting was attended to finalise arrangements for the Level 1 Emergency Exercise Review for 2008. A meeting was held with the Environment Agency to discuss matters of common regulatory interest and agree a joint inspection programme.
Licensees are required to have arrangements to respond to non-routine matters and events. HMNII inspectors judge the adequacy of the licensee’s response including actions taken to implement any necessary improvements. As part of their planned inspection site inspectors examine safety-related events that have occurred and the Licensee’s response to them. There were no matters of particular note during the current period.
Under Health and Safety legislation HMNII Site Inspectors, and other HSE Inspectors, may issue formal documents to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements. Under nuclear site licence conditions HSE/HMNII 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 were issued to the licensee during the quarter.
No enforcement Notices were issued during the quarter. The Improvement Notice served on Dungeness B in October 2007 to improve the Carbon Dioxide plant was successfully closed out on 31 January 2008.