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 Harwell Chilton Campus Local Stakeholder Group (LSG) and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at UKAEA Harwell licensed site. 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 LSG meetings and will respond to questions raised there by members of the LSG. 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
1. Work on both the proposed Harwell/Winfrith reorganisation into Research Sites Restoration Ltd, RSRL, and LC 35 compliance (see below) continued to be the focus of the Site Inspector’s attention this quarter. He made two visits to site in connection with the reorganisation (see below). The first was to follow up points of detail and issues that were equally relevant to both sites and which had arisen from NII’s assessment of UKAEA’s proposals. The second was to undertake a final readiness inspection ahead of NII issuing the necessary licence instrument to enable reorganisation to commence.
2. The Site Inspector also attended the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s Interim Review of Lifetime Plan (LTP) 08/09, in the company of colleagues from the environment Agency (EA), and traveled down from Harwell to attend the first joint Harwell-Winfrith Regulatory Forum.
3. Further information on matters of interest is provided in the following sections of this report.
4. No planned inspections or discussions on specific operating plant were undertaken this quarter.
5. Because of the continuing high workload associated with the two matters of LC 35 compliance and UKAEA reorganisation, NII was unable to join the Environment Agency for routine video conferences with UKAEA. Under the circumstances and if necessary, UKAEA would keep NII informed of significant events through the arrangements it has made under LC 7 for the notification, recording, investigating and reporting of incidents on the site. Other informal communications continue normally.
6. Work reported in the last three quarterly reports has concluded with NII completing its consideration of the circumstances under which UKAEA, in May 2007, departed from its 2006/7 Lifetime plan commitments (LTP 06/07) at both Harwell and Winfrith. The evidence indicated that, in departing from its commitments, the company had failed to demonstrate a continuing compliance with the requirements of Licence Condition 35 (LC 35). NII guidance on the condition and decommissioning in general expects licensees to
7. In the light of the requirements of HSE’s Enforcement Management Model (EMM), and following a full management review, NII took appropriate enforcement action under LC 35 and issued a Specification to UKAEA for each of its Harwell and Winfrith sites. The Specifications required the company to submit to HSE for approval part of each site’s 2006/07 decommissioning programme. The part in question addressed the then overall decommissioning timescales that had been declared for the major hazard areas on each site.
8. UKAEA duly complied with the specification and the parts of the decommissioning programmes in question have since been approved. This means that from now on, UKAEA can only depart from the approved timescales declared in LTP 06/07 with NII’s agreement, which will be subject to the adequacy of any safety case that UKAEA may put forward explaining why the approved timescales are no longer reasonably practicable to achieve, taking account of all relevant factors. Consequently the outcome in terms of the decommissioning work that will now take place for Harwell and Winfrith is uncertain at this stage but NII has since informed UKAEA of the next steps which the company should take to clarify its position and demonstrate the necessary move back into compliance. Eventually, and once revised milestones have been agreed that are demonstrably reasonably practicable, NII hopes to be able to then agree a procedure by which UKAEA (and its successor licensee, RSRL) will be able to manage its LTP affairs in conjunction with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) and in relation to any subsequent changes to agreed decommissioning timescales, without NII’s continuous regulatory oversight, in much the same way as the company currently meets our other licence condition requirements.
9. NII has placed on the HSE web site an explanatory statement on its actions, which may be found at www.hse.gov.uk/nuclear/winharlc35enf.htm. A copy of the statement is attached in an annex to this report.
10. NII has completed the close-out of the remaining actions placed on UKAEA during the assessment of the company’s Licence Condition 36 submission for the reorganisation at Harwell and Winfrith into the new Site Licensee Company (SLC) RSRL. The close-out included a readiness inspection, which identified a number of matters requiring attention. These have since been remedied by UKAEA through a combination of document revision and additional statements of clarification and intent. Accordingly, NII has issued an Agreement for the company at Harwell and Winfrith to move into shadow working as RSRL.
11. The shadow working will effectively be a ‘dry run’ or trial period for RSRL during which time UKAEA, now acting as RSRL, will have the opportunity to demonstrate that the new structure can work successfully in practice ahead of the granting of new licences to the new SLC, RSRL. When achieved, the shadow working will continue for a minimum of six months, subject to the requisite demonstration of adequacy which will include a comparison of performance against an agreed set of parameters or indicators which UKAEA will submit.
12. UKAEA is currently reorganising itself across both sites in readiness for the start of the shadow working period. While NII has formally agreed to the shadow working through the issue of a licence instrument Agreement, there are a few matters remaining from the assessment of UKAEA’s submission which still require attention. None of the concerns are associated with reorganisation itself but they do need resolution ahead of the start of shadow working. Accordingly, NII has agreed an informal hold point with UKAEA immediately prior to the start of shadow working to ensure continuing control of the situation without having to resort to formal regulation and the issue of another licence instrument.
13. The deferment of the resolution of the final few concerns, where this has been appropriate, was prompted by NII’s continuing commitment to formally agree to UKAEA’s proposals for RSRL just as soon as it reasonably could do so. As was reported last quarter, this has necessarily been subject to the adequacy of UKAEA’s proposals and submission documentation. There are still other matters, such as the submission of an agreed, revised suite of documentation that accurately reflects the final RSRL proposals, together with the need for adequate arrangements to be in place for RSRL’s compliance with both LC 35 and LC 36. Such matters have likewise been set aside for the purposes of expediency, with the intention of clearing them ahead of another informal hold point immediately prior to licensing itself.
14. For the future, NII will continue to take an interest in UKAEA’s reorganisation and its subsequent shadow operation as RSRL, through monitoring and checking the company’s progress and performance as part of part of its continuing regulation.
15. NII has powers under Nuclear Site Licence Number 44 to issue Consents, Approvals and Directions. In addition, NII can issue Notifications, Specifications, Acknowledgements and Agreements under the conditions attached to the Licence, or under arrangements made by UKAEA for complying with those conditions.
A new numbering system was introduced on 1 October 2004 for site licence actions, and all such actions are now called Licence Instruments.
Three Licence Instruments were issued during quarter one:
LI 525: Specification issued under LC 35(3) that UKAEA submit for approval Harwell LTP 06/07 Figure 12-10 Key Phase 2 summary work programme excluding Activity/Event WSA.
LI 526: Approval issued under LC 35(3) of Harwell LTP 06/07 Figure 12-10 Key Phase 2 summary work programme excluding Activity/Event WSA.
LI 527: Agreement to the restructuring of Harwell and Winfrith to form the shadow working organisation Research Sites Restoration Ltd (RSRL) prior to relicensing.
1. NII regulates nuclear safety by attaching conditions to nuclear site licences. It regulates compliance with such licence conditions (LCs) by inspecting licence condition compliance arrangements that have been drawn up by licensees, together with the implementation of such arrangements, both of which it compares with its published guidance. It is an offence under s4(6) Nuclear Installations Act 1965 (as amended) to contravene a licence condition. One such licence condition is No. 35, Decommissioning (LC 35).
2. NII’s published guidance on LC 35 and decommissioning expects licensees to:
3. During 2006/7 UKAEA drew up decommissioning work programmes for Winfrith and Harwell which were largely compliant with the above LC 35 decommissioning requirements as well as with Government policy. The programmes were declared by the company in the published Lifetime Plan 06/07 (LTP 06/07). In 2007, UKAEA departed from LTP 06/07 by making substantial changes to the plans for each site, without first demonstrating that their outcome remained compliant with the above LC 35 decommissioning expectations. NII has concluded, following an inspection of the licensee’s actions, that the company has failed to properly manage its decommissioning procedures and that its arrangements made and implemented for the decommissioning of any plant or process that may affect safety are inadequate and represent a significant departure from the requirements of LC 35.
4. NII has applied HSE’s Enforcement Management Model (EMM) to the circumstances leading to UKAEA’s departure from LTP 06/07 work programmes, including the fact that, at the time, UKAEA was fully aware of the significance of the actions it was taking. A rigorous application of the model, including a full management review, has ensured that the Health and Safety Commission’s Enforcement Policy Statement has been adhered to. In accordance with the policy statement, NII is taking consistent, targeted and proportionate action directed towards the higher-hazard plant areas, with a view to securing long-term compliance with LC 35 requirements into the future. NII is doing so by issuing a Specification under LC 35(3) requiring UKAEA at each site to submit to the Executive for approval a part of the LTP 06/07 decommissioning plan.
5. The part of LTP 06/07 to be approved targets the major hazard plant areas on the site and their long-term decommissioning completion timescales, to which UKAEA originally committed itself in LTP 06/07. The timescales were presented by the company on the basis that they were fully in accord with LC 35 decommissioning requirements (para 2 above) as well as with Government policy. By approving the relevant part of LTP 06/07 for each site, NII will be securing a return to decommissioning as soon as is reasonably practicable, while allowing UKAEA the freedom to decide how it will do so, taking into account the current position on each site as well as any other relevant factors. This action will secure a return to compliance with LC 35 while ensuring UKAEA’s effective self regulation into the future.
6. Notwithstanding the particular circumstances leading to the action explained here, it is the case that NII could take such action at any time, since the legal power to do so is already included in LC 35(3). Indeed, licensee’s decommissioning programmes elsewhere are already subject to similar regulatory controls through either Approvals issued by NII (eg Trawsfynnyd, Springfields) or other appropriate and equivalent regulatory controls (eg Dounreay).
7. In deciding to issue the specification and subsequent approval, NII has taken into account the significant nuclear hazards which remain on the sites and the materials which still have to be processed as part of the decommissioning programme into a passive, safe form or disposed of using extant disposal routes. This decommissioning will now be undertaken by UKAEA in a progressive and systematic manner to reduce hazards across the sites and as soon as is reasonably practicable, taking account of all relevant factors. Where UKAEA identifies any such factors which change its originally declared timescales, it will of course be open to the company to make the case to NII that the approved timescales of LTP 06/07 should be changed accordingly.
8. Notwithstanding the complex nature of the remaining operations which still cover a number of high hazard plant areas, NII has already acknowledged the relative size of the nuclear hazards remaining on both sites. It has done so through the past two years by limiting the amount of its scarce inspection resource that has been committed to the regulation of the sites. NII’s action permits a more effective use of this limited resource by avoiding the need to follow the detail of decommissioning work programmes or to continuously monitor their implementation across the two multi-planted sites. By taking the enforcement action explained here, NII will be maximising the effectiveness of that resource by effectively securing, in a proportionate way, UKAEA’s self-regulation and compliance with LC 35 decommissioning requirements into the future. NII will work with UKAEA in order to secure a satisfactory position with respect to LC 35. This will provide a basis for consistent regulation across the NDA estate and will facilitate the exchange of good practice between NDA Site Licensee Companies.
9. RSRL (Research Sites Restoration Ltd) is the new Site Licensee Company at Winfrith and Harwell into which UKAEA is proposing to reorganise in order to meet the competition requirements of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA). Importantly, the course of action explained here also achieves a satisfactory position for NII into the future with regard to the planned permissioning action of HSE granting a new licence to RSRL and reduces risk to NDA programmes. With the Approval of the relevant part of LTP06/07 in place at each site and ahead of any restructuring, NII will be ensuring from the outset of RSRL’s licensee status that it will be committed to decommissioning as soon as is reasonably practicable, thereby securing long term compliance with LC 35 requirements.
28 January 2008