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 Hartlepool Local Community Liaison Council (LCLC) and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at Hartlepool 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 LCLC meetings and will respond to questions raised there by members of the LCLC. 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 Safety Directorate
Health and Safety Executive
Redgrave Court
Merton Road
Bootle
Merseyside
L20 7HS
The Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) Site Inspector made inspections on the following dates during the quarter: -
Hartlepool Power Station
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 of Hartlepool Power Station covered:
In general the arrangements made and implemented by Hartlepool Power Station 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.
Both Hartlepool reactors remain shutdown due to the BCU issue that was reported under ‘non-routine matters’ in the previous quarters LCLC reports. A BCU recovery project is still on-going and the issue continues to receive close scrutiny by NII. Specific regulatory holds are in place for the restart of both reactors, which means NII permission will be required before the return to service of either reactor.
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. Matters of particular note considered during the current period are the following.
During work to facilitate inspection of the BCUs, an operator was injured, suffering a broken leg. The site inspector visited the Injured Party at home and will conclude his investigation when the internal British Energy investigation has been completed and issued to him.
An event was reported to NII on 16th April for both Hartlepool and Heysham 1 when a shortfall in the Turbine Disintegration Safety Case was revealed. This shortfall, regarding the amount of turbine lubrication oil that may be released during a turbine disintegration event, will need to be resolved prior to return to service of either reactor.
An event was report to NII on 20th June 2008 when a backup cooling pump was found to be available for service but its routine scheduled test run had not been completed. The pump was declared out of service and subsequently completed the scheduled test satisfactorily, after which it was made available for service again. Arrangements for controlling routine maintenance tests were subsequently reinforced at the station.
Under Health and Safety legislation NII Site Inspectors, and other HSE Inspectors, may issue formal documents to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements. Under nuclear site licence conditions HSE/NII issues regulatory documents, which either permission an activity or require 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.
Three LI were issued to the licensee during the quarter: -
No enforcement notices were issued during the reporting period.