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Foreword

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 Chapelcross Site Stakeholder Group (SSG) and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at Chapelcross. 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 normally attend SSG meetings and will be happy to respond to any questions raised there or subsequently by members of the SSG.

Nuclear Directorate
Health and Safety Executive
Redgrave Court
Merton Road
Bootle
Merseyside
L20 7HS

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Inspections

The Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) Site Inspector made inspections on the following dates during the quarter:

• 21-23 January 2009
• 4-6, 11-13 February 2009
• 5-6, 10-12 March 2009

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Routine matters

Inspections are undertaken at site as part of the process for monitoring compliance with:

1. the conditions attached by HSE/NII to the nuclear site licence;
2. the Health and Safety at Work etc Act (HSWA) 1974 and
3. regulations made under the HSWA for example the Ionising Radiations Regulations 1999 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.

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 licensee is 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 Chapelcross covered:

• Management of operations including control and supervision.
• Staff training, qualifications and experience.
• Modifications to plant, equipment and safety cases.
• Radioactive waste management.
• Meeting Safety Reps.

In general the arrangements made and implemented by Chapelcross 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.

The site submitted the Outcome Report from its Periodic Safety Review (PSR) in November 2009. Due to the late delivery of the report, HSE is unable to reach its decision on the review until 31 October 2009. We did, however, require the licensee to complete all safety significant modifications that it had identified in its review by end March 2009, in accordance with the original programme. With two exceptions it achieved this. NII's assessment of the PSR and the underlying references is underway to determine whether the licensee has completed a satisfactory review and to identify whether there are any additional improvements that need to be made to ensure that the plant remains safe throughout the period up to the next review.

Other inspectors from HSE visited the site for inspections on low level radioactive waste and the periodic safety review.

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Non-routine matters

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. There were no items of particular note during the reporting period.

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Regulatory activity

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 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 LIs or enforcement notices were issued to the licensee during the quarter.

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Changes to HSE's Nuclear Directorate

In early 2008 the Government initiated a review into the UK's nuclear safety regulatory regime, led by Dr Tim Stone. The recommendations and the UK's Government response were published at the end of January 2009. One of the major recommendations is the decision by Government to establish the Health and Safety Executive's (HSE) Nuclear Directorate (ND) as a Statutory Corporation under the auspices of the HSE.

The creation of this new, autonomous body, (which will continue to incorporate the Office for Civil Nuclear Security and the UK Safeguards Office) will facilitate a more sustainable approach to regulating nuclear safety and security within a rapidly changing global nuclear environment and recruitment of high calibre of staff within a hardening market place for highly specialised skills.

The restructuring will not change the substance or standards of regulation or compromise the independence of the nuclear regulatory body, and will not affect the decisions it takes or the international obligations the Government requires it to meet.

Enabling work continues for the initial scoping and planning of the work-streams and programmes necessary for the Statutory Corporation to come into being from April 2010. This project has required the temporary enhancement of ND's senior management capability in order to deliver existing regulatory work and to create the Statutory Corporation.

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