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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 GE Healthcare Ltd Maynard Centre Local Liaison Committee (LLC) and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at the site. These reports are distributed quarterly and are available also from the Internet at www.hse.gov.uk/nuclear/llc/index.htm. Site Inspectors of HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate attend some LLC meetings and will be happy to respond to any questions raised there by members.

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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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Inspections

NII inspections were made on 22-23 January 2009 and 9 March 2009. Inspections are also made at GE Healthcare Ltd's nuclear licensed sites at Amersham (the Grove Centre) and Harwell. Where these are relevant to the Grove Centre they are included below. For instance, the sites have many arrangements in common for compliance with the conditions attached to their site licences.  Details are noted below.

This quarter the EA Annual Review of Safety (ARoS) for all GE Healthcare Sites took place at the EA Offices in Reading on 19 February 2009. Environmental issues affecting the Maynard Centre and GE Amersham and Harwell sites were discussed during this meeting.

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Routine matters

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

• the conditions attached by HSE/NII to the Nuclear Site Licence;
• the Health and Safety at Work etc Act (HSWA) 1974 and  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 licensees/operators 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 the Maynard Centre and discussions covered:

• The January 2009 Local Liaison Committee Meeting,
• Discussions on Decommissioning, and
• A meeting with the Site Safety Representatives.

Issues arising from these and previous inspections are being pursued.

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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/operators response including actions taken to implement any necessary improvements. There are no items of particular note during the current reporting period.

Corporate

See below for Safety Case meeting at the Grove Centre.

Maynard Centre

The site inspection visit on 23 January 2009 consisted of a meeting to discuss the recently announced site closure, an LCLC meeting and the site inspector led a meeting with seven of the site safety representatives.

On 9 March an inspection took place at the Pollards Wood site where representatives from all three GEH Nuclear Licensed Sites were present. This inspection was the second intervention in a series to review GEH's safety case production process (Licence Condition 14) across all GEH sites. The meeting is part of a wider 2008/9 intervention focussing on three different Nuclear Licensees.

GEH described recent work it has undertaken to improve its LC14 processes. This seemed to align with the intent of the presentations made by NII at the previous meeting. No matters of concern emerged.

GEH was proactive and positive, and showed sound judgment.

NII will now undertake a further LC14 inspection of GEH's process in the autumn.

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Regulatory activities

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 (LIs). In addition inspectors may issue enforcement notices to secure improvements to safety.

(There is an outstanding Approval request for the Grove Centre Emergency Plan.)

No other issues have arisen that have required formal regulatory action.

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