Search

---

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 Heysham Power Stations' Local Community Liaison Council (LCLC) and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at Heysham 1 & 2 Nuclear Power Stations. 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 (NII) attend LCLC meetings and will respond to questions raised there by members of the LCLC.

---

Inspections

The Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) Site Inspectors and other inspectors made inspections at Heysham on the following dates during the quarter:-

Heysham 1

• January 2009: 6, 8, 13 & 15
• February 2009: 10, 11, 19 & 20
• March 2009: 10, 24, 25 & 30

Heysham 2

• January 2009: 13 & 14
• February 2009: 24
• March 2009: 1, 2, 24 & 25

---

Routine matters

Inspections at Site: 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 on site covered:

• Examination, Maintenance, Inspection and Testing.
• Management of operations including control and supervision.
• Operating Rules and Instructions.
• Periodic Safety Review.
• Emergency preparedness.
• Incidents on the site.
• Periodic shutdown.

In general the arrangements made and implemented by the stations 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 inspectors will monitor progress during future visits. Where necessary, formal regulatory intervention action may be taken to ensure that appropriate remedial measures are implemented to reasonably practicable timescales.

Heysham 1 - Boiler Closure Units (BCU)

As mentioned in previous reports the reactors at Heysham 1 and Hartlepool were shutdown following the discovery of failed pre-stressing wires around the BCUs in October 2007. Since then NII has scrutinised many aspects of the BCU modifications. This scrutiny has recently included Long Term and reactor specific safety cases requested and required by the NII to be submitted for our assessment prior to start up of any of the Heysham 1 and Hartlepool reactors. NII was content with the adequacy of these submissions and the adequacy of the state of the plant, and has granted permission for all of the Heysham 1 and Hartlepool reactors to start up.

Heysham 1 and Heysham 2 - Periodic Safety Review.

A requirement of the Nuclear Site Licence is that Station performs a major review of safety every 10 years. The PSR requires a review of the existing safety case, a comparison of the plant with modern standards and identification of ageing related phenomena that may affect safety.

NII received the PSR2 submission for Heysham 1 last year and we have communicated our assessment findings to the Licensee.

NII has received the PSR2 submission for Heysham 2 and is in the process of assessing the licensee's review reports. NII will conclude its review and make a decision on the adequacy of the review by the end of 2009.

Heysham 1 and 2 Emergency Exercise “COBALT”.

A team of NII inspectors observed the Heysham Power Stations' joint site emergency exercise on 25 March 2009. NII concluded that the Stations had given an adequate demonstration of the emergency preparedness arrangements. Some learning opportunities were also identified and these points were communicated in a letter to site. The joint site exercise is a five yearly event when both Stations rehearse their arrangements in parallel.

---

[back to top]

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. Matters of particular note considered during the period include the following:

Heysham 1 and Heysham 2 - Unplanned Reactor Shutdowns

In the period Heysham 2 reactor 8 underwent two separate manual shutdowns and one automatic shutdown. The first was related to problems with a main bearing in the generating turbine. The second was as a result of problems with providing cooling water to various plant systems. The third occurred during low power refuelling when spurious operation of a pressure switch led to the automatic protection against dropped loads being activated, shutting the reactor down automatically. Station proactively took the opportunity to undertake some additional work that needed the plant to be shut down to complete.

In the period Heysham 1 reactor 1 automatically shutdown following the operation of protection on the generator transformer after a piece of routine maintenance on an oil cooler.

The Stations have investigated the circumstances surrounding these events and have identified corrective actions to help prevent recurrence. NII was content with Station's responses to these events.

---

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 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.

Four LI was issued to Heysham during the quarter: -

• LI 549 on 21 January 2009 - Agreement to the Heysham 1 Long Term Safety Case for Boiler Closure Units.
• LI 550 on 27 January 2009 - Agreement to the return to service of Heysham 1 reactor 1 following completion of modifications required by BCU Safety Case.
• LI 551 on 23 February 2009 - Agreement to a Heysham 1 extension to the Safety Case for reactivity effects of boiler tube failure faults.
• LI 553 on 6 March 2009 - Consent to the start up reactor 2 at Heysham 1 following its periodic maintenance and Boiler Closure Unit outage.

No enforcement notices were issued during the reporting period.

---

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.

• Home
• News
• Guidance
• About you
• About HSE
• Notify HSE