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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 Hinkley Point Site Stakeholder Group and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at Hinkley Point A Decommissioning Site. 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 Site Stakeholder Group meetings and will respond to any questions raised there by the members of the group.

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Inspections

One site inspection visit was undertaken this quarter:

• 20, 21st May 2009

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Routine matters

Inspections at Site

Inspections at Hinkley Point A 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/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 (site/station) covered:

• Arrangements for reporting incidents on the site
• Arrangements for succession planning for Duly Authorised and, other suitably qualified and experienced persons
• Control of Organisational Change

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

Evidence of minor corrosion had been discovered on the external surface of an intermediate level waste storage tank and HMNII received an adequate initial brief on the Licensees plans to progress the issue.

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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 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.

Licence Instruments

There were no Licence Instruments issued in the period covered by this report.

No enforcement notices were issued during the quarter.

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Proposed changes to the Status of HSE’s Nuclear Directorate

The Government has put forward proposals to change the status of HSE's Nuclear Directorate (ND) to that of a Statutory Corporation under the auspices of the HSE. This is intended to enable ND, as the independent nuclear regulator of safety and security, to better meet the challenges of a changing nuclear industry over the coming years. The changes are to provide the nuclear regulator with greater flexibility and increase the accountability, transparency and openness of nuclear regulation. The Government are proposing that the statutory changes needed to bring this about will be made by a Legislative Reform Order (LRO).

This builds on the outcome of the Government initiated review of the UK's nuclear regulatory regime, led by Dr Tim Stone. The Summary Recommendations and the Government’s response were published at the end of January 2009 (available on HSE’s website: http://www.hse.gov.uk/nuclear/stonereview.htm).

A public consultation, run by DWP and DECC, on the LRO was launched on June 30th for a 12 week period, which gives the opportunity for stakeholders to comment on the proposals.

For access to this consultation please see http://decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/consultations/hse_restruct/hse_restruct.aspx

These new arrangements 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.

Subject to the outcome of the consultation and Parliamentary approval, and if the Parliamentary timetable permits, the aim is to bring the new body into being during 2010.

An internal change programme is currently operating within ND to ensure that the ND is ready to operate as a statutory corporation from spring 2010.

This programme does not in anyway compromise the current regulatory activities of ND.

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