GE Healthcare Ltd, Maynard Centre Site, Cardiff - report Q4 2010

Quarterly report for 1 October - 31 December 2010

Inspections
Routine matters
Non routine matters
Regulatory activities

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 usually attend LLC meetings and will respond to any questions raised there by members.

Transforming HSE Nuclear Directorate

HSE’s Nuclear Directorate (ND) continues work on a programme of change entitled 'Transformation' which is intended to help ND realise its aims to become recognised as a world-class regulator. Over the coming months, ND’s focus will include improving the way it engages with all of its stakeholders, including communities around nuclear licensed sites, to explain the work that it does and the regulatory decisions it makes.

ND will keep stakeholders fully informed of changes and any decisions that are made through channels including:

The HSE Nuclear eBulletin (visit www.hse.gov.uk/nuclear/ebulletin to subscribe);
Site stakeholder group and local liaison committee reports;
ND's newly re-launched website (www.hse.gov.uk/nuclear).

If you have any comments, questions or suggestions regarding ND’s Transformation programme, please get in touch by emailing ONRenquiries@hse.gsi.gov.uk.

Inspections

Inspections are made at all GE Healthcare Ltd’s nuclear licensed sites including Amersham (the Grove Centre) and Harwell. Where these are relevant to the Maynard 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.

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:

On 13 October 2010 ND Inspectors attended site and witnessed the site emergency Exercise - Sapphire. The ND Inspectors judged the emergency exercise to be a satisfactory demonstration of the licensee’s arrangements made under Licence Condition 11(1) for dealing with any accident or emergency arising on the site and its effects.

On 14 October ND Inspectors also attended the Annual Review of Safety which deals with Nuclear Licence activities across all GEHC sites.

On 9 December 2010 the ND Site Inspector and ND Specialist Assessor attended the Quarterly Site Decommissioning Meeting. The visit was part of the planned quarterly review meetings for the project which continues to make adequate progress. NII “Agreement in Principle” documents for CD2, CD3/CD4/CD5, OA and the Security Lodge has been produced. (See paragraphs 11 to 16 of this report for more details)

In general the arrangements made and implemented by the site 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.

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

Corporate

No corporate issues were identified during this period.

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

Letter Dated	Title
	None this Quarter

Agreement in principle - Update

The Licensee, GE Healthcare has made further requests to HSE for ‘Agreement in Principle’ that following the completion of clearance in buildings CD2, CD3/CD4/CD5, OA and Security Lodge, they are suitable for delicensing. Under Section 3(6) of the Nuclear Installations Act 1965 (as amended) (NIA65), HSE can agree to the exclusion of part of a site provided it is satisfied that there is ‘No Danger’ from ionising radiation from anything on that part of the site. This is referred to as delicensing. The Licensee will make further requests to HSE for ‘Agreement in Principle’ as and when clearance is completed in subsequent buildings and open areas of the site have been monitored. When clearance work has been completed at the Maynard Centre, the Licensee intends to make a submission of the application for formal variation of the Nuclear Site Licence.

The Licensee has submitted a ‘Clearance Report’ to support the application for the buildings listed above which has been assessed by HSE’s Nuclear Directorate. In accordance with internal procedures, ND commissioned independent radiological monitoring, sampling, assessment and analysis by the Radiation Protection Division of the Health Protection Agency, HPA, to assess the Licensee’s ‘Agreement in Principle’ request.

The independent measurements and analysis performed by HPA confirms that there is no residual contamination with activity above the radiological criteria set by the Licensee that would give rise to a dose that exceeded the ‘No Danger’ criterion. The HPA report confirms the conclusions drawn by the Licensee for CD2 and the Security Lodge.

The Licensee has put in place appropriate control measures to prevent re-contamination of the CD2 and the Security Lodge. The Licensee has also agreed that some further confirmatory sampling and analysis will be undertaken in these buildings prior to the formal application of the variation of the Site Licence at the Maynard Centre in order to confirm that there has not been any recontamination.

ND assessment of the information provided by the Licensee and the independent work of the HPA confirms there is currently ‘No Danger’ from ionising radiation from CD2 and the Security lodge and that the buildings have been cleared sufficiently and are suitable for ‘Agreement in Principle’.