Hunterston B Nuclear Power Station - report Q4 2010

1 October 2010 to 31 December 2010

Inspections
Routine matters
Non Routine matters
Regulatory activity

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 Hunterston Site Stakeholder Group (SSG) and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at Hunterston B Nuclear Power Station. These reports are distributed quarterly and are also available on the HSE’s website. Site Inspectors of HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate usually attend SSG meetings and will respond to questions raised there by members of the SSG.

Inspections

The NII site inspector visited site on the following occasions during the quarter:

13 and 14, and 19 to 21 October,
16 to 18 November, and
6 to 9, and 14 to 16 December 2010.

On the 13th December 2010 there was a change of nominated NII inspector as Dr Tyrer replaced Mr Rothwell. During the quarter one specialist NII inspector attended site so as to assist the site inspector while carrying out an inspection of Safety Mechanisms.

Routine matters

Routine inspection

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 action on the site in relation to incidents, operations, maintenance, projects, modifications, safety case changes and other matters which may affect safety. The licensees 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 implementations. In this period routine inspections covered:

Training
Emergency Arrangements
Modifications to Plant
Operational Records
Safety Mechanisms
Outage Proposals
Management of Change
Hunterston B Issues recorded on the Regulator’s Issues Database

In general, the arrangements made and implemented in response to safety requirements were deemed 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 action will be taken to ensure that appropriate remedial measures are implemented by reasonably practicable timescales.

Site Stakeholder Group Meeting

The newly appointed NII site inspector attended an SSG meeting held on 16th December 2010 at Ardrossan.

Visit by Deputy Chief Inspector

On 14th October 2010, Mr Patchett, Deputy Chief Inspector of Nuclear Installations, visited Hunterston. He noted the enhanced safety standards at Hunterston B and he hoped that the company would continue to provide the resource need for continuous improvement.

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 incidents worthy of note this quarter.

Regulatory activities

Under Health and Safety legislation the Site Inspector, 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 of require some form of action to be taken; these are collectively termed Licence Instruments (LIs). (Executive Summaries from the reports that justify the issue of individual LIs are now available at www.hse.gov.uk/nuclear/pars/index.htm). In addition, inspectors may issue Enforcement Notices to secure improvements to safety.

The following LIs were issued this quarter:

LI 526 Issued on 6th October 2010, approving a new revision of the Hunterston B Technical Specification Nuclear Safety Requirement 2; an operating rule that includes channel power limits during start-up.
LI 527 Issued on 29th December 2010, agreeing to the use of Robust Fuel at Hunterston B.

Transforming our business

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.