Oldbury Nuclear Power Station report - Q4 2010

Oldbury Site Stakeholder Group Quarterly Report for 1 October to 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 Oldbury Site Stakeholder Group and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at Oldbury Nuclear Power Station. 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.

Inspections

The Nuclear Installations Inspectorate Site Inspector made inspections on the following dates during the quarter:

5 to 7 October 2010
12 to 14 October 2010
28 October 2010
3 November 2010
10 November 2010
11 November 2010
2 December 2010

Specialist inspectors carried out inspections on the following dates during the quarter:

7 October 2010
13 to 14 October 2010
28 October 2010
3 November 2010
10 to 12 November 2010

Routine matters

Inspections at site

Inspections at Oldbury 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 (site/station) covered:

Examination, Inspection, Maintenance and Testing
Modification or Experiment on Existing Plant
Restriction on Dealing with the Site
Control of Organisation Change
Periodic Safety Review
Safety Documentation
Commissioning
Fire Safety
Training

In addition to the above a routine meeting was held with the site safety representatives.

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 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.

Reactor 1

Reactor 1 has operated at its nominal full power and no safety issues were reported during this quarter.

Reactor 1 has operated in accordance with its core irradiation limit, justified by its graphite safety case. This limit is likely to be reached by May/June 2011. The licensee is proposing to operate this reactor until mid/end of 2012. A number of meetings have been held with the licensee. Any proposal for further generation will be supported by a revised graphite safety case, which will be subject to an NII assessment.

To support the possible further operation of Reactor 1, the licensee has proposed to shutdown this reactor for a further graphite specific outage in May/June 2011.

Reactor 2

Reactor 2 operated at its nominal full power up to 11 November 2010 and no safety issues were reported during this period.

Reactor 2 tripped on 11 November 2010 from full power due to a gas circulator problem. The problem had occurred following a routine test procedure. The licensee has modified the routine test procedure to prevent a recurrence. The problem was not maintenance related.

In accordance with its arrangements for a trip from full power, the licensee has inspected 138 fuel/control channels and no issues affecting the graphite safety case have been noted. Reactor 2 returned to service on 4 January 2011.

The licensee has submitted a graphite safety case, which justifies a revised core irradiation limit, which will not be reached within the planned period of operation, until 30 June 2011.

An interim limit was however agreed. Due to the unplanned shutdown of this reactor, the interim limit is now likely to be reached in mid February 2011. A series of actions have been agreed and if satisfactorily completed, will allow NII to close the main issue relating to operation of this reactor, to the end of June 2011. The licensee proposes to permanently shutdown this reactor by the end June 2011.

Conventional Fire Safety Inspection

NII’s specialist fire inspectors visited Oldbury in November 2010 and were satisfied with the improvements that have been made.

Proposal for De-licensing Part of the Site

A number of meetings have been held between NII, the Environment Agency and the licensee, to discuss the proposal to de-licence a major part of the licensed site, located outside the security barrier.

A number of samples were taken from the soil and drains, which has demonstrated that the area to be de-licensed, poses ‘no danger’ from radioactivity.

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;

There were no matters of note to report.

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 permit 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

No licence instruments were issued during this quarter.

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.