Rosyth Royal Dockyard Limited report - Q4 2010

Local liaison committee report quarterly report for 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 Rosyth Local Liaison committee (LLC) and covers activities associated with the regulation of nuclear safety at Rosyth Royal Dockyard (RRD). These reports are distributed quarterly and are also available on the HSE’s website. Site Inspectors of HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate usually attend LLC meetings and will respond to questions raised there by members of the LLC.

Inspections

This report summarises the inspection and regulatory activities associated with the Rosyth Royal Dockyard (RRD) licensed site. The focus for the Rosyth licensed site is the safe disposal of wastes from the site, leading to delicensing.
The Nuclear Installations Inspectorate Site Inspector did not visit Rosyth during the quarter due to the retirement of the outgoing Site Inspector and the handover requirements for the incoming Site Inspector.

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Routine matters

Inspections at Rosyth Royal Dockyard Ltd are undertaken as part of the process for monitoring compliance with:

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.

As reported in the report for quarter 3, RRD has submitted its decommissioning report related to work on the RD83 project. RRD has now submitted a draft application to apply a variation to the RRD site Licence, removing the two decommissioned areas from the Licensed site. However pending resolution of matters related to submarine decommissioning, RRD has indicated that it will not formally submit this application. HSE/NII has considered the draft submission and advised RRD that the information provided is adequate for a decision on a variation to the Site Licence to be made if we were to receive a formal submission.

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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 response including actions taken to implement any necessary improvements. There were no non-routine matters during this quarter.

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Regulatory activity

Under Health and Safety legislation, HSE/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 (LI). In addition, Inspectors may issue enforcement notices to secure improvements in safety. No Licence Instruments were issued during the period.

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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;
Site stakeholder group and local liaison committee reports;
ND's newly re-launched website

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