Trawsfynydd site stakeholder group report - Q2 2010

Quarterly report for 1 April to 30 June 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 Trawsfynydd Site Stakeholder Group and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at Trawsfynydd 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 (NII) Site Inspector made inspections on the following dates during the quarter:

4-6, 24-25 May 2010
7-8 June 2010

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Routine matters

Inspections are undertaken at site as part of the process for monitoring compliance with:
(i) the conditions attached by HSE/NII to the nuclear site licence;
(ii) the Health and Safety at Work etc Act (HSWA) 1974 and
(iii) 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 is 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 Trawsfynydd covered:
Emergency preparedness.
Incidents on the site.
In general, the arrangements made and implemented by Trawsfynydd 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.
A team from NII witnessed Level 1 Demonstration Emergency Exercise Nerone on 5 May 2010. Whilst NII agreed that overall this was an adequate demonstration of the site’s arrangements, there were areas of performance, which NII judged needed improvement. NII has therefore required Magnox North to undertake a shift exercise, which NII will witness to look at the performance in these areas.
A team from NII attended the site’s meeting to report its Annual Review of Safety on 25 May 2010. The team concluded that the site had completed an adequate review.

Trawsfynydd submitted its Periodic Safety Review to NII in April 2010. This is a comprehensive review of safety undertaken every 10 years. NII will make a decision on the adequacy of the review by end April 2011. NII assigned a project officer to manage assessment of the review.

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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 items of particular note during the reporting period.

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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 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 to safety.

No LI were issued to the licensee during the quarter.

No enforcement notices were issued during the reporting period.

Proposed changes to the Status of HSE’s Nuclear Directorate

At the current time the decision to separate the HSE's Nuclear Directorate into a new organisation is with ministers for consideration. We will report on any progress made with this item in future reports accordingly.