Emergency Planning Sub Committee - Six monthly report from September to February 2011

West Cumbria Sites Stakeholder Group: Sellafield, Calder Hall and Windscale

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 sites available to the public. It is for distribution to members of the Emergency Planning Sub Committee of the West Cumbria Sites Stakeholder Group (WCSSG) and covers activities associated with emergency planning at Sellafield, Calder Hall and Windscale.

These reports are distributed six monthly and will be available on the Internet. Site Inspectors of HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) attend the Emergency Planning Sub Committee of the WCSSG meetings and will be happy to respond to any questions raised there.

1 - Introduction

This is a summary of the areas that have been the focus of regulatory effort over the past six months, and a forward look to those areas where effort will be spent in the future.

2 - Areas covered

2.1 Introduction of Annual Facility Exercises

Currently two Level 1 Demonstration Exercises are witnessed by us each year. However under these arrangements it could be many years before a Level 1 Demonstration Exercise is undertaken on a specific high hazard facility. In order to gain confidence in SL’s ability to deal with emergencies on high hazard facilities, every year we will aim to witness four emergency exercises on high hazard facilities. These facility exercises, the majority of which will utilise planned shift exercises, will be in addition to the two annual Level 1 Demonstration Exercises. The longer term aim is to reduce the number of Level 1 Demonstration Exercises to one per year.

2.2 Level 1 Demonstration Exercises

The Level 1 Demonstration Exercise “Magpie”, originally planned for 4 November, was postponed due to the site having to deal with an actual event (the loss of Wastwater). The Exercise was rescheduled and unfortunately, due to severe weather, the Exercise was not carried out. As SL’s performance at the previous Level 1 Demonstration Exercise in May had been good, and as the SL Emergency Management Team had a high workload due to preparations for the OSCAR exercise in March, we decided to cancel the exercise. The Event Action Plan, resulting from the loss of Wastwater event, was shared with us at the Emergency Exercise Review Group (EERG) on 15 December, and we will monitor progress in clearing the actions via the EERG.

The scenario for the next Level 1 Demonstration Exercise, planned for 12 May, was agreed in principle at the EERG in December. Since then a detailed scenario, which will present a challenge for the teams involved, has been agreed with SL.

2.3 Emergency Management Improvement Programme

We have continued to monitor progress in the delivery of the programme. Sellafield Ltd has now completed a review of the Severe Accident Management Strategies (SAMs) and is in the process of issuing improved SAMs. Sellafield Ltd has also initiated a programme of work on severe accident analyses (SAAs), to better underpin the guidance given in the SAMs.
We continue to work with Sellafield Ltd to clarify the way Hazard Identification & Risk Evaluation (HIRE) reports are reviewed in accordance with the Radiation (Emergency Preparedness and Public Information Regulations 2001 (REPPIR).

2.4 Licence Condition 11 (Emergency Arrangements) Site Wide Inspection

As mentioned in our last report, we will monitor Sellafield Ltd’s progress in dealing with our site-wide finding via the EERG.

The concerns we raised, regarding management and supervision on the Waste Vitrification Plant (WVP), have been acknowledged by the appropriate Directors and we are pleased with the progress being made by Sellafield Ltd to address these matters.