Magnox North Limited - Wylfa power station report - Q2 2010

Site stakeholder group quarterly report for 1 April to 30 June 2010

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 also for distribution to members of the Wylfa Power Station Site Stakeholder Group and covers activities associated with the regulation of safety at Wylfa Power Station. These reports are distributed quarterly and are available on the Internet at http://www.hse.gov.uk/nuclear/llc/index.htm. Site Inspectors of HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate attend SSG meetings and will be happy to respond to questions raised there by members of the SSG.

Inspections

The Site Inspector made the following visits to Wylfa in the period covered by this report:

13 April 2010
21-22 April 2010
29-30 April 2010
7 May 2010
11 May 2010
13 May 2010
18-19 May 2010
26-27 May 2010
2-3 June 2010
16-17 June 2010
22-24 June 2010

Routine matters

Inspections at site

Inspections at Site: 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 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, Maintenance, Inspection and Testing: A number of inspections have been undertaken by the NII site inspector and NII specialist inspectors during the 2010 Reactor 2 outage. These inspections have covered arrangements for quality assurance, radiological protection, structural integrity, pressure vessel containment, control and supervision, graphite, internal hazards and management and leadership for safety. The licensee has responded positively to NII’s requests for information and where appropriate has acted upon advice and observations from NII inspectors. No significant regulatory concerns were identified from these inspections and many good practices were noted. The outcome of these activities was that NII has gained confidence that maintenance activities undertaken during the outage were appropriate to support the return to service of Reactor 2. A start-up meeting was attended by NII senior staff in June which provided further confidence in the licensee’s outage arrangements.

Examination, Maintenance, Inspection and Testing: During the 2010 R2 outage, joint inspections were undertaken with the Environment Agency and Office of Civil Nuclear Security. The outcome of these inspections was that elements of security and environment performance were considered at the same time as nuclear safety. No specific regulatory concerns were identified.

Operating Rules: Inspections of the Operating Rule limit for fuel element discharge cooling time and availability of control rods for reactor shut-down were completed during this period. The site inspector was satisfied that the licensee was complying with the operating rules.

Periodic safety review - Extended Generation: Wylfa is currently planned to cease generation at the end of December 2010. NII is continuing to engage with the licensee on its proposals for extending generation beyond the current planned date for ending generation. Meetings have been held between NII and Magnox North specialists on safety case submissions.

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.

In accordance with Licence Condition 7 arrangements for the notification to NII of incidents on site, the licensee made NII aware of an event which occurred on 22 April 2010. This involved the use of a non-approved type of desiccant used for drying air supplied to turbine monitoring instruments. The event had no direct safety implications and was promptly investigated by the licensee. NII was satisfied with the licensee’s response.

In accordance with Licence Condition 7 arrangements for the notification to NII of incidents on site, the licensee made NII aware of an event which occurred on 6 June 2010 on the pile cap which involved withdrawal of a charge chute using the reactor service machine from an incorrect standpipe location. The result of this manoeuvre was that a fuel element was lifted into a position which fell outside normal plant operating conditions, but remained contained within the reactor. The licensee reported this event promptly to NII and suspended all operational and maintenance activities in the affected areas. The event had no direct safety consequences and was promptly investigated by the licensee. The event has been classed as a ‘plant abnormality’ and would not attract a rating (i.e. Level 0) on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES).A recovery plan has been discussed and agreed with NII.

Other Matters

Proposed changes to 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.

REGULATORY ACTIVITY

Under Health and Safety legislation NII 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.