Magnox North Limited - Wylfa power station report - Q3 2010

Site stakeholder group quarterly report for 1 July to 30 September 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/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:

2 July 2010
22 -23 July 2010
18 -19 August 2010
9 - 10 September 2010
14 September 2010

Transforming our business

Although the previous government's proposals to establish a separate Office for Nuclear Regulation is still with ministers for consideration, the challenges of interacting with and regulating the modern nuclear industry in the UK remains. As a response to this ND has established a change programme focusing on improved ways of working and improved engagement with stakeholders, this programme also reflects the organisation's aim to be recognised as a world-class regulator.

While ND is committed to rising to the challenge of implementing major organisational and operational change, it will not be distracted from taking forward its ongoing high priority work to secure the protection of people and society from the hazards of the nuclear industry.

ND is committed that throughout this process of transformation its stakeholders are kept fully informed of the changes and any decisions that are made regarding the future structure of the Regulator; this will be achieved through reports such as the Stakeholder Group reports and on the HSE Website."

Routine matters

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:

Following an abnormal event during the R2 outage in which a fuel element was found to be in a non- standard location within the reactor ( the so-called TLSE event ), specialist mechanical and electrical inspectors from NII provided advice to the licensee on its proposed arrangements for the recovery of the fuel element. NII reviewed and agreed the licensee’s safety case which has been successfully implemented.

Periodic safety review - Extended Generation:

Magnox North staff provided NII with a detailed review of current progress at Wylfa to ensure that the site has adequate arrangements to ensure compliance with the defueling requirements of the Magnox Operating Programme. Presentations were given on a number of topics including fuel route modelling, plant improvements and staff training. The outcome of this review has been continued regulatory confidence in local arrangements at Wylfa.

Staff training, qualifications and experience:

Specialist inspectors from NII undertook a detailed review of chemistry arrangements at Wylfa which included the control of conditions with the reactor and waste management. NII concluded that local arrangements for training, qualifications and experience of staff in the chemistry section were satisfactory.

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.

Nothing to report

Other matters

With effect from 20 September 2010, the NII’s nominated site inspector for Wylfa has changed.

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.

Date	Type	No	Description
29 September 2010	Agreement	539	Agreement under Licence Condition 22 (1) to the proposal to replace the formal safety claims on the high log flux detectors against symmetric faults during start-up by the claims on the high linear flux detectors.
28 August 2010	Agreement	538	Consent to the restart of Reactor 1 under LC 30 (1)