Quarterly site report for Torness Power Station

1 July to 30 September 2011

Foreword

This report is issued as part of the Office for Nuclear Regulation’s (ONR) commitment to make information about inspection and regulatory activities relating to Torness Power Station available to the public. Reports are distributed quarterly to members of the Torness LLC and are also available on the ONR website.

Site inspectors from ONR usually attend Torness LLC meetings and will respond to any questions raised there by members of the group. Any other person wishing to enquire about matters covered by this report should contact the ONR, using the details below.

Email:	ONRenquiries@hse.gsi.gov.uk
Post:	Office for Nuclear Regulation Redgrave Court Merton Road Bootle Merseyside L20 7HS

Inspections

The ONR Site Inspector carried out inspections at site on the following dates during the quarter:

April - 4, 5, 6, 7 & 8;
May - 8, 9, 10, 11 & 12;
June - 26, 27, 28, 29 & 30.

Mr B P Archer took over from Dr R T Davenport as the nominated ONR site inspector for Torness on 1 September.

Routine matters

Inspections at Torness Power Station

Inspections are undertaken as part of the process for monitoring compliance with:

the conditions attached by HSE/ONR 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 make and implement adequate arrangements under the conditions attached to the site licence in order to ensure compliance with legal requirements. Inspections seek to judge both the adequacy of the arrangements, and their implementation. During the period of this report inspections of Torness Power Station covered:

examination, inspection, maintenance and testing;
management of operations including control and supervision;
modifications to plant, equipment and safety cases;
emergency preparedness;
incidents on the site;
leakage and escape of radioactive material;
radioactive waste management; and
operating rules.

In general the arrangements made and implemented by the site 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 matters were made by 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.

Station hazard barrier doors

Specialist ONR internal hazard inspectors visited Torness in September to be updated on progress on work programmes relating to nuclear hazard barrier doors, fire doors and dampers, with a view to measuring progress towards safety case compliance. ONR judged that the station had not progressed sufficiently in some areas, and specifically with regard to self closing hazard barrier doors. The station has therefore written to ONR proposing to address the ONR inspection findings. The station has put in place short-term control measures to reduce the likelihood of hazard barrier doors being left unsecured by operators. Options for a suitable permanent passive design solution for self closing doors are being considered by the station’s operators, EDF. ONR will continue to interact with Torness to ensure that each of the inspection findings are addressed and closed out within an appropriate timescale.

Effluent discharge line

Following an incident at Torness that was notified to ONR in February 2011, ONR wrote to the station in March, seeking visibility of arrangements that were in place to establish the condition of the tritiated effluent discharge lines and to provide demonstration of the suitability of the lines for use for effluent discharge in the longer term. Discussions were held with the station in September on progress with an engineering review that was undertaken to justify the ongoing and long term adequacy of the tritium effluent discharge lines. ONR judged that a draft report that was presented did not adequately address the issues that it had previously raised. The station has therefore written to ONR confirming that further work will be undertaken and that a final report will be submitted to ONR by end of November.

Non-routine matters

Licensees are required to have arrangements to respond to non-routine matters and events occurring on-site. ONR inspectors judge the adequacy of the licensee’s response to such matters, including actions taken to implement any necessary improvements in the interests of safety.

Matters of particular note considered during the current period include the following;

Manual shutdown of both reactors

ONR has written to Torness requesting further information about the obstruction of the main cooling water drum screens by jellyfish in June, which led to the manual shutdown of both reactors that were in service at the time of the event.

The station took appropriate action to shutdown the reactors, when it became clear that water supplies to systems performing a safety function could not ensured in the longer term. It confirmed that the requirements of the operating rules were met throughout the event. However, the circumstances presented a challenge to station systems related to safety, and we await the station’s response to the points ONR has raised regarding potential areas for improvement.

Omitted component examination

ONR has written to the station requesting further information about a safety relief valve examination required under a written scheme of examination, which was not carried out at the appropriate time. The station notified ONR of the omission in August, and subsequently completed a satisfactory examination. It confirmed that no challenges to the system occurred during the time that the examination was overdue. However, the omission represents a shortfall in the station’s arrangements to ensure that examinations are carried out on-time, and it has been asked to provide proposals to improve them.

Regulatory activity

Under health and safety legislation, ONR site inspectors, and other HSE inspectors, may issue formal documents to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements.

Under nuclear site licence conditions, ONR issues regulatory documents, which either permit an activity or require a form of action to be taken; these are usually collectively termed ‘licence instruments’ (LIs), but may take other forms. During the period, no LIs were issued to Torness Power Station:

In addition, inspectors may issue enforcement notices to secure improvements to safety. During the period no enforcement notices were issued to Torness Power Station.

Reports providing details of the basis for regulatory decisions can be found on the ONR website (www.hse.gov.uk/nuclear/pars).

News from ONR

ONR Board

The full ONR Board came into effect on 25 July and comprises nine members: Nick Baldwin as the Chair, four non-executive members (Steve Bundred, John Crackett, Paul Kenny and Kevin Myers) and four executive members (Kevin Allars, Paul Brown, John Seddon and Mike Weightman). Three Board meetings were held during this reporting period. Further information about the Board and minutes of the meetings can be found under the Board pages (www.hse.gov.uk/nuclear/onr-board.htm) of the ONR website.

Moving towards a programme management organisation

Under the remit of ONR's transformational change programme, work is now underway to establish programme management principles within ONR. This way of working is closely aligned to industry and government programme management best practice and will enable ONR to meet increasing demands. This transformational change will: re-organise ONR’s current organisational structure into four delivery-focussed and integrated programmes (Civil Nuclear Reactors, Defence, Sellafield, Decommissioning, Fuel and Waste); establish a corporate programme office to co-ordinate and consolidate information across the programmes, ensuring consistency in operations, and, recruit programme managers to support each of the programmes. This approach supports the proposed establishment of ONR as a statutory corporation, signalling the ongoing commitment to securing an appropriately resourced and responsive regulator for the future.

ONR public consultation

From 19 Sept – 12 Dec a 12-week public consultation is running to clarify ONR’s interpretation of bulk quantities relating to radioactive matter. The nuclear site-licensing regime currently applies to a set of defined activities, which includes the storage of bulk quantities of radioactive matter. However, there is no clear definition of what constitutes ‘bulk quantities’ of radioactive matter, storage of which would need to be licensed. (Further information on bulk consultation: www.hse.gov.uk/consult/condocs/cd-onr-bulk.htm)

ONR corporate publications

ONR’s first corporate plan for 2011-2015 and quarterly report have been published on the ONR website. The plan provides an insight into ONR’s strategic intentions over the next five years and how these will be resourced. The quarterly report reflects the key themes and developments in each of ONR’s regulatory programmes and explains the ongoing changes at ONR, as it progresses towards becoming an independent statutory corporation.

Also published on the website in September was the 2011 Nuclear Research Index (safety operating reactors). Traditionally the scope of the NRI is limited to operating nuclear reactors. Research work is done in other nuclear areas, but is coordinated separately. Therefore the scope of the 2011 NRI relates solely to the requirements for nuclear safety research relevant to operating nuclear reactors. ONR is planning to undertake a review to identify the overall requirements for nuclear safety research, including whether it should be extended to cover all areas of nuclear safety research.
Stress tests

The European Council requested a review of safety at European nuclear power plants. The European Commission supported by the European Nuclear Safety Regulatory Group (ENSREG), produced criteria and a plan for this review, now known as the ' EC stress test'. Participating nations agreed to provide progress reports by 15 September and full reports in December. The UK report compiled and delivered by ONR has been published online (www.hse.gov.uk/nuclear/fukushima).

Fukushima report

Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Chris Huhne, requested a report from chief nuclear inspector Mike Weightman on lessons for the UK nuclear industry from the Japanese incident. The report was delivered to DECC in the autumn and made public. An interim report was published in May, concluding that there was no reason to curtail nuclear plant operations in the UK. ONR has written to community groups around nuclear sites in the UK to establish levels in interest in ONR conducting a series of regional public briefings.

Site licence application for Hinkley Point C received

ONR received an application from NNB Generation Company on 29 July for a nuclear site licence, relating to its proposed development of a new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point. It is anticipated that ONR will spend around 18 months assessing NNB Generation Company’s suitability, capability and competence to install, operate and decommission a nuclear facility. If licensed, the company will be subject to statutory obligations and regulation by ONR.

Nuclear Safety Directive and amended licence conditions

Amendments have been made licence condition 17 and 36 to allow the obligations of the Nuclear Safety Directive (NSD) 2009/71/Euratom, to be fully implemented in relation to Great Britain. In the light of this, ONR’s licence condition handbook has been updated and is available via the ONR website.