Emergency arrangements - Initial notification and event classification

Site inspection and enforcement

INS/015 - Issue 3

Issue date:: 27/04/09
Review date:: 27/04/12
Open Government Status:: Fully open
Approved By:: R Gray

1. Purpose and scope

1.1 This document sets the initial procedure that NII will follow when it is alerted to a nuclear event. It covers the receiving of the alerting call by a Duty Administration Officer (or the Nominated Inspector via the HSE Duty Officer if out of hours), the Nominated Inspector's return of this call to confirm the details of the event, and the Nominated Inspector's classification of the event into one of seven classes.

2. Policy

2.1 Licensees are required to make arrangements under the site licence and other statutory legislation, to notify NII of various nuclear events. Also notifications may arise from locations where NII does not inspect or has no agreed alerting procedure. Depending upon the nature of the nuclear event, there are three general routes by which a notification can be received by NII and then to the Nominated Inspector.

For events on nuclear sites where the approved emergency plan is invoked, the operator must notify NII via either the 'red' telephone located in the Duty ONR Admin Office or, if out of office hours, the HSE Duty Officer system. In each case the notification must be passed on to the Nominated Inspector.
For other events on nuclear sites, the operator may either directly notify the Superintending Inspector responsible for the site, or the site inspector, the Duty Admin Office, or the HSE Duty Officer. In the latter two cases, notification will be forwarded to a Nominated Inspector.
In the case of nuclear events at locations where NII does not inspect or has no agreed alerting procedure, an incoming call may be received by any person in the NII or by the HSE Duty Officer. Inspectors should forward such calls to the Duty Admin Office who in turn should forward it to a Nominated Inspector.

2.2 For nuclear sites, the Nominated Inspector's call back procedure verifies the authenticity of the notification.

3. Responsibilities

3.1 The Administration Office, or HSE Duty Officer, will take the telephone call alerting NII to a nuclear event, and convey this message to the Nominated Inspector.

3.2 The Nominated Inspector will make a return call to the operator to confirm the nature of the event, and to categorise the event into one of seven classes.

4. Definitions

4.1 A Class 1 (Civil) Event: Off-site nuclear emergency at a civilian licensed site, is defined as:

A nuclear event which has affected (or has the potential to affect) members of the public and for which the site has invoked its approved emergency plans and set up its Off-Site Facility (OSF).

4.2 A Class 1 (MOD) Event: Off-site nuclear emergency at a Ministry of Defence site, is defined as:

A nuclear event which has affected (or has the potential to affect) members of the public and for which the site has invoked its emergency plan and set up its off-site facility (OSF).

4.3 A Class 2 Event: On-site nuclear emergency at a nuclear site, is defined as:

A nuclear event which has minimal or no effect on members of the public but for which the site has invoked its approved emergency plan.

4.4 A Class 3 Event: Minor nuclear incident at a nuclear site, is defined as:

A nuclear event for which the site does not invoke its approved emergency plan.

4.5 A Class 4 Event: Irradiated fuel flask transport emergency, is defined as:

A nuclear event involving the release of radioactivity from a flask carrying irradiated fuel during rail or road transport to or from a nuclear site.

4.6 A Class 5 Event: Other nuclear events, are defined as:

Any nuclear event involving the release of radioactivity (or the potential for release) which is not covered by the other classes. The following are specifically included:

events falling within the NAIR Scheme (National Arrangements of Incidents involving Radioactivity) - a scheme for responding to events involving radioactive materials, e.g. spills in transit or finding sources or containers in a public place;
road or rail transport events (other than flasks containing irradiated fuel) including those falling within the Radsafe scheme;
air transport events;
sea transport events; and
returning satellites containing radioactivity.

4.7 A Class 6 Event: Overseas nuclear event, is defined as:

Any occurrence directly or indirectly involving nuclear or radiological safety at an overseas plant which Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) considers significant enough to implement its National Response Plan.

4.8 Nuclear site: Either a licensed site, or a MOD site which NII regulates under the Ionising Radiation Regulations.

4.9 Administration Officer: A member of the duty administration team, based in Redgrave Court.

4.10 Office Hours: are identified as 8.30am to 5.00pm, during this period any alerting call must be made directly to NII on the published emergency contact number.

4.11 Out of Office Hours: are identified as 5.00pm to 8.30am and weekends, during this period any alerting call for NII must be made directly to the HSE Duty Officer on the published emergency contact number.

5. Procedure

In the unlikely event of another Inspector receiving a notification from a Nuclear Site, the Inspector should re-direct the call to NII's Duty Admin Office who will forward it to a Nominated Inspector.

5.1 Administration Officer

Answer the 'red telephone' and state clearly to the caller:
"This is (please give your name) at the Health and Safety Executive, Nuclear Installations Inspectorate. Do you wish to inform us of a Nuclear Event or Nuclear Emergency Exercise".
If the caller has the wrong number, inform them that they are on an emergency alerting number and ask them to clear the line.
If the caller wishes to report a nuclear incident or exercise, tell them that you have a number of questions you wish to ask. Then go through Checksheet 1 to obtain the required information from the caller.
Inform the caller that an NII Inspector will call back shortly.
Immediately telephone down the Nominated Inspector list (see Emergency Arrangements Communications Directory - EACD List 1) to identify who is available.
Take Checksheet 1 by hand to the Nominated Inspector so identified, completing the final parts of the checksheet.

5.2 The Nominated Inspector will have been informed of a nuclear event by either the Duty Admin Office or (if outside normal working hours) by a telephone call from the HSE Duty Officer.

If the notification call is from a licensee, make a return call to the appropriate telephone number from EACD List 2. For other callers, return the call to that person.
Obtain the necessary information from this contact to complete the relevant parts of Checksheet 2.
Consider the information obtained, and classify the event according the definitions given in Section 4, recording the classification on Checksheet 2.
If there is any difficulty with the call back procedure, report this subsequently to NII's Emergency Arrangements Section.

6. Associated documents

6.1 Overview of NII response to nuclear events, NII Emergency Procedures Handbook.

6.2 Emergency Arrangements Communications Directory, NII Emergency Procedures Handbook.

Notification and classification checksheet 1 - Administration Officer

Date
Time
Name of Admin Officer taking call
Name of caller
Company name and location
Telephone no. of caller
Name of site
Condition declared
(eg incident, site emergency or incident, district or nuclear emergency)
If emergency exercise, name
No. of fatalities / injured persons
Other information given by caller





Name of Nominated Inspector
Time of message handover
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Please return completed sheets to the Emergency Arrangements Team in Redgrave Court 4.S.2

Notification and classification checksheet 2 - Nominated inspector

Call back telephone no. used
Time of returning call
Name of person contacted
Company name and location
Name of site
(and country if overseas)
Date and time of incident
Reactor/ plant affected
No. of fatalities / injured persons
State of plant safety parameters



Other information given by caller





EVENT CLASSED AS
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