Approval of the revised Licence Condition 13 arrangements for consideration, or advice on, urgent safety proposals relating to the Springfields Environment, Health and Safety Committee

Permission requested

This project assessment report (PAR) relates to a request from Springfields Fuels Limited for an approval of the arrangements for consideration, or advice on, urgent safety proposals, for matters normally considered by the Springfields Environment, Health and Safety Committee (SEHSC), the licensee's Nuclear Safety and Environment Committee, under Licence Condition (LC)13 (12) of nuclear site licence 79.

Background

As required under its arrangements, LC13 requires the licensee to establish a Nuclear Safety Committee (NSC) and to submit to the Executive for approval the arrangements necessary to obtain consideration, or advice on, urgent safety proposals, which would normally be considered by an NSC. In order to comply with this requirement and following a planned periodic review of the arrangements, Springfields Fuels Limited has produced revised urgent safety proposals arrangements.

Assessment and inspection work carried out by ONR in consideration of this request

ONR has carried out a programme of work which had previously assessed and approved revisions to the urgent safety proposals arrangements. Springfields Fuels Limited has conducted a planned periodic review of these arrangements, making a minor revision to the arrangements, changing the title of the regulator to the Office for Nuclear Regulation, (ONR) and presented the revised arrangements to the licensee's NSC. The arrangements were accepted by the licensee and hence the licensee has applied for ONR approval of the revised urgent safety proposals arrangements. The ONR site inspector assessed the revised arrangements and ensured that the licensee had correctly followed due process in making a valid application for approval by ONR.

Matters arising from ONR's work

For this assessment, effort has been concentrated on ensuring that the licensee had made a valid application for an Approval licence instrument and had correctly followed the licensee's due process. There are no regulatory issues or concerns.

Conclusions

This report presents the findings of the ONR assessment of the licensee's application. The proposed arrangements to obtain consideration of, or advice on, urgent safety proposals, which would normally be considered by an NSC, have been subjected to the licensee's due process and accepted by the NSC chairman. The document has also been assessed by ONR and considered adequate to satisfy the requirements of LC 13 (12).

Recommendation

The PAR recommends that ONR should grant approval to the proposed Springfields Fuels Limited Arrangements for Consideration, or Advice on, Urgent Safety Proposals, paper SEHSC/P86, Issue 11, dated January 2013, covering the document titled Arrangements for Consideration or Advice on Urgent Safety Proposals, SSI 494, issue dated January 2013.