NII statement regarding its enforcement action taken at UKAEA's Winfrith and Harwell sites under Licence Condition 35
NII regulates nuclear safety by attaching conditions to nuclear site licences. It regulates compliance with such licence conditions (LCs) by inspecting licence condition compliance arrangements that have been drawn up by licensees, together with the implementation of such arrangements, both of which it compares with its published guidance. It is an offence under s4(6) Nuclear Installations Act 1965 (as amended) to contravene a licence condition. One such licence condition is No. 35, Decommissioning (LC 35).
NII’s published guidance on LC 35 and decommissioning expects licensees to:
make and implement adequate arrangements for the decommissioning of any plant or process that may affect safety; thereby to
decommission as soon as is reasonably practicable, taking account of all relevant factors; and
so far as is reasonably practicable, to:
progressively and systematically reduce hazards on the site;
make full use of extant disposal routes for radioactive wastes; and
store remaining wastes in a passive safe form.
During 2006/7 UKAEA drew up decommissioning work programmes for Winfrith and Harwell which were largely compliant with the above LC 35 decommissioning requirements as well as with Government policy. The programmes were declared by the company in the published Lifetime Plan 06/07 (LTP 06/07). In 2007, UKAEA departed from LTP 06/07 by making substantial changes to the plans for each site, without first demonstrating that their outcome remained compliant with the above LC 35 decommissioning expectations. NII has concluded, following an inspection of the licensee’s actions, that the company has failed to properly manage its decommissioning procedures and that its arrangements made and implemented for the decommissioning of any plant or process that may affect safety are inadequate and represent a significant departure from the requirements of LC 35.
NII has applied HSE’s Enforcement Management Model (EMM) to the circumstances leading to UKAEA’s departure from LTP 06/07 work programmes, including the fact that, at the time, UKAEA was fully aware of the significance of the actions it was taking. A rigorous application of the model, including a full management review, has ensured that the Health and Safety Commission’s Enforcement Policy Statement has been adhered to. In accordance with the policy statement, NII is taking consistent, targeted and proportionate action directed towards the higher-hazard plant areas, with a view to securing long-term compliance with LC 35 requirements into the future. NII is doing so by issuing a Specification under LC 35(3) requiring UKAEA at each site to submit to the Executive for approval a part of the LTP 06/07 decommissioning plan.
The part of LTP 06/07 to be approved targets the major hazard plant areas on the site and their long-term decommissioning completion timescales, to which UKAEA originally committed itself in LTP 06/07. The timescales were presented by the company on the basis that they were fully in accord with LC 35 decommissioning requirements (para 2 above) as well as with Government policy. By approving the relevant part of LTP 06/07 for each site, NII will be securing a return to decommissioning as soon as is reasonably practicable, while allowing UKAEA the freedom to decide how it will do so, taking into account the current position on each site as well as any other relevant factors. This action will secure a return to compliance with LC 35 while ensuring UKAEA’s effective self regulation into the future.
Notwithstanding the particular circumstances leading to the action explained here, it is the case that NII could take such action at any time, since the legal power to do so is already included in LC 35(3). Indeed, licensee’s decommissioning programmes elsewhere are already subject to similar regulatory controls through either Approvals issued by NII (eg Trawsfynnyd, Springfields) or other appropriate and equivalent regulatory controls (eg Dounreay).
In deciding to issue the specification and subsequent approval, NII has taken into account the significant nuclear hazards which remain on the sites and the materials which still have to be processed as part of the decommissioning programme into a passive, safe form or disposed of using extant disposal routes. This decommissioning will now be undertaken by UKAEA in a progressive and systematic manner to reduce hazards across the sites and as soon as is reasonably practicable, taking account of all relevant factors. Where UKAEA identifies any such factors which change its originally declared timescales, it will of course be open to the company to make the case to NII that the approved timescales of LTP 06/07 should be changed accordingly.
Notwithstanding the complex nature of the remaining operations which still cover a number of high hazard plant areas, NII has already acknowledged the relative size of the nuclear hazards remaining on both sites. It has done so through the past two years by limiting the amount of its scarce inspection resource that has been committed to the regulation of the sites. NII’s action permits a more effective use of this limited resource by avoiding the need to follow the detail of decommissioning work programmes or to continuously monitor their implementation across the two multi-planted sites. By taking the enforcement action explained here, NII will be maximising the effectiveness of that resource by effectively securing, in a proportionate way, UKAEA’s self-regulation and compliance with LC 35 decommissioning requirements into the future. NII will work with UKAEA in order to secure a satisfactory position with respect to LC 35. This will provide a basis for consistent regulation across the NDA estate and will facilitate the exchange of good practice between NDA Site Licensee Companies.
RSRL (Research Sites Restoration Ltd) is the new Site Licensee Company at Winfrith and Harwell into which UKAEA is proposing to reorganise in order to meet the competition requirements of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA). Importantly, the course of action explained here also achieves a satisfactory position for NII into the future with regard to the planned permissioning action of HSE granting a new licence to RSRL and reduces risk to NDA programmes. With the Approval of the relevant part of LTP06/07 in place at each site and ahead of any restructuring, NII will be ensuring from the outset of RSRL’s licensee status that it will be committed to decommissioning as soon as is reasonably practicable, thereby securing long term compliance with LC 35 requirements.
