HSE publishes assessment of Harwell safety review

E102:05 5 August 2005

The Health and Safety Executive's Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) has published a report on its independent assessment of the Periodic Safety Review (PSR) undertaken by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) for its site at Harwell, Oxfordshire.

All nuclear site operators are required under their licence to carry out a systematic review and reassessment of safety cases, and to satisfy NII that their site remains adequately safe. This exercise, normally undertaken at least once every ten years, is known as a PSR.

Having assessed the Harwell PSR, NII's main conclusions are that: -

• there are no major shortfalls in the overall management of safety at Harwell;
• the strategy adopted for decommissioning and remediation of the nuclear facilities is appropriate for the site;
• the shutdown of, and progress with decommissioning, the reactors has considerably reduced the nuclear risks from the site; and
• the remaining nuclear risk is expected to reduce as the decommissioning programme progresses.

NII is satisfied that UKAEA:

• has completed a detailed scrutiny, at the site wide level, of safety at Harwell,
• has an acceptable rolling programme of facility level PSRs, and
• is implementing improvements to site facilities and processes, which UKAEA identified as part of its review.

In addition to the improvements identified by UKAEA, NII identified the need for some further work and programmes for this have been agreed with UKAEA. These follow up programmes were derived by grouping similar findings and sorting them into common headings. This process resulted in 14 specific findings in three groups: safety cases; safety management systems; and individual facilities and plant.

Subject to the satisfactory completion of this work, and continuing satisfactory results from the routine monitoring and demonstrations of safety required under the nuclear site licensing arrangements, NII is confident that UKAEA can continue to operate the Harwell site safely until the end of 2013, at which time a further site-wide PSR will be required.

A copy of the report, The Findings of NII's Assessment of the UKAEA's Site-Wide Periodic Safety Review for Harwell (August 2005), is available on the HSE website at www.hse.gov.uk/nuclear/harwellpsr.pdf

Notes to editors

1. Harwell, Oxfordshire, is the headquarters of the UKAEA. The former RAF base became a nuclear research centre that included a number of experimental and materials testing reactors and associated facilities, some of which have already been decommissioned. The remaining reactors are two materials test reactors (DIDO and PLUTO) and a pile reactor (BEPO). These were shut down some time ago, and have undergone some decommissioning. Other significant facilities include research and development laboratories and post irradiation and examination facilities (which are still in operation), operational accelerators (Helios 1, 2 and and various facilities for treating and storing radioactive waste. Since the PSR was submitted, another accelerator, the Tandem generator, has been demolished.

2. UKAEA intends to develop the site by decommissioning and remediation of the nuclear facilities with the long-term objective of turning the site into a delicensed science and technology business park. Significant decommissioning and remediation work has already been completed on the Nuclear Licensed Site and ancillary reactor buildings, along with a number of other facilities used for handling radioactive materials, have been decommissioned and either demolished or converted to other uses. NII will continue to regulate the activities on the Harwell site in a way that is proportionate to the risk to health and safety that such activities pose.

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