COVER INTRODUCTION AT A GLANCE TRANSFORMING ONR … · 2018. 11. 14. · COVER AT A GLANCE...

ONR Quarterly Report Q1 2011/12 Office for Nuclear RegulationAn agency of HSE

PROGRAMMES UPDATETRANSFORMING ONRAT A GLANCEINTRODUCTIONCOVER

Quarterly Report Q1 2011/12

Office for Nuclear Regulation An agency of HSE

AT A GLANCE PROGRAMMES UPDATETRANSFORMING ONRCOVER


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INTRODUCTION

Contact [email protected] ●

Office for Nuclear Regulation, ●

Redgrave Court, Merton Road, Bootle L20 7HS

published all remaining issues on the joint regulators’ website.

This quarterly report demonstrates our commitment to engage directly with stakeholders – members of the public, communities, industry and interest groups about the work we are doing on their behalf to protect people and society from the hazards of the nuclear industry.

An accusation often levelled at the industry and, to some extent, its regulator, is that it does not conduct itself with openness and transparency. Improving this is one of the recommendations I have made in the interim report on Fukushima, and it’s one that we are determined to continue to make progress with. On our website, we publish site quarterly reports and reports on the regulatory decisions that we make, though there is much more that we can, and will do.

Not only has it been the first quarter in ONR’s history, but in addition to the ‘day job’ of regulating 38 nuclear installations, this organisation has had to rise to the very large challenge presented to it and others by the events at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant.

So far, I believe we have met that challenge, delivering an interim report on the implications for the UK nuclear industry to the Government in May, maintaining our comprehensive regulation of the UK nuclear industry, taking

Welcome to our first quarterly report for the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR). I can confidently say that the first quarter of 2011–12 has been busy.

Introduction Q1 2011-12

forward the development of ONR, and remaining on course to deliver the full report on Fukushima in the autumn.

Also in Q1, we welcomed Chairman, Nick Baldwin to the organisation. He has begun assembling the new ONR board and governance framework as we move towards a statutory corporation planned for 2013.

The quarter also saw milestones met for the Generic Design Assessment as the teams looking at the Westinghouse and EDF /

Areva reactor designs have completed their initial assessment of generic safety cases, and subsequently

Mike WeightmanHM Chief Inspector of Nuclear InstallationsCEO, Office for Nuclear Regulation

As always, I am interested in your feedback. Please tell me what you think of this report and tell me how you would like ONR to pursue one of our prime goals of furthering openness and transparency.

Main cover photo: an ONR inspector on the pile cap at Heysham 1 nuclear power station

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AT A GLANCE

Fukushima interim report

In May, ONR’s Chief Inspector, Mike Weightman, published his interim report (www.hse.gov.uk/nuclear/fukushima) on the events in Fukushima and the implications for the UK nuclear industry.

The report examines the circumstances surrounding a loss of coolant accident at

documents (referred to as ‘project assessment reports’) the previous year. Now, the project assessments for regulatory decisions relating to operating civil nuclear power reactors are routinely published online at www.hse.gov.uk/nuclear/pars.

Project assessments for decisions made at other nuclear facilities will follow soon.

Regulatory project assessments published

ONR has a long stated objective to become more open and transparent about the work it does and the decisions it makes. As part of this approach, in April 2011, it started publishing fully the project assessments for regulatory decisions.

This follows a successful project to publish summaries of these

Launch of ONR

April saw the launch of the Office for Nuclear Regulation, an organisation bringing together the nuclear safety and security regulators that were the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE’s) Nuclear Directorate and the Department for Transport’s Radioactive Materials Transport Team.

ONR has been formed as an agency of HSE, and will ultimately, through legislation become a statutory corporation in its own right. It is hoped that, through greater independence, the new organisation will be better able to meet the challenges presented by the rapidly changing nuclear industry.

A new organisation brings with it the appointment of an interim Chair, as ONR welcomes

Nick Baldwin, a former Chief Executive at Powergen, to lead the new organisation’s board.

Quarter 1, at a glanceJapan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station, as a result of a tsunami disabling power and seawater cooling systems.

The Chief Inspector’s initial report, delivered at the request of the Energy and Climate Change Secretary of State, outlined 26 recommendations Government, regulators and industry to consider. The full report is due in the autumn.

http://www.hse.gov.uk/nuclear/fukushima/


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AT A GLANCE

Quarter 1, at a glanceGDA closes regulatory issue

In June, the Generic Design Assessment of two proposed reactor designs was able to close a ‘regulatory issue’ relating to the Westinghouse AP1000™.

ONR and the Environment Agency judged that the issue, around the civil engineering of the reactor pressure vessel, had seen enough progress from the prospective vendor that the issue no longer warranted the status of ‘regulatory issue’.

The regulators are confident that Westinghouse will be able to resolve the issue fully, and to ONR and the Environment Agency’s satisfaction, before final ‘design acceptance confirmation’ is granted.

Consultation on licence conditions

In May, ONR began a consultation on amendments to two of ONR’s 36 standard licence conditions, in compliance with the obligations placed on European Union nations under the Nuclear Safety Directive.

ONR asked all holders of nuclear site licences to respond to proposals to amend licence conditions 17, ‘Quality Assurance’ and 36, ‘Control of Organisational Change’.

recovery operation and the devastation caused by the tsunami in February.

Dr Weightman’s delegation produced an IAEA mission report on the response from the operator, Tepco, and the Japanese Government as well as lessons learnt. The report was presented to the IAEA Ministerial Conference in June and is available from the IAEA website (www.iaea.org).

Weightman leads IAEA mission in Japan

Shortly after the publication of his interim report, Mike Weightman, travelled to Japan, leading a mission for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Visiting the stricken Dai-ichi nuclear power plant and various government ministers, the international team saw first hand the

Image courtesy of Westinghouse Electric Company)

Mike Weightman and the IAEA delegation meet Japanese officials with the assembled media in attendance

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TRANSFORMING ONR

The next step, which we hope to achieve in the next three months, will be to change the way we use our specialists across our organisation, wherever their skills and experience are needed.

This appears to be a subtle shift, but in reality the changes will mean both a clear focus on delivery with effective line management accountability, together with flexibility to meet the challenges of regulating this rapidly changing industry with the efficiency and effectiveness that our stakeholders demand of us.

We are managing this transition to ensure that our operational priorities are not compromised and we are looking forward to a future for ONR where we remain effective in protecting people and society from the hazards of the nuclear industry.

and a smarter application of the resources we have.

The answer, as demonstrated by others in the public and private sectors, lies in effective ‘programme working’, so after a great deal of consultation with our stakeholders and colleagues, we have started a transition into this new way of working.

We have begun operating a structure based on operational delivery programmes, each led by a Deputy Chief Inspector: Civil Nuclear Reactors; Defence; Sellafield; Civil Nuclear Security; and Decommissioning, Fuel and Waste. Adding to this, our colleagues in the Department for Transport’s Radioactive Materials Transport Team have just joined us.

Establishing the Office for Nuclear Regulation is just the beginning, writes ONR’s Chief Operations Officer, Paul Brown.

Transforming ONR

We at ONR are fully aware that we need to meet the expectations placed on our ability to regulate effectively the UK’s nuclear industry.

The regulatory challenges that instigated the move to ONR are still current. Like the industry itself, we’re faced with the competing pressures of regulating a resurgent nuclear industry with an ageing employee base in a highly competitive job market.

The creation of ONR is giving us the level playing field to recruit the people we need, and to set our own operational priorities. My colleagues and I recognise that in addition to this new-found flexibility, the solution has to include a change to the way we work,

Paul BrownChief Operations Officer, Office for Nuclear Regulation

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PROGRAMMES UPDATE

Nuclear New Build

The report here includes aspects of the Nuclear New Build Programme, which is at present managed in a separate programme in ONR, but will be incorporated into the Civil Nuclear Reactors Programme by the time the Nuclear New Build Generic Design Assessment work has been completed.

ONR is operating a policy ●

of early engagement with NNB GenCo, with the prospective licensee meeting ONR’s costs. The purpose has been to influence NNB GenCo’s plans at the earliest possible stage, thereby ensuring that safety is inherent, and to improve the prospective licensee’s understanding of the requirements of the UK regulatory system.

Generic Design ●

Assessment, or GDA, is the four-year process by which prospective nuclear power station vendors have submitted

Civil Nuclear Reactors

Regulating operating nuclear power stations, defuelling nuclear power stations and licensing and permissioning of proposed new build nuclear power stations.

At the end of the reporting ●

period, Oldbury’s Reactor 2 ceased power generation permanently. The licensee, Magnox, plans to operate Reactor 1 to the end of 2012 when it will also cease operation. This is dependent on satisfactory safety cases being made by Magnox.

Defuelling continues to ●

progress with focus on control and supervision of activities on site. Inspections have demonstrated that Magnox is continuing to improve its safety performance at these sites.

fact-finding mission to Japan took place between 24 May and 1 June 2011. This involved experts from 12 countries and was led by the UK’s Chief Inspector of Nuclear Installations, Mike Weightman. Visits were made to three nuclear sites, including Fukushima Dai-ichi, and extensive discussions were held with several ministers and officials from the full range of Japanese nuclear-related agencies. There was considerable media interest. The preliminary summary report was presented to the Japanese authorities and the full report was delivered at the IAEA Ministerial Conference in June, and can be accessed at the IAEA website (www.iaea.org).

Fukushima

A specialist team has been established, reporting directly to the Chief Inspector, to examine both the issues presented by the incident at Fukushima, Japan, and the implications for the UK nuclear industry and its regulation.

The team delivered the ●

interim report on 18 May (www.hse.gov.uk/nuclear). Progress with the full report is now underway towards publication in the autumn.

The International Atomic ●

Energy Agency’s (IAEA’s)

Programmes update focuses on the ONR’s operational activities. Covered here are the activities in Quarter 1, from April to June 2011. For the latest information about ONR, please visit the website www.hse.gov.uk/nuclear, where you can also sign up to receive ONR’s monthly eBulletin.

Programmes update

Heysham 2 nuclear power station




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PROGRAMMES UPDATE

Programmes updateDefence

Regulating the defence sector, at weapons sites and naval bases, working closely with the Defence Nuclear Safety Regulator.

ONR has a series of ●

initiatives in hand to ensure an appropriate focus on safety performance at weapons establishments including enhanced inspections and additional senior management engagements.

‘Leadership and ●

Management for Safety’ (LMfS) interventions feature in all strategies for MoD sites. LMfS resource has been added to the defence programme to work closely with the existing teams. The immediate benefit of this reallocation of resource is the opportunity to influence the AWE transformation programme.

Final preparations took ●

place for ONR’s formal

The Requesting Party has been advised that there can be no guarantee that either ONR or contractor support resource can be readily available if and when Westinghouse wishes to re-commence GDA.

EDF and Areva have also ●

requested interim DACs and SoDAs for their reactor designs by the end of 2011, and our plans are aligned with that request. Both reactor designs will require credible resolution plans for all remaining GDA issues before they can be issued. This includes satisfactory resolution plans needed for each reactor to answer the GDA issue raised in anticipation of the findings of the Chief Inspector in his reports on Fukushima, (the final report on which is due to be completed in autumn 2011).

One requesting party, ●

Westinghouse, has announced that it intends to ‘pause’ its work on GDA, and will not proceed in addressing the outstanding GDA issues at present. Westinghouse is seeking an interim ‘Design Acceptance Confirmation’ (DAC) (and of the Environment Agency, interim Statement of Design Acceptability (SoDA)) by the end of 2011. Plans are in hand to release some staff resource (including some nuclear inspectors) to other work within ONR over the next few months, and contractor support has been surrendered.

the available resolution plans from the Requesting Parties for addressing them. This was a substantial piece of work and the event should be seen as a key milestone in the process, and also one which reinforces the open and transparent way in which the GDA process continues to work. ONR is confident that the industry resolution plans are credible. Subject to industry clearing the outstanding issues, it is also confident that both designs are able to be shown to be acceptable to ONR and the Environment Agency, as regulators.

generic design safety cases for approval, prior to the site-based construction process commencing. For the latest news on the Generic Design Assessment, please visit www.hse.gov.uk/newreactors.

ONR has completed ●

its initial assessment of generic safety cases for the two designs (the EDF/Areva EPR and the Westinghouse AP1000), and has identified the issues that industry still needs to resolve before it would be allowed to commence building the reactors. The requesting parties, Westinghouse and EDF/Areva, have continued to develop resolution plans to address the issues that are currently outstanding.

On 14 July, ONR published ●

on www.hse.gov.uk/newreactors, a progress report alongside the issues (known as GDA Issues) that have been identified as still needing resolution, and

The proposed Hinkley Point C, image courtesy of EDF Energy

http://www.hse.gov.uk/newreactors/

http://www.hse.gov.uk/newreactors/



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PROGRAMMES UPDATE

Programmes update

Ltd, currently scheduled for 31 July, to ensure a full and proper contribution is made by Sellafield Ltd to Mike Weightman’s report to the Minister.

A notable incident during ●

the quarter was the inadvertent isolation of safety mechanisms at the Magnox Swarf Storage Silo, which is being investigated by ONR.

ONR’s work on the revised ●

Highly Active Liquor Stocks Specification is complete and it is expected that the revised Specification has been issued.

In June, Sellafield Ltd ●

submitted its interim report to ONR on the implications of the Fukushima event on Sellafield. This will be reviewed by ONR, along with the final submission from Sellafield

and licensee to confirm their intent.

Sellafield Ltd’s ●

performance in May’s level 1 emergency exercise varied from satisfactory to poor and a local re-demonstration was required. It has subsequently completed a successful local remonstration of its emergency arrangements in June. Sellafield Ltd and ONR focus will now be sustained improvements across the whole site to ensure good performance in all emergency situations.

ONR gave approval ●

to Sellafield Ltd’s licence condition 35 (decommissioning) arrangements for the production of decommissioning programme milestones and the associated change process. This was in line with the new regulatory approach to post-intermediate level waste specifications.

Sellafield

Regulating all activities at the Sellafield site in Cumbria.

ONR is encouraged ●

by the executive that is in place at Sellafield. It is clear on its mission and what it needs to do to establish improvements in nuclear safety performance and it has completed a significant amount of preparatory work. ONR expects to start seeing improvements in a wide range of important areas. However, it recognises that it will take several years to consolidate sustained nuclear safety improvements.

Sellafield Ltd has submitted ●

its plan for improving its leadership and management performance across the site, which is intended to address regulatory concerns common to safety, security, transport, environment and safeguards functions. A workshop will now be held between the regulator

agreement to the second pre-construction safety case for the ‘Mensa’ facility at Burghfield. These ensured that all key issues have been addressed satisfactorily and that expectations for the next phase of the work are clear. ONR used a robust decision-making process and successfully achieved the agreed delivery date.

The nuclear chemical plant ●

operations at Rolls-Royce Derby were safely restarted after ONR authorisation. A substantial proportion of the resource for this site has been devoted to preparation for this restart.

ONR has worked closely ●

with the Defence Nuclear Safety Regulator to ensure a consistent response to the lessons from the events at Fukushima.

The Sellafield site, Cumbria



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PROGRAMMES UPDATE

Programmes updateCivil Nuclear Security

Regulating security at all civil nuclear facilities.

ONR attended the Sellafield ●

Security Enhancement and Sponsor Group meetings to progress the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s (DECC’s) security programme. This programme has now been extended to encompass Dounreay Site Restoration Limited. There is increasing interest in the programme of security reviews and development of a more goal-setting approach to regulation is anticipated to provide greater clarity.

ONR has been asked ●

by DECC to accelerate the process of security reviews at nuclear power stations. These reviews at EDF and Magnox stations are underway and are due to be complete by the end of September. The security outcomes are to be sent to DECC by the end of October.

Disposal Implementation Board chaired by the Energy Minister. We are working closely with government and other key stakeholders in responding to the challenge to accelerate the target programme for placement of first waste by 10 years.

Implementation of the ●

Government’s policy ‘Managing Radioactive Waste Safety’ is key to progressing decommissioning and waste management activities across the programme. Dealing with higher activity radioactive waste is to be through geological disposal and ONR has continued to engage with the Geological

at the Capenhurst sites (HEX tails). The agreement to commence the first stage of construction of the new £400m Tails Management Facility at Urenco UK Capenhurst is a welcome first step in the process of converting HEX tails into a less hazardous stored material form.

Decommissioning, Fuel and Waste

Regulates safety on a variety of nuclear fuel cycle and nuclear research sites, waste management and decommissioning.

Operational safety at ●

the higher hazard plants is a regulatory priority. There have been no significant events at these plants during the period and it is judged that the control of nuclear safety is generally adequate, with some improvements being progressed.

A further ONR regulatory ●

priority is hazard reduction across sites within the programme. Specifically this includes satisfactory progress of the destruction of liquid metal coolant at Dounreay, despite recent operational delays, and the need to deal with stored uranium hexafluoride fuel manufacture by-product

Hinkley Point A, decommissioning nuclear power station

COVER INTRODUCTION AT A GLANCE TRANSFORMING ONR … · 2018. 11. 14. · COVER AT A GLANCE...

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