- Site: Sellafield
- IR number: 21-071
- Date: August 2021
- LC numbers: 32
Executive summary
Purpose of Intervention
The office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) undertakes all regulatory interactions with the Sellafield site licensee against a strategy defined by the ONR Sellafield, Decommissioning, Fuel and Waste (SDFW) Division. The planned inspection schedule for 2021/22, identifies the Licence Conditions (LCs) that will be inspected during this period.
The purpose of this inspection was for ONR to determine the adequacy of the implementation of Sellafield’s arrangements for compliance with LC32 (Accumulation of radioactive waste) at the Magnox Reprocessing Facility, which consists of the Magnox Separation Plant and the Magnox Thermal Denitration Plant.
The overall adequacy of Sellafield's site wide LC32 arrangements is considered separately in other ONR interventions.
Interventions Carried Out by ONR
I, the site inspector for the Magnox Operating Unit (MOU), supported by Nuclear Liabilities Regulation (NLR) Specialists, carried out a planned LC32 compliance inspection at the Magnox Reprocessing Facility (MRF).
The inspection comprised discussions with Sellafield staff, a review of records, sampling of information and a plant inspection.
Explanation of Judgement if Safety System Not Judged to be Adequate
Not applicable since this was not a system-based inspection.
Key Findings, Inspector's Opinions and Reasons for Judgements Made
Through the process of sampling the supplied arrangements, discussions with plant staff and a plant walk down, Sellafield provided evidence of the following:
- The MRF had appropriately approved local arrangements in place to support compliance with LC32,
- Relevant staff were aware of the Waste Management Hierarchy and how it related to their work with both Intermediate Level Waste (ILW) and the plant’s secondary wastes that are generally of a lower category (i.e. Low Level Waste (LLW) and Exempt),
- Arrangements were in place to record where radioactive waste was stored within the MRF, including the amounts, durations and form of storage,
- Disposal routes were identified for all Aqueous, Gaseous and Solid Radioactive Waste streams generated at the MRF,
- Dedicated lay down areas were provided for the temporary storage of radioactive wastes on the plant and the majority of observed radioactive wastes were found to be located within those areas,
- The MRF had forecasts and a strategy in place for the expected radioactive wastes to be produced during the final stages of rundown and subsequent Post Operational Clean Out (POCO) of the facility,
- The MRF staff were aware of the waste management implications from cessation of operations at B205 for accumulations elsewhere on site (e.g. legacy solvents stored in B203, B206 and B229)
- Sellafield was able to identify staff in post at the MRF against the roles specified in Sellafield’s Mandatory Standard for the management of radioactive wastes and these individuals were suitably trained in line with Sellafield’s arrangements.
- Based on the evidence sampled I considered that the Magnox Reprocessing Facility had adequately implemented the Sellafield Limited arrangements for LC32, including, where applicable, variations made in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Conclusion of Intervention
On the basis of the evidence sampled at the time of the inspection, I judged that the Magnox Reprocessing Facility had adequately implemented Sellafield's arrangements for LC32, and it is in my opinion that an inspection rating of Green is therefore appropriate.