- Site: Sellafield
- IR number: 21-132
- Date: November 2021
- LC numbers: 6, 25
Executive summary
Purpose of Intervention
The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) undertakes all regulatory interaction with the Sellafield site licensee (Sellafield Limited, SL) against a strategy defined by the ONR Sellafield Sub Division. In accordance with that strategy, Licence Condition (LC) compliance inspections were carried out on the Magnox Operating Unit (OU).
The purpose of this inspection was for the ONR to determine the adequacy of implementation of the licensee’s formal arrangements for compliance with LC 6 (Documents, records, authorities and certificates) and LC 25 (Operational records).
Interventions Carried Out by ONR
LC 6 and 25 requires that the licensee make adequate records to demonstrate compliance with any of the conditions attached to the nuclear site licence and to ensure that adequate records are made of the operation, inspection and maintenance of any plant which may affect safety. On 17th November 2021, I carried out a planned, one-day, on-site LC 6 and 25 compliance inspection within Magnox East River (MER). The inspection comprised discussions with Sellafield Ltd staff, reviews of plant records and a plant visit. In carrying out this inspection, the following ONR guidance was used:
- NS-INSP-GD-006 Issue 5- LC 6 Documents, records, authorities and certificates
- NS-INSP-GD-025 Revision 7 - LC25 Operational records.
Explanation of Judgement if Safety System Not Judged to be Adequate
This was not a system based inspection, and therefore no judgement has been made of the adequacy of implementation of any part of the safety case.
Key Findings, Inspector's Opinions and Reasons for Judgements Made
During the LC6 and LC25 inspection, I sampled evidence associated with the licensee’s compliance with its arrangements for recording, retaining, and destroying operational records. In particular, I reviewed the following:
- MER record retention schedule
- MER process for records retention – storage on plant and off-site records repository/archiving
- MER record disposal processes
- MER Plant Records Store
- MER Local Records Officer training
- MER record audits
Overall, based upon the sample inspected, I judge that MER has an adequate system in place for the recording, retaining and destroying of operational records which follows a structured process and the plant was able to effectively locate and recall operation records requested during the inspection. I was content with the improvements that have been made to the records retention processes at MER since the last ONR LC6 inspection in 2015 and judge that the MER processes are setting relevant good practice for the Sellafield Ltd site.
During the inspection, no significant shortfalls were identified, however, there were some minor opportunities for improvement identified and verbal advice was provided for each of these.
Conclusion of Intervention
From the evidence sampled during this inspection, I judge that the licensee’s formal arrangements for compliance with Licence Condition 6 and 25 are being implemented adequately and an inspection rating of Green (no formal action) is merited.