- Site: AWE Burghfield
- IR number: 21-031
- Date: November/December 2021
- LC numbers: 28
Executive summary
Purpose of Intervention
The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) undertakes all regulatory interventions with the Burghfield nuclear site licensee, AWE plc (AWE) against a strategy defined by the ONR Weapons sub-Division. In accordance with that strategy, a Licence Condition (LC) compliance inspection was undertaken on the Assembly Technology Centre (ATC) on 29 November to 1 December 2021.
The purpose of the intervention was for the ONR to inspect and determine the adequacy of implementation of AWE, as the licensee, formal arrangements for compliance with LC 28 (Examination, inspection, maintenance and testing).
Interventions Carried Out by ONR
The intervention focussed on the people, process and plant that the AWE ATC has in place to comply with its LC 28 arrangements for the ATC tooling and was undertaken via desktop discussions and facility inspection. This included semi-structured interviews with relevant AWE personnel; sampled review of relevant documents and records; and inspection of plant/equipment.
The intervention was undertaken and rated against published guidance on ONR’s expectations, as described in the technical inspection guides (TIGs), which can be found at Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) Compliance inspection - Technical inspection guides. Specifically, this included NS-INSP-GD-028, Revision 8 and ONR-INSP-GD-064, Revision 5.1.
Explanation of Judgement if Safety System Not Judged to be Adequate
Not applicable - this was not a system-based inspection; therefore no judgement in this regard was made.
Key Findings, Inspector's Opinions and Reasons for Judgements Made
Based on the evidence sampled against AWE’s LC 28 tooling arrangements and ONR’s TIG NS-INSP-GD-028, AWE adequately demonstrated that EIM&T was carried out in accordance with schemes laid down in writing, within intervals specified in the plant maintenance schedule.
The intervention did identify shortfalls, where improvements could be implemented, and these were communicated to AWE both during and following the inspection for progressing.
Conclusion of Intervention
I consider that, on the basis of evidence sampled at the time of this inspection, AWE has implemented adequately its arrangements for compliance with LC 28 with some minor ce arrangements.
failures identified. I therefore consider that an inspection rating of Green (No Formal Action) is merited, in accordance with ONR Guide ONR-INSP-GD-064, where relevant good practice was generally met with minor shortfalls identified, when compared with appropriate benchmarks and compliance arrangements. No significant shortfalls were identified in the delivery of safety functions.