- Site: Torness
- IR number: 21-132
- Date: December 2021
- LC numbers: 11
Executive summary
Purpose of Intervention
The purpose of this intervention at EDF Energy Nuclear Generation Ltd (NGL) Torness power station was to:
- Observe Level 1 emergency exercise ‘Lomond’. The previous Level 1 emergency exercise ‘Everest’ in July 2021 had not been considered an adequate demonstration of the emergency arrangements and this exercise was a redemonstration of the arrangements for emergency response required by Licence Condition (LC) 11.
- Follow up with the Torness TSSM on number of items of regulatory interest.
The intervention was planned as part of ONR’s inspection strategy for operating reactors and the inspection plan for Torness.
Interventions Carried Out by ONR
We observed the Torness emergency exercise ‘Lomond’ with a team of ONR inspectors comprising of the Heysham 2 nominated site inspector and two operating reactors project inspectors, one of whom is the operating reactors LC11 lead.
Key Findings, Inspector's Opinions and Reasons for Judgements Made
Following emergency exercise ‘Everest’ ONR required NGL to carry out a redemonstration exercise that was to include a number of elements not adequately demonstrated during exercise ‘Everest’. Specifically:
- Effective command and control.
- Location, assessment, rescue and treatment of casualties.
- Assessment of conditions in damage areas made by teams and appropriate measures taken to control hazards while minimising risk to team members.
- Provision of control to chemical risks, providing both advice and reassurance on and off-site.
- Timely and effective implementation of a repair/recovery strategy.
The scenario for emergency exercise ‘Lomond’ included a chemical leak, injured casualties and a coincident issue with reactor 1 requiring enhanced monitoring and control. We considered this scenario to be suitable for achieving the aims of the redemonstration exercise.
The exercise included the involvement of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, Scottish Ambulance Service, British Red Cross, Police Scotland (via MS teams) and the MET Office. A team from NGL’s internal regulator were also present to observe and assess the exercise.
We considered effective command and control to have been demonstrated by the central control room initially. However, we identified areas for improvement in the response of the emergency control centre including urgency of response and the situational awareness of the emergency control centre.
The response teams arrived at the incident location in a timely manner. We were of the opinion that there remained room for improvement in aspects of casualty management such as timely rescue, decontamination and medical treatment.
During the exercise we considered that appropriate measures were deployed to minimise an environmental release and that the teams implemented an effective recovery strategy that stopped the leak.
The findings on timely rescue and treatment of the casualties during chemical safety incidents have been observed at other sites across the NGL fleet and NGL’s internal regulator will address this as a fleet wide issue.
Conclusion of Intervention
On balance we considered the emergency exercise to have been an adequate redemonstration of the emergency arrangements and I therefore rate LC11 as green (no formal action), in accordance with the ONR inspection ratings guidance.
Areas for improvement were identified and we are content with NGL’s internal regulator taking forward the observations related to responses to chemical events as a fleet wide issue.