Executive summary
Date(s) of inspection:
Aim of inspection
In accordance with the Office for Nuclear Regulation’s (ONR’s) Sellafield Strategy, each year ONR performs a series of planned inspections to seek assurance of compliance against selected licence conditions, targeted at those facilities with significant importance to nuclear safety. One such inspection was undertaken at Special Nuclear Materials (SNM) facilities North and South within the Sellafield site in West Cumbria to sample evidence of implementation of Sellafield Limited's arrangements for compliance with Licence Condition (LC) 35 in order to inform a regulatory judgement regarding the licensee’s compliance with its legal duties under the nuclear site licence.
Subject(s) of inspection
- LC35 - Decommissioning - Rating: Green
Key findings, inspector's opinions and reasons for judgement made
The inspection was undertaken on 14 September 2023 by the SNM site inspector and a nuclear liabilities specialist inspector. The inspection targeted compliance against Licence Condition (LC) 35 (Decommissioning). The inspection focused on the requirements for transition into and delivery of the Post Operational Clean Out (POCO) phase of decommissioning for a number of facilities within the Special Nuclear Materials Value Stream (SNM) North and South on the Sellafield site.
The inspection involved a planning phase and a one day site visit, including plant walkdowns, discussions with relevant Sellafield Limited personnel, review of records, and sampling of information contained within electronic databases and other documentation.
From the evidence sampled, I saw evidence that SNM were implementing the corporate arrangements for transition into and delivery of POCO.
Resources remain a challenge for SNM in terms of delivery of POCO and the licensee assured me that the work is being prioritised involving all stakeholders from all value streams, and that the safety of operational activities was not compromised.
Some minor deviations from the Sellafield Limited corporate arrangements identified, relevant to documentation, and I gave regulatory advice in these areas, as appropriate.
Overall, I did not identify any significant shortfalls in the implementation of the Sellafield Limited corporate arrangements and I am satisfied that the licensee is largely complying with its legal duties for LC35.
Conclusion
On the basis of the evidence sampled at the time of the inspection, I found that SNM (North and South) is largely compliant with the licensee’s corporate arrangements for Licence Condition 35.
Taking all of the above into account, and noting the ONR guidance on inspection ratings, it is my opinion that, on balance, an inspection rating of green (i.e. no formal action) for Licence Condition 35 is appropriate.