Heysham 1 - Inspection ID: 52705

This is a planned inspection of EDF Energy Nuclear Generation Ltd.’s (NGL’s) Heysham 1 Power Station, undertaken as part of the planned intervention strategy for the Operating Facilities Division (OFD) of the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR).   The work will be carried out in accordance with the planned inspection programme contained in the Heysham 1 Integrated Intervention Strategy (IIS) for 2023/24.

 

Licence condition compliance inspections are an essential element of ONR’s intervention strategy for the operating reactor fleet. The aim of this inspection is to test NGL’s compliance with Licence Condition 36 (Organisational Capability) at Heysham 1 Power Station.

Overall the station was able to demonstrate adequate management of organisational capability against the requirements of Licence Condition 36 (Organisational Capability) and Licence Condition 11 (Emergency Arrangements).  The organisational capability of the station has improved since the announcement to extend its operating life, although with some vulnerabilities which are being mitigated.  The sophistication of the tools the station uses to manage organisational capability has also improved with further developments planned.  The station will conduct further career conversations with staff as it prepares for the eventualities of end of generation and potential further life extension.

 

The station was able to demonstrate adequate organisational capability in the three areas we sampled: the Operations Department, the Nuclear Safety Group and the resourcing of the station's emergency arrangements.  In the Operations Department capability has strengthened, with the main ongoing vulnerability being loss of experienced staff through retirement.  This is being managed through pro-active recruitment and development of staff to maintain an adequate succession pipeline for more senior positions in the department.  In the Nuclear Safety Group, recent vulnerabilities have emerged which are being managed through recruitment of new staff and upskilling of existing staff.  As regards the emergency arrangements, the station was able to demonstrate adequate staffing of the Emergency Control Centre, Incident Response Team and Standby Emergency Response Team.  We noted some vulnerabilities which are being mitigated through recruitment and training of additional staff for these roles.

 

The station has further developed its arrangements for monthly assessment of organisational vulnerabilities and annual review of the nuclear baseline.  We provided advice on how the station could gain more value from the annual review.  We also noted that working time exceedances at the station have increased over the past four months, following a decline in the first nine months of 2023, linked to the statutory outage and recovery from two recent events.  The station is taking action in response and we advised the station to ensure that it understands and mitigates the root causes of this increase to ensure adequate resilience of capability over the remaining life of the station.

Overall we were satisfied that there are no significant shortfalls in the station’s management of organisational capability against the requirements of Licence Conditions 36 and 11.  We have therefore rated the inspection ‘Green’ (no formal action required) against both licence conditions. In coming to this conclusion we note NGL’s ongoing fleet-wide improvement plan on organisational capability which ONR is tracking through existing regulatory issues.