Executive summary
Date(s) of inspection: May 2024
Aim of inspection
The aim of this inspection was to provide ONR with confidence that NNB Generation Company (HPC) Ltd's (NNB GenCo) pre-commissioning organisational capability and competency arrangements are being adequately developed to control and undertake early commissioning activities.
The objectives were to:
- seek assurance that there are sufficient commissioning staff who are suitably qualified and experienced personnel (SQEP);
- >examine the arrangements to train the commissioning team, including sampling their role training profiles;
- examine how assurance is gained that the team are SQEP; and
- assess the organisation’s capability to provide adequate oversight of training throughout commissioning activities.
The inspection comprised of discussions with NNB GenCo commissioning staff and the sampling of information contained within the management systems.
Judgements were made against expectations for Licence Condition (LC) 36, which requires a licensee to make and implement adequate organisational capability arrangements and LC21, which requires a licensee to make and implement adequate arrangements for the commissioning of any plant or process which may affect safety.
Subject(s) of inspection
- LC21 - Commissioning - Rating: Green
- LC36 - Organisational capability - Rating: Green
Key findings, inspector's opinions and reasons for judgement made
We gained assurance that there are sufficient SQEP commissioning staff for this stage of the development of the commissioning arrangements. We will need to review this after the Mid Term Plan has been reviewed.
We gained assurance that there were adequate training arrangements in place for this stage of the development of the commissioning arrangements, but recognise that further improvements are planned.
We gained assurance in the arrangements to ensure the team are SQEP for this stage of the development of the commissioning arrangements, but recognise that further improvements are required.
We gained assurance that the team had adequate oversight for this stage of the development of the commissioning arrangements, and this was being managed through the development of processes and training for the use of Asset Suite 9. Further clarity is to be provided on NNB GenCo's improvement plan on how non-SQEP personnel will be managed.
Conclusion
We concluded that NNB GenCo's commissioning organisational capability together with the competency arrangements were adequate for this, the early development stage of the commissioning management arrangements, but recognise these need further future development for later stages of commissioning, which we will monitor through normal engagements.
No regulatory issues were raised. However, NNB GenCo undertook to consider raising and implementing an improvement plan based on the feedback provided by ONR.
For this point in time, as no significant shortfalls were identified the inspection was rated as green (no formal action) against LC36 and LC21. Further inspections will be considered by ONR to monitor the development of the commissioning organisational capability and competency arrangements.